Optical Fiber Communication

What you’ll study

The history, advantages and limitations of optical communication. The theory of light — reflection, refraction, the critical incident angle and total internal reflection; electromagnetic waves, Maxwell's equations, the propagation constant, and phase and group velocity. The basics of optical fibre — the acceptance angle, numerical aperture, fibre structure, meridional and skew rays, the V-number, modes in a planar guide, and single- and multi-mode fibres. The fabrication of optical fibres by vapour-phase deposition (OVD, MCVD, PCVD, VAD). Optical sources — the LED and the laser (Fabry-Perot, DFB, VCSEL) and superluminescent diodes. Photodetectors — PIN and avalanche photodiodes, responsivity, quantum efficiency and noise sources. Losses in fibre — material absorption, scattering, bending, coupling, dispersion and polarization loss; fibre cables, connectors and splices. Optical networks — OTDM, WDM and DWDM, tunable lasers, optical amplifiers (SOA and EDFA), optical switches, wavelength converters, couplers and filters; and the optical layer with its protection and restoration techniques.