Assignment –2

COURSE NAME: OPTICAL COMMUNICATION

COURSE CODE: EC-14702
Date of allotment: 23.03.2020

Date of submission: 29.03.2020

Ques.1. Demonstrate the working principle of Optical Spectrum Analyzer and Optical Time Domain
Reflectometer.
Ans: A spectrum analyzer measures the magnitude of an input signal versus frequency within the full
frequency range of the instrument. The primary use is to measure the power of the spectrum of
known and unknown signals. An optical spectrum analyzer uses reflective or refractive techniques
to separate out the wavelengths of light. An electro-optical detector is used to measure the intensity
of the light, which is then normally displayed on a screen in a similar manner to a radio- or audio-
frequency spectrum analyzer.

The input to an optical spectrum analyzer may be simply via an aperture in the instrument's case, an
optical fiber or an optical connector to which a fiber-optic cable can be attached.

Working principle:

 Wavelength tunable Optical Fibre-  resolve the the individual spectral components

 photodetector converts the optical signal to electrical current

 transimpedance amplifier- convert the optical converts the current to a voltage then
digitalise

 signal processing is performed digitally

 signal is applied to the display as the vertical or Power axis

 ramp generator-

 determine the horizontal location of the  trace as it sweep from left to right
 turn the optical fibre so that its Centre wavelength is proportional to the horizontal position

 The displaying with of each mode of the the laser is a function of the spectral resolution of
the wavelength tunable optical filter

OTDR is an acronym used for Optical Time Domain Reflectometer. It is an instrument that is used to
detect or analyze the scattered or back reflected light through an optical fiber due to impurities and
imperfections in the fiber.
The operating principle of an OTDR is similar to that of radar. OTDR performs timed measurements of
reflected light.

Working of OTDR

An optical time domain reflectometer is test equipment used to evaluate the loss of signal inside an optical
fiber by transmitting laser pulses inside the fiber and measures the scattered light signal

As we can see in the figure shown above that an optical time domain reflectometer contains a light source
(mainly a laser) and a receiver along with a coupler or circulator. The coupler is connected with the fiber
under test through a front panel connector.

The laser produces a short and intense light beam. These pulses are directed into the fiber link under test
through a fiber optic coupler. A coupler splits the transmitted light pulse into two halves. Due to this, not all
the transmitted pulse is directed inside fiber.

However, despite using a coupler if we use a circulator then this wastage of transmitted signal can be
avoided. As circulators are highly directional devices that direct the overall light signal into the fiber as
well as sends the reflected or scattered light signal into the detector.

By inserting circulators in the operational unit of OTDR, the dynamic range of the equipment can be
improved. However, it also causes the overall cost of the system to increase considerably as circulator is
highly expensive in comparison to couplers.

So, during the propagation of light pulses inside the fiber, due to absorption and Rayleigh scattering, some
losses in the transmitted pulse occurs. Also, some losses are introduced due to splicers connected inside the
fiber or the bends inside it.

Sometimes variation in the refractive index also causes the light energy to get reflected. This reflected
energy reaches the OTDR and in this way, it detects the characteristics of the fiber link.
2. a) Discuss the reasons of power penalties in optical fiber link.

Ans: There are six physical phenomena that degrade the signal-to-noise ratio at the far-end receiver on
high-bit-rate fiber optic systems. These sources of degradation are:

1. Modal Noise

Modal noise is an impairment typical on multimode fiber systems. The reason is the interference among the
various propagation modes in multimode fiber. The effect shows as the degradation of signal-to-noise ratio
at the receiver because of the fluctuating amplitude of the received signal.

This is why most multimode systems use LEDs rather than laser diodes, since LEDs have very wide
spectral bandwidth that can minimize the modal noise problem.

2. Dispersion Broadening

Dispersion broadening can limit the bit-rate—distance (BL) product. This pulse broadening affects receiver
performance in two ways.

The first effect is that the broadening can spill pulse energy into the subsequent bit slot which will cause
intersymbol interference (ISI).

The second effect is that the pulse peak energy is reduced because of the broadening. So we have to
increase incoming signal level at the receiver to compensate for it. To quantify the power penalty, we
define δd as:

δd = 10 log fd

where fd is the pulse broadening factor.

The power penalty δd can be calculated by using the formula:

δd = -5 log 10[1-(4BLDσλ)2]

where B is the bit rate, L is the length of the link in kilometer, D is the dispersion factor in ps/nm-km, and
σλ is the rms width of the source spectrum.

Here are a few values for δd as follows:

BLDσλ value δd value

BLDσλ = 0.1 δd = 0.38 dB
BLDσλ = 0.2 δd = 2.2 dB
BLDσλ = 0.25 δd = infinity

3. Mode-Partition Noise

Mode-partition noise MPN occurs in multimode fiber systems and is brought about by the semiconductor
laser source. It is a phenomenon that occurs due to anticorrelation among pairs of longitudinal modes.

There may be many such mode present, and individual modes shows notable power fluctuation even though
the total power remains relatively constant.
These various modes, as they travel down the fiber, become desynchronized because they are traveling at
different velocities. This causes fluctuations in the receiver signal current degrading the signal-to-noise
ratio and a power penalty must be paid for this.

A calculation of this MPN power penalty is complex, involving the mode-partition coefficient k whose
value ranges from 0 to 1.

δmpn is the power penalty in dB for MPN. The power penalty can be reduced to a negligible level (<0.5
dB) by designing the optical system such that BLDσλ < 0.1.

4. Frequency Chirp

With directly modulated transmitters there is an optimal setting of bias current which will achieve
minimum chirp. This is a adjustment to obtain a certain rex value.

rex is the extinction ratio or ratio of the “on” power to the “off” power. We have rex = P0 / P1 or the laser
output power in the binary 1 condition to its output power in the binary 0 condition.

The total power penalty caused by frequency chirp can be reduced to below 2 dB by operating the system
with an extinction ratio of about 0.1.

5. Reflection Feedback and Noise

Reflection feedback is the light reflected back into the laser source. This reflected light, even at low levels,
can be a source of system upset or cause major degradation in performance.

In fact it can degrade system performance to the point that the system cannot achieve the required Bit Error
Rate (BER) despite an infinite increase in receive power.

Most reflection in a fiber link occurs at the fiber-air interfaces. This reflected feedback problem can be
easily removed by using an optical isolator in the transmitter assembly fiberguide well prior to using the
pigtail connector.

6. Extinction Ratio

An insufficient extinction ratio can incur a power penalty. A fiber optic light source has an on state and an
off state. We assign a binary 1 to the on state and a binary 0 to the off state.

The trouble lies in the fact that in the off state the light transmitter is not completely off.

The reason for doing this is to greatly reduce the initial rise time of the light transmitter, allowing the
transmitter to have a much greater bit rate than it would have if it was completely off in the binary 0 state.

If we allow P0 to be the off-state output power and allow P1 to be the on-state output power of the light
transmitter, then the extinction ratio is defined as:

rex = P0 / P1

Stated another way using decibels, the extinction ratio is defined as:

EX = 10 log (A/B)

A = average optical power at logical 1

 B = average optical power at logical 0

Based on the values of rex , the following are equivalent extinction ratio penalties based on using a PIN
photodetector.

rex Penalty (dB)

0.5 3
0.4 2.2
0.3 1.7
0.2 1.0
0.1 0.5
0.07 0.3
0.05 0.2

b) Compare the features of Raman amplifier and EDFA.

Ans: The main difference: the amplification mechanism is different.
Edfa uses the principle of stimulated radiation of EDF fiber to amplify the optical signal.
Raman amplification uses the Raman effect to achieve energy conversion and amplify the optical signal.
In addition, edfa has a limited amplification bandwidth (near 1550 nm), and Raman amplification
theoretically amplifies all bands.
The Raman-amplified medium uses a common transmission fiber and does not require an additional gain
medium. It is divided into distributed amplification (the amplification effect occurs in tens of kilometers of
fiber) and concentrated amplification according to the different working distance (the amplification effect
occurs within several kilometers). Inside the fiber).
Raman amplification can achieve low noise amplification, better than EDFA, but the amplification gain is
lower than EDFA (about 3 ~ 15db), and requires higher pump light (watt level).