SCHOOL OF PHYSICS – PHOTONICS LABORATORY REPORT SLIP

FOR ZKT 296/2

Instructions to student: Please make sure you fill in the form completely.
Instructions to lecturer: Kindly record the numerical marks in the rubric assessment
form, not here.
PARTICULARS
Name: Nor ‘Adilah binti Mohd Ali

Matric no.: 149150

Group: 2

Expt. Code: OC

Expt. Title: Fibre Optic Communications Educator Kit (ED-COM)

Lecturer in charge: Dr. Mahayatun Dayana

Report due date:

Experiment (√) Grade (√)

1 2 3 A A- B+ B
4 5 √ 6 B- C+ C C-
D+ D D- F

Date Received (Stamp) Comments

Photonic Lab Management Submission Form (ver.1) 2 JUNE 2021

FIBRE OPTIC COMMUNICATIONS
EDUCATOR KIT (ED-COM)

By

Nor ‘Adilah binti Mohd Ali

July 2021

Photonic Laboratory Report

ZKT 296/2
FIBRE OPTIC COMMUNICATIONS EDUCATOR KIT (ED-COM)

ABSTRACT
In this experiment, the objectives were to characterise all of the major
components of a fibre optics telecommunications system, to build a simple point to
point link and to experimentally asses the performance of that link including the
determination of the upper limits on the link length, bit rate and analogue bandwidth
as defined by attenuation and dispersion. For the first part of this experiment, we will
investigate the operation of the two standard transmitter sources employed in optical
fibre communications systems; the laser diode and the light emitting diode(LED). We
have to manipulated the transmitter to modulate the drive current whereby, the
corresponding optical power will be provided by the photoreceiver. Thus, for this part
of experiment, we have to record the detected optical power at the receiver as a
function of the drive current. Hence, two graphs of optical power against drive current
were plotted for laser diode and LED, respectively. Then, from the graph of laser
diode, we could acquired the value its threshold current, 26.0mA and bias current,
29.6mA as well as the value of optical power at bias current, 376.5μW while of
LED, we had obtained the value of its bias current, which was 40.0mA and the value
optical power at bias current was 64.0μW. As for the second part of the experiment,
we will examine a number of properties of the optical fibre link. The calculated value
of connector loss, attenuation loss, length of fibre and the attenuation coefficient for
both transmitter sources; laser and LED can be found below.

INTRODUCTION
Optical fibre links now dominate the World’s major trunk communications systems
and are penetrating ever deeper into the access and local area networks. Industries
operating in these markets require highly skilled scientists, engineers and technicians
who can design, install and operate optical communications systems.

THEORY
Attenuation Limits
Attenuation in an optical fibre is measured as the optical power loss in dB at any point
along the fibre length relative to the input power. The attenuation of an optical fibre of
length, L, is given by
 P¿ (1)
attenuation(dB) = α L=10 log 10 P
out

where α is the attenuation coefficient of the fibre (in units of dB/km) and P¿ and Pout
are the launched and output power of the link respectively. The attenuation for a given
link length is then simply α L dB

In the design of a digital telecommunications system it is standard practice to specify

the maximum probability of an error occurring when detecting the transmitted signal.
This probability is termed the Bit Error Rate(BER) and is usually specified as being
10− 9( i.e. that only one error in 109 bits will be tolerated). The source of error is noise
in the receiver which can result in situations in which random positive noise spikes
can be interpreted as digital 1 pulses or large negative noise spikes coinciding with
real signal pulses may pull the overall signal level down to such an extend that the
pulses are not detected. Clearly, the larger the signal to noise ratio, the smaller the
BER will be. From a full statistical analysis of noise in the receiver it can be shown
that to achieved a BER of 10− 9, we require an amplitude signal to noise ratio(SNR) of
12 at the receiver output. The incident optical power required to generate a SNR of 12
is referred to as the receiver sensitivity, Pmin, and if the received signal is allowed to
fall below this level the error rate will become unacceptable. Hence, the maximum
possible link length is that for which the launched power has decayed in the fibre to
the minimum detectable power at the receiver, Pmin. This is the attenuation limited
link length and is determined by the attenuation coefficient, the launched signal power
and the photoreceiver noise level. The attenuation limited link length, Lmax , may be
found from equation (1) if the attenuation coefficient, the launched power and the
receiver sensitivity are known. Since the voltage or current generated in the receiver is

P¿ A sig
proportional to the incident optical power, the ratio, is equal to , where A sig
P min A min
is the voltage signal generated in the receiver with the launched power incident on it,
and Amin is the voltage signal generated for Pmin incident on the receiver i.e. Amin is 12
times the rms noise voltage.

In analogue systems, the minimum usable received SNR is defined by the particular
application(e.g. video signal transmission requires a much greater SNR that noise
transmission in order to generate an acceptable picture definition. Attenuation limits
the maximum link length to that for which the signal has decayed to such extend that
the received SNR falls to the minimum level required by the application.
DATA AND ANALYSIS
Table 1 : Table of optical output power vs drive current for laser diode.
Current, I Power, P 21 6
(mA) (µW) 21.5 7
0 1 22 7
0.5 1 22.5 8
1 1 23 9
1.5 1 23.5 10
2.0 1 24 11
2.5 1 24.5 13
3.0 1 25 15
3.5 1 25.5 20
4.0 1 26 33
4.5 1 26.5 66
5.0 1 27 117
5.5 1 27.5 161
6.0 1 28 207
6.5 1 28.5 256
7.0 1 29 313
7.5 1 29.5 361
8.0 1 30 409
8.5 2 30.5 456
9.0 2 31 501
9.5 2 31.5 554
10 2 32 601
10.5 2 32.5 652
11.0 2 33 697
11.5 2 33.5 734
12.0 2 34 786
12.5 2
13.0 2
13.5 3
14.0 3
14.5 3
15 3
15.5 3
16 3
16.5 4
17 4
17.5 4
18 4
18.5 5
19 5
19.5 5
20 5
20.5 6
 =
=

P(Bc) = 376.5

Tc = 26.0mA
Figure 1 : Graph of optical power against
B = 29.6mA
drive current cfor laser diode.

Figure 1 : Graph of optical power against drive current for laser diode.
Table 2 : Table of optical output power vs drive current for light emitting diode(LED)
Current, I Power, P 45 70 91 122
(mA) (µW) 46 72 92 123
0 1 47 73 93 123
1 1 48 75 94 124
2 1 49 77 95 124
3 2 50 78
4 3 51 80
5 4 52 81
6 5 53 83
7 6 54 84
8 8 55 86
9 9 56 87
10 11 57 88
11 12 58 90
12 14 59 91
13 15 60 92
14 17 61 94
15 19 62 95
16 20 63 96
17 22 64 98
18 24 65 99
19 26 66 100
20 27 67 101
21 29 68 102
22 31 69 104
23 33 70 105
24 34 71 106
25 36 72 107
26 38 73 108
27 40 74 109
28 41 75 110
29 43 76 111
30 45 77 112
31 47 78 113
32 48 79 114
33 50 80 115
34 52 81 115
35 54 82 116
36 55 83 117
37 57 84 118
38 59 85 119
39 60 86 119
40 62 87 120
41 64 88 121
42 65 89 121
43 67 90 122
 44 69

=
=
P(Bc) = 64.0

Bc = 40.0mA

Figure 2 : Graph of optical power against drive current for light emitting diode(LED).
8.1.2 Optical power
For Laser diode (1 m patch cord)
a) Bias current: 29.6mA Power at bias current: 376.5 µW
b) Threshold current: 26.0mA

For LED (1 m patch cord)

a) Bias current: 40.0mA Power at bias current: 64 µW

8.2.1 Optical fibre connector loss

For Laser diode
a) Fibre reel 1 only b) Fibre reel 1 + ST connector+ 1m patch cord
Current, I: 29.6 mA Current, I: 29.6 mA
Power, P: 110 µW Power, P: 106 µW
Calculate the connector loss

10 log10 (110/106) = 0.1609dB

For LED
a) Fibre reel 1 only b) Fibre reel 1 + ST connector+ 1m patch cord
Current, I: 40mA Current, I: 40mA
Power, P: 28 µW Power, P: 26 µW
Calculate the connector loss

10 log10 (28/26) = 0.3218dB

8.2.2 Attenuation of the optical signal over the link length
For Laser diode
a) Power 1m patch cord = 376.5 µW
b) Power of fibre reel 1 = 110 µW
c) Power of fibre reel 2 = 41 µW
Calculate the attenuation loss of fibre reel 1 and fibre reel 2
Attenuation loss, α L reel 1

10 log10 (376.5/110) = 5.3437dB

Attenuation loss, α L reel 2

10 log10 (376.5/41) = 9.6298dB

For LED
a) Power 1m patch cord = 64 µW
b) Power of fibre reel 1 = 28 µW
c) Power of fibre reel 2 = 10 µW
Calculate the attenuation loss of fibre reel 1 and fibre reel 2
Attenuation loss reel 1

10 log10 (64/28) = 3.5902dB

Attenuation loss reel 2

10 log10 (64/10) = 8.0618dB

8.2.3 Determination of fibre link length and attenuation coefficient
Time delay of fibre reel 1, t1 = 5.4µs
Time delay of fibre reel 2, t2 = 11.8 µs
Calculate the length and attenuation coefficient of fibre reel 1 and 2.
Length and attenuation coefficient of fibre reel 1
c ∙ ∆t
L=
n

3 x 108 ∙5.4 μ
L=
1.497
¿ 1082 m
¿ 1.082 km

α (1.082)=5.3437
5.3437
α=
1.082
¿ 4.939 dB /km

Length and attenuation coefficient of fibre reel 2

c ∙ ∆t
L=
n

3 x 108 ∙11.8 μ
L=
1.497
¿ 2365 m
¿ 2.365 km

α (2.365)=9.6298
9.6298
α=
2.365
¿ 4.072 dB/km
DISCUSSION
Based on data above, we can see that laser diode’s optical power was more
intense that light emitting diode(LED)’s as the maximum power that it can go was
786μW while LED’s can only went up to 124 μW. Other than that, there were two
graphs of optical power against drive current plotted for laser diode and light emitting
diode(LED), respectively based on the data. From the laser diode’s graph, we
observed that the value of the threshold current for laser diode was 26.0mA and the
bias current; the current setting which yields half the maximum output power from the
source, was 29.6mA. As for LED, the value of bias current obtained was 40.0mA.
That is all from the first part of the experiment.
In the second part of the experiment, the optical loss, the total attenuation of the
launched signal from each optical transmitter after propagation through fibre reel #1
and #2 and the length of the reels, as well as the attenuation coefficient were
determined for both laser diode and light emitting diode(LED). By equation (1), the
value of connector loss in optical fibre communications system employed by laser
diode was 0.1609dB while by LED, it was 0.3218dB. The higher value of connector
loss by LED was probably because of improper setting of the ST connector. As for the
attenuation loss, through fibre reel #1 of laser source, the value was 5.343dB, while
for reel #2, the attenuation loss was higher, which 9.629dB. The same goes for LED
where the attenuation loss for reel #1 was lower that reel #2, 3.5902dB and 8.0618dB,
respectively. The reason such was that the longer the length of the reel, the higher the
attenuation loss. For that to be true, the evident can be proof by the next investigation
where the length of the reel was measured. And we can see above that the length of
reel #1, 1.082km was shorter that reel #2, 2.365km. That was for laser source but the
statement still hold true for LED source. Lastly, for the attenuation coefficient, α for
reel #1, 4.939dB/km and reel #2, 4.072dB/km
While conducting the experiment, several precaution steps should be taken for
more accurate result. Most important step, make sure the end faces of the fibre are
clean with the fibre cleaner before use. Other than that, when taking power readings,
make sure that the ST connector connected to the transmitter is not moved or tugged
as this can cause variations of up to 1dB in the launched power. Last but not least,
make sure to continue connect the end of the numbered fibre patchcords to each
transmitter when performing the experiment as that should minimise any significant
variations in the coupled power into the fibre when performing measurements.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the objectives of this experiment were certainly met while
conducting the experiment. Firstly, we had familiarise ourselves with all of the major
components of a fibre optics telecommunications system. Besides that, we had also
learnt to build a simple point to point link and we had experimentally asses the
performance of that link including the determination of the upper limits on the link
length, bit rate and analogue bandwidth as defined by attenuation and dispersion.

REFERENCES
I. Experiment manual for ZCT 293/2 course.
II. Agarwal, T. (2021, March 2). Fiber Optic Communication System : Basic
Elements & Its Working. ElProCus - Electronic Projects for Engineering
Students. https://www.elprocus.com/basic-elements-of-fiber-optic-
communication-system-and-its-working/
III. Author: Technical Editor. (2017, April 18). What is fiber optic communication ?
Polytechnic Hub. https://www.polytechnichub.com/fiber-optic-communication/
IV. Sam, S. (2018, August 2). Fiber Optic Communications. Tutorialspoint.
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/Fiber-Optic-Communications
V. Wikipedia contributors. (2021, June 27). Fiber-optic communication. Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber-optic_communication