About Fiber Optics, general presentation

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Optical Fiber
By: Abidullah Wardak

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What is Optical Fiber?
 An Optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of high quality glass
(silica) or plastic, slightly thicker than a human hair.
 It either functions as a waveguide or light pipe that transmits light between
two ends of the fiber or fiber cable.
 Optical fibers are widely used in fiber-optic communications, which permits
transmission over longer distances and at higher bandwidths (data rates)
than other forms of communication
 Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel along them
with less loss and are also safe to electromagnetic interference.
 The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design
and application of optical fibers is known as fiber optics.

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History of Fiber Optics
 Fiber optics is not really a new technology, its fairly old.
 Guiding of light by refraction, the principle that makes fiber
optics possible, was first demonstrated by Daniel
Colladon and Jacques Babinet in Paris in the early 1840s
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Uses of Optical Fiber
 Fiber optic can accommodate variety of needs.
 It can be used in Communication, fiber optic sensors, illumination, medical.
 And also in other places where bright light needs to be shone on a target
without a clear line-of-sight path.
 Used in building to route sunlight from the roof to other parts of the building.
 And many more usages but we will only discuss use of optical fiber in
communication here.

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In Communication
 Optical fiber can be used as a medium for telecommunication
and computer networking because it is flexible and can be bundled as
cables.
 It is especially advantageous for long-distance communications, because
light propagates through the fiber with little attenuation compared to
electrical cables.
 The per-channel light signals propagating in the fiber have been
modulated at rates as high as 111 gigabits per second (Gbit/s)
by NTT, although 10 or 40 Gbit/s is typical.
 In June 2013, researchers demonstrated transmission of 400 Gbit/s over a
single channel.

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Continued…
 Each fiber can carry many independent channels, each using a different
wavelength of light.
 As of 2011 the record for bandwidth on a single core was 101 Tbit/sec (370
channels at 273 Gbit/sec each).
 The record for a multi-core fibre as of January 2013 was 1.05 petabits per
second

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Benefits of Optical Fiber
 For short distance application, such as a network in an office building, fiberoptic cabling can save space in cable ducts. This is because a single fiber
can carry much more data than electrical cables such as
standard category 5 Ethernet cabling, which typically runs at 100 Mbit/s or
1 Gbit/s speeds.
 Fiber is also immune to electrical interference; there is no cross-talk
between signals in different cables, and no pickup of environmental noise.
 Non-armored fiber cables do not conduct electricity, which makes fiber a
good solution for protecting communications equipment in high
voltage environments, such as power generation facilities, or metal
communication structures prone to lightning strikes.
 They can also be used in environments where explosive fumes are present,
without danger of ignition.

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Structure of Optical Fiber
 Optical fiber is comprised of a light carrying core surrounded by a cladding
which traps the light in the core by the principle of total internal reflection.
 Most optical fibers are made of glass, although some are made of plastic.
 The core and cladding are usually fused silica glass which is covered by a
plastic coating called the buffer or primary buffer coating which protects
the glass fiber from physical damage and moisture.
 There are some all plastic fibers used for specific applications.
 Glass optical fibers are the most common type used in communication
applications.

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Modes of propagation
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Single mode – there is only one path for light to take down the
cable
Cladding

Multimode – if there is more than one path
Cladding

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Structure of single-mode fiber
 1. Core: 8 µm diameter
 2. Cladding: 125 µm dia.
 3. Buffer: 250 µm dia.
 4. Jacket: 400 µm dia.

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Loss in Optical Fiber
Losses vary greatly depending upon the
type of fiber
Plastic fiber may have losses of several
hundred dB per kilometer
Graded-index multimode glass fiber has a
loss of about 2–4 dB
per kilometer
Single-mode fiber has a loss of 0.4 dB/km or
less

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What is it made of?
 Silica
 Plastic
 Fluoride
 Phosphates

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Optical fiber cables
 In practical fibers, the cladding is usually coated with a
tough resin buffer layer, which may be further surrounded by a jacket layer,
usually glass. These layers add strength to the fiber but do not contribute to
its optical wave guide properties
 Modern cables come in a wide variety of sheathings and armor, designed
for applications such as direct burial in trenches, high voltage isolation
submarine installation, and insertion in paved streets.
 Fiber cable can be very flexible, but traditional fiber's loss increases greatly
if the fiber is bent with a radius smaller than around 30 mm.

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Types of Optical fiber cable
 Loose Tube Cable
Outer Jacket
Steel Tape Armor
Interstitial Filling
Inner Jacket
Central Member
(Steel Wire or Dielectric)
Aramid Strength Member
Interstitial Filling
Binder
Coated Fiber
Loose Tube Cable

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Continued…
 Tight buffered Cable
PVC Jacket (NonPlenum) or Fluoride CoPolymer Jacket
(Plenum)
Aramid Strength
Member
Glass Fiber
Fiber Coating
Thermoplastic
Overcoating or
Buffer
Tight-buffered Cable

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Types of Optical fiber cable

19. Fiber Connectors
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Did you know?
 A small optical fiber can carry more data than a large copper cable.
 It is a unidirectional technology.

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System
Transceiver
Fiber Optic Cable
Transceiver
Electrical
Connector
Optical
Port
Optical
Connector
Optical
Connector
Optical
Port
Electrical
Connector
A failure anywhere along this link will cause the entire link to fail

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Continued…

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Advantages of Optical Fiber over
Conventional Copper System
 Broad Bandwidth
 Broadband communication is very much possible over fiber optics which means
that audio signal, video signal, microwave signal, text and data from computers
It is possible to transmit around 3,000,000 full-duplex voice or 90,000 TV channels
over one optical fiber.
 Electrical Insulator
 Optical fibers are made and drawn from silica glass which is nonconductor of
electricity and so there are no ground loops and leakage of any type of current.
Optical fibers are thus laid down along with high voltage cables on the electricity
poles due to its electrical insulator behavior.
 Immunity to Electromagnetic Interference
 The optical fiber is electrically non-conductive, so it does not act as an antenna
to pick up electromagnetic signals which may be present nearby

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Continued…
 Low attenuation loss over long distances
 There are various optical windows in the optical fiber cable at which the
attenuation loss is found to be comparatively low and so transmitter and receiver
devices are developed and used in these low attenuation region. Due to low
attenuation of 0.2dB/km in optical fiber cables, it is possible to achieve long
distance communication efficiently over information capacity rate of 1 Tbit/s.
 Lack of costly metal conductor
 The use of optical fibers do not require the huge amounts of copper conductor
used in conventional cable systems. In recent times, this copper has become a
target for widespread metal theft due its value on the scrap market.

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Optical Fiber in Sea

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Thank You
Abidullah Wardak