Archived — Fiber Optic Technology

This is intended as an overview and installation checklist for all managers, engineers and installers on the overall process of testing and troubleshooting a fiber optic communications system. 1. Once a fiber optic cable plant, network, system or link is installed, it needs to be tested for four reasons: a. to insure the fiber optic cable installation was properly installed to specified industry standards. b. to insure the equipment intended for use on the cable plant will operate properly on the cabling c. to insure the communications equipment is working to specifications d. to document the cable plant and network

3. DESIGN The schematic layout of the 4×4 channel AWG for DWDM with central wavelength of 1.55 μm is shown in Figure 2. The position of input port and output port is symmetrically formed, which are identical. WDM_PHASAR design tool from Optiwave®, has been used to design two types of 4 channels AWG operating at central wavelength of 1.55 μm, with channel spacing of 0.8 nm and 9.6 nm, for DWDM and CWDM applications, respectively. The refractive index of BCB polymer core at 1.55 μm is 1.5556.The cladding is ORMOCER which is having a refractive index of 1.537, while the

1. INTRODUCTION Wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) is an approach that can exploit the huge opto-electronic bandwidth mismatch by requiring that each end-user’s equipment operate only at electronic rate, but multiple WDM channels from different end-users may be multiplexed on the same fiber. There are two alternatives for WDM metro networks: dense WDM (DWDM) and coarse WDM (CWDM). In high capacity environments, DWDM is used. In DWDM, the channel separation can be as small as 0.8 or 0.4 nm, for up to 80 optical channels at line rates up to 10 Gbps. DWDM technologies is very expensive, so its application to access

Measurement accuracy can be maximized for a given PDL measurement system by taking the following precautions. 1. Minimize the optical insertion loss variations of the polarization controller by using the Agilent 118966A  olarization Controller with Option 025 which provides fiber pigtail interfaces that can be cut and spliced to the test system and to the DUT for minimal reflections. 2. Maintain constant source output power for each wavelength being measured. 3. Use an optical source which approaches 100% degree of polarization (DOP). Unpolarized light will not be attenuated by the PDL of a test device; therefore, the lower the DOP

The Agilent 83438A #009/71452B/ 11896A setup as shown in Figure 13 characterizes components for dense wave length division multiplexing (DWDM) applications fast and accurately versus wavelength. Under remote control, it can measure insertion loss, crosstalk and PDL automatically. Other characteristics can be calculated too, such as the polarization dependence of the center wavelength or bandwidth of a filter. The Erbium ASE Source Agilent 83438A with option 009 provides polarized light in the range 1525 to 1565 nm. Its polarization state is automatically randomized using the Agilent 11896A Polarization Controller. If the Agilent 11896A runs fast and the Agilent 71452B Optical