BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, PILANI, HYDERABAD CAMPUS
First Semester 2019-2020
EEE G591: Optical Communication
Comprehensive Examination (Closed Book)
Time-: 02:00 P.M – 05:00 P.M Max Marks-:90 Date: 02-12-2019
Instructions: There are seven questions. Marks for each question are indicated on right side. Read the
questions carefully and write the answers. Answer all the questions.
1. (a) Assume that a digital communication system can be operated at a bit rate of upto 1 % of carrier
frequency. How many audio channels at 64 kbps can be transmitted over a microwave carrier at 5
GHz and a optical carrier at 1.55 μm ?
(b) A 1.55 μm digital communication system operating at 1 Gbps receives an average power of - 40
dBm at detector. Assuming that 1 and 0 bits are equally likely to occur, calculate the number of
photons received within each 1 bit.
(c) In an optical fiber, the relative refractive index difference between core and cladding is 0.9 % and a
solid acceptance angle in the air is 0.15 radians. Determine the velocity of light in fiber core.
(d) A graded-index fiber with parabolic profile has a refractive index of 1.458 at the center of the core.
Estimate the value of numerical aperature of the fiber at a point exactly midway between the axis of
the core and core-cladding interface assuming ∆ = 0.01. Also calculate the total number of modes
supported by this fiber. [3+4+4+4]
2. (a) Derive an expression for waveguide dispersion in a step-index optical fiber.
(b) If the normalized propagation constant ‘b’ is related normalized frequency ‘V’ as b(V) = 1 - exp(-V),
find the value of V at which this waveguide dispersion is zero.
(c) An optical fiber has core and cladding indices of 1.55 and 1.50 respectively. If a system operating at
1.4 μm wavelength using this fiber has normalized propagation constant of 1/3, then what is the
propagation constant of the wave propagating in the fiber. [6+5+4]
3. (a) A 250 μm long InGaAsP laser hs an internal loss of 40 cm-1. It operates in a single mode with modal
index 3.3 and the group index 3.4. Calculate the photon life time. What is the threshold value of
electron population? Assume the gain varies as G = GN (N-N0) with GN = 6 x 103 s-1 and and
N0 = 1x 108.
(b) If the carrier life time is 2 ns, what is the threshold current for this laser.
(c) If this laser is operated twice above threshold, what is the differential quantum efficiency and
external quantum efficiency, given that the internal quantum efficiency is 90 %.
(d) What is direction modulation a laser diode and what is the limitation of it. How it can be overcome?
Give two examples (with brief explanation) of devices which overcomes this limitation.
[6+2+2+5]
4. (a) What is Optical SNR? In case of lumped amplification, what is Optical SNR?
(b) Calculate the optical SNR at the output end of a 4000 km lightwave system designed using 50
EDFAs with 4.5 dB noise figure. Assume a fiber-cable loss of 0.25 dB/km at 1.55 μrn, an input
power of 1 mW, and a 2 nm bandwidth for the optical filter.
(c) What is Electrical SNR? Derive an expression for electrical SNR when an amplifieir is used before a
PIN detector? What is the ratio of optical SNR to electrical SNR? [3+6+6]
5. (a) Determine the FSR of a Fabry-Perot interferometer tunable optical filter which is designed with
group index of 1.5 of intra-cavity material used in the construction of FP fliter having a length of
100 μm.
(b) Explain the principle of operation of a MZI based multiplexer. Construct a MZI multiplexer to
multiplex 1.3 μm and 1.55 μm using the waveguides of effective index of 1.5.
(c) What are different switching architectures used in an large optical switches? Explain briefly.
[2+4+4]
6. (a) Make the power budget and calculate the maximum transmission distance for a 1.3 μm lightwave
system operating at 100 Mb/s and using an LED for launching 0.1 mW of average power into the
fiber. Assume 1 dB/km fiber loss, 0.2 dB splice loss every 2 km, 1 dB connector loss at each end of
fiber link, and 100 nW receiver sensitivity. Allow 6 dB system margin.
(b) Make the rise-time budget for a 0.85-μm, 10-km fiber link designed to operate at 50 Mb/s. The LED
transmitter and the Si p-i-n receiver have rise times of 10 and 15 ns, respectively. The graded-index
fiber has a core index of 1.46, ∆ = 0.01, and D = 80 ps/(km-nm). The LED spectral width is 50 nm.
Can the system be designed to operate with the NRZ format? [4+6]
7. Write short notes on
(a) Dispersion compensation in a fiber-optic communication link
(b) System performance issues in a WDM link [5+5]
