OPTICAL COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKING

2marks

1.Define a fiber-optic system?

Fiber optic system is nothing but a fiber optic cable is essentially light pipe that is
used to carry a light beam from one place to another.

2. What is the relationship between information capacity and bandwidth?

Information capacity is directly proportional to bandwidth.

3. Contrast glass and plastic fiber cables?

Fiber optic cables are made from glass and plastic. Glass has lowest loss but it is
brittle. Plastic is cheaper but more flexible, but has high attenuation.

4. Define wavelengths.

It is the length that one cycle of an electromagnetic wave occupies in space.

5. For a low power optical signal which type of photo diode can be used? Why?

Avalanche phoito diode is used since it has a greater sensitivity owing to internal gain
mechanism.

6. Define wavefront.

For plane waves some constant phase points from a surface which is referred as
wavefront.

7. What is meant by refractive index of a material?

The refractive index n is defined as the ratio of the velocity of light in a vaccum to the
velocity of light in the medium.

8. What is external reflection?

When light is travelling in a certain medium is reflected off an optical denser material
(one with a higher refractive index), the process is referred to as external reflection.

9. What is intetnal reflection?

When light is travelling in a certain medium is reflected off an less optical dense
material the process is referred to as internal reflection.

10. Explain guided mode.

 Guided mode is a pattern of electric and magnet field distributions that is repeated
along the fiber at equal intervals.

11. What is the purpose of cladding?

Cladding provides mechanical strength, reduces scattering loss resulting from

dielectric discontinuities at the core surface, and protects the core from absorbing surface
contaminants with which it could come into contact.

12. What types of fibers are used commonly?

i) Based on refractive index profile:

a) step Index

b). Graded index

ii). Based on Propogation

a). Mono-mode or single mode.

b). Multi mode.

13. What is a step index fiber? (NOV/DEC 2011)

The refractive index of the core n1 is constant and a cladding of lower refractive index
n2 is known as step index fiber.

14. What is a Graded index fiber?

The core refractive index decreases continuously with increasing radial distance r
from the center of the fiber, but in generally constant in the cladding.

15. What is order of a mode?

It is equal to the number of field zeros across the guide.

16. What is law of refraction? (NOV/DEC 2011)

The law of inciodence says that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of
refraction.

17. What is meridional rays?

The ray has an angle of incidence ф at the interface which is greater than the critical
angle and is refklected at the same angle to the normal.

18. Define Numerial aperture.(MAY/JUNE 2012), (NOV/DEC 2014)

Numerical Aperture is defined as,

NA= no sin θa = (n12 – n22)1/2

 For air no = 1

19. What is skew ray?

Skew rays are not transmitted through the fiber axis. They follow the helical path
through the fiber.

20. What are leaky modes in optical fibers?

In leaky modes the fields are confined partially in the fiber core and attenuated as they
propagate along the fiber length due to radiation and tunnel effect.

21. Define lower order Lpmode.

The mode having lowest cut off frequency is known as lower order mode.

22. Define acceptance angle. (NOV/DEC 2014)

It is the maximum angle to the axis at which light may enter the fiber in order to be
propagated..

23. Define critical angle.

The angle of refraction is always greater than the angle of incidence. Under this
condition the refraction and angle of incidence is known as critical angle.

24. What is an index profile?

The index profile of an optical fiber is a graphical representation of the magnitude of

the refractive index across the fiber.

25. Write the advantages of optical communication.

i. Small size and weight.

ii. Immunity to interference and crosstalk.

iii. High signal security.

iv.Low transmission loss.

v. System reliability and ease of maintenance.

vi. Wideband width and greater information capacity.

26. Define refraction.

Refraction is the bending of a light ray that occurs when the light rats pass from
medium to another.
27. Write the advantages and disadvantages of single mode fiber.

Advantages:

i. No intermodel dispersion.
ii. Information capacity is large.

Disadvantages.

i. Launching of light into single mode fiber and joining of two fibers are very
difficult.
ii. Fabrication is difficult and so costly.

28. Write the advantages and disadvantages of multi mode fiber. (APRIL/ MAY 2011)

Advantages:

i. Larger core radius make it easier to launch optical power into the fiber.
ii. Connection is easy.
iii. LEDs can be used to launch light.
iv. LEDs are less expensive, less complex circuitry and have longer life time.

29. What is the energy of a single photon of the light whose λ=1550nm, in ev? (NOV,DEC
2011)

Eg = 1.240/(1550 *10-3)

Eg = 0.8ev

30.Assume that there is a glass rod of refractive index 1.5 surrounded by air. Find the critical
angle. (NOV,DEC 2011)
𝑛
Φc = sin−1 𝑛2
1

Φc= 0.66o

31. Calculate the culoff wavelength of a singl mode fiber with core radius of 4um and
A=0.003

32. The refractive index difference of the fiber is 1% Determine the critical angle at the core
cladding interface if the refractive index is 1.46.

33. A step index fiber has a normalised frequency (V) of 26.6 at 1300nm,If the core radius is
25um, find the numerical aperture.

34. The refractive indexes of the core and claddind of a silica fiber are 1.48 and 1.46. Find the
acceptance angle. (DEC 2013)

NA= no sin θa = (n12 – n22)1/2

 θa = sin−1 𝑁𝐴

θa = 14.03

35. Determine the normalized frequency at 820nm for a step index fiber having a 25µm
radius. The refractive indexes of the cladding and the core are 1.45 and 1.47. How many
modes propagate in this fiber ?(DEC 2013)
2𝜋
𝑉= 𝑎 𝑁𝐴
𝜆

λ = 820nm

a = 25µm

n1= 1.47

n2 = 1.45

NA= no sin θa = (n12 – n22)1/2 = .242

V= 46.35

36. The refractive indexes of the core and cladding of a silica fiber are 1.55 and 1.52. Find the
critical angle and Numerical Aperture. (MAY 2013)

NA= no sin θa = (n12 – n22)1/2

NA= .30
𝑛
Φc = sin−1 𝑛2 = 78.7
1

37. The refractive indexes of the core and cladding of a silica fiber are 1.46 and 1.44. Find the
critical angle and Numerical Aperture. (MAY 2012)

NA= no sin θa = (n12 – n22)1/2

NA= .21
𝑛
Φc = sin−1 𝑛2 = 81.9
1

38. What is a Linearly Polarized mode?. (MAY 2013)

In a step index fiber the difference in the core and cladding indices of refraction is
very small.
39. A multimode fiber has core diameter of 50µm and cladding refractive index of 1.45. If its
modal dispersion is 10ns/km, find its numerical aperture. (MAY/JUNE 2014)

40. Distinguish meridional rays from skew rays.(MAY/JUNE 2014)

Meridional ray: It is passing through fiber axis. Meridional rays are confined to the planes
that contain the axis of the symmetry of the fiber.

Skew ray: The rays are not passing through the fiber axis and taking helical path during the
propagation are called skew rays.

41. List any two advantages of single mode fibers(NOV/DEC 2014)

Intermodal dispersion is not present.

Simple operation.

42.Calculate the critical angle of incidence between two substances with different refractive
indices, where n1= 1.5 and n2=1.46. (APRIL/MAY 2015)

NA= no sin θa = (n12 – n22)1/2

𝑛
Φc = sin−1 𝑛2
1

43. What is total internal reflection?(APR/MAY 2015)

It is defined as the complete reflection of light into the same medium without any loss
of light.

Conditions for the total internal reflection

Light should travel from High refractive index material to Lower refractive index
material.

Incident angle should be greater than the critical angle.

44. Define phase velocity and group velocity.(NOV/DEC 2015)

Phase velocity: A monochromatic light wave travels along a waveguide in the Z

direction at a phase velocity.

Group Velocity: A group of waves with similar frequencies not propagates at phase
velocity of individual waves but moves at a group velocity vg.

45. What is mode fielddiameter?

The Mode Field diameter (MFD) is an important parameter. It can be determined

from the mode field distribution of the fundamental LP01 mode.
46. Define High birefringence and Low birefringence.

High birefringence – The maximization of the modal birefringence, which may be

achieved by reducing the beat length Lp to around 1 mm or less.

Low birefringence – The minimization of the modal birefringence, which may be

achieved by increasing the beat length Lp to around 50 mm or more.

1. What are the losses (or) signal attenuation mechanism in a fiber?

i. Absorption.
ii. Scattering.
iii. Radiative losses.
2. Define signal attenuation of fiber. (NOV/DEC 2011), (APR/MAY 2015)
It is defined as the ratio of the input optical power pi into a fiber to the output
optical

power pofrom the fiber.

10 𝑃
αdB= 𝐿 log10 𝑃 𝑖
𝑜

where L is the fiber length.

3. Name three mechanisms caused by absorption.

i. Absorption by atomic defects in the glass composition.
ii. Extrinsic absorption by impurity atoms in the glass material.
iii. Intrinsic absorption by the basic constituent atoms of the fiber material.
4. Write Urach’s rule.
𝛼𝑢𝑣 = 𝐶𝑒 𝐸⁄𝐸𝑜
Where C and Eo are empirical constant.
E is the photon energy.
5. How will scattering losses arises?
Scattering losses in glass arise from
i. Microscopic variations in the material density.
ii. Compositional fluctuations
iii. Structural inhomodensities or structural defects due to fiber
fabrications.
6. Define fictive temperature.
It is defined as the temperature at which the glass can reach a state of thermal
equilibrium and closely related to the anneal temperature.
7. What are types of scattering losses?
a). Linear scattering Loss – Rayleigh scattering,
Mie scattering.
b). Non-Linear Scattering- Stimulated Brillouin Scattering.

8. What are types of bending losses?(NOV/DEC 2012),(APR/MAY 2015)

a). Macroscopic bending losses.

 b). Operating at the shortest wavelength possible.

9. Mention the way to reduce macrobending losses? (NOV/DEC 2011)

a). Designing fibers with large relative refractive index difference.

b). Operating at the shortest wavelength possible.

10. Define dispersion in optical fiber.

Dispersion of the transmitted optical signal causes distortion or both digital

and analog transmission along optical fibers, term ‘dispersion’ refers to spreading of lightt
pulse as it propogates through fiber.

11. What are the types of dispersion?

Material dispersion.

Waveguide dispersion.

Group velocity dispersion.(or) modal dispersion.

12. What is meant by material dispersion?

It arises from the variation of the refractive index of the core material as a function of
wavelength. This causes a wavwlength dependence of the group velocity of any given mode.

Pulse apreading occurs even when different wavelengths follow the same path.

13. Define Group Velocity Dispersion.

Intramodel dispersion is pulse spreading that occurs within a single mode. The spreading
arises from the finite spectral emission width of an optical source. This phenomenon is
known as Group Velocity Dispersion.

14. What is meant by Intermiodel dispersion?(NOV / DEC 2011)

The intermodel dispersion arises due to the variation in the group delay for each
individual mode at a single frequency.When the group velocity of different mode varies.

15. What is meant by model noise?

This is the 3rd effect of the transmitted signals on the optical channel. The speckle
patterns observed in multimode fiber as fluctuations which have characteristic times longer
that the resolution time of the detector and is known as modal (or) speckle noise.

16. Define polarization?(NOV/DEC 2015)

Polarization refers to the electric field orientation of a light siginal which can vary
significantly along the lenghth of the fiber.
17. Define Snell’s law.(MAY / JUNE 2012),(APRIL/MAY 2015)

Snell’s law of refraction at the core cladding interface.

𝑛
Sin ф𝑐 = 𝑛2 = cos 𝜃
1

18. Define Birefrigence.

The polarization modes propogate with different phase velocities and the difference between
their effective refractive indices is called birefringence.

Bf~ny - nx

19. What is meant by crosstalk?

The extinction ratio at the fiber output between the unwanted mode and the launch
mode.

20. What are the types of joints? (NOV/DEC 2011)(NOV/DEC 2015)

a). Fiber splices – semipermanent joints.

b). Demountable fiber connectors (or) simple connctors- Removable pointers.

21. Define Fresnel reflection. (NOV/DEC 2011)

When the two joined fiber ends are smooth and perpendicular to the fiber axis, and the
two fiber axis are perfectely aligned, a small proportion of the light may be reflected back
into the transmitting fiber causing attenuation at joint. This is known as fresnel reflection.

22. What are the types of misalignment?

a) Lateral/radial/ axial misalignment

b) Longitudinal misalignment.

c). Elastic tube splice.

23. State the drawbacks of fusion splicing.

a). Heat necessary to fuse the fibers.

b). With careful handling the tensile strength of the fused may be as low as 30% of the
uncoated fiber before fusion.

24. What arethe types of fiber couplers?

a. Three or four port coupler.

b. Star coupler.

c. Wavelength division multiplying devices.

25. Listout the various loss parameters with four port couples?

a. Excess loss.

b. Insertion loss.

c. Cross talk.

d. Split ratio.

26. Define attenuation coefficient of a fiber.

27. What factors causes Rayleigh scattering in optical fibers? (MAY 2013)

Microscopic variations in the material density.

Compositional fluctuations

Structural inhomogenities.

Structural defects during fiber fabrication.

28.What are two reasons for chromatic dispersion?

The variation of the refractive index of the core as a function of the wavelength.

30. A continuous 12 Kms long optical fiber link has a loss of 1.5dB/km. What is the
minimum optical power that must be launched into the fiber to maintain an optical power
level of 0.3µw at the receiving end?(NOV/DEC 2013)
10 𝑃
𝛼𝑑𝐵 = log10 𝑃 𝑖
𝐿 𝑜

Po =0.3µw

L=12 Kms

𝛼𝑑𝐵 = 1.5dB/km

Pi = 19µw

31. Define Dispersion in multimode fibers. What is its effect?(NOV/DEC 2013)

Intermodal dispersion arises due to the variation in the group delay for each individual mode
at a single frequency.

32. What is mean by mechanical splice?(MAY 2013)

The mechanical splicing is which the fibers are held in alignment by some mechanical
means, may be achieved by various methods
33. Identify the causes of scattering loss.(MAY/JUNE 2014)

34. A fibre has an attenuation of 1.5 dB/Km at 1300nm. If 0.5 mW of optical power is
initially launched into the fibre, what is the power level in microwatts after
9km?(MAY/JUNE 2014)

35. What are the types of fiber losses which are given per unit distance?(NOV/DEC 2014)
Absorption
Scattering
Radiative losses.
36. List the factors that cause intrinsic joint losses in fiber(NOV/DEC 2014)

Different core and cladding diameters.

Different numerical apertures
Different refractive index profiles.
Fiber fault

37. What is meant by mode coupling?

Mode coupling is the coupling of energy from one mode to another arises because of
structural imperfections , fiber diameter variations and refractive index variations, cabling
induced microbends.
38. Fiber beat length:
If light is injected into the fiber so that both modes are excited, one mode delayed in
phase relative to the other as they propagate.
When the phase difference between two modes is an integral multiple of 2π, the two
modes will beat at this point and the input polarization will be reproduces. The length over
which the beating occurs is known as fiber beat length.
What are the principal light sources used for fiber optic communication? (NOV/DEC-2010)

They are heterojunction structured semiconductor laser diodes (Injection laser

diodes )

and Light Emitting Diodes(LEDs).

1. What is heterojunction?(NOV/DEC 2015)

It consists of two adjointsemioconductor materials with different band gap

energies.

These devices are suitable for wide range of applications in fiber transmission systems.

2. What is active or recombination region? (APRIL/ MAY 2012)

When pn junction is forward biased, electrons and holes are injected into p an n region
respectively. Theses injected minority carriers are recomibne either radiatively or non
raditvely. The recombination energy is dissipated in the form of heat. This pn junction is
known as the active or recombination region.
 3. Write down the differences between LED and Laser Diodes. (NOV/DEC 2011)

S.NO LED Laser Diode

1. Optical output is in coherent. Optical output is coherent.
2. No optical resonant cavity. Optical energy from optical resonant
cavity.
3. Output has broad spectral width. Highly monochromatic.
4. No spatial and temporal coherence It has spatial and temporal
coherence.

4. What is phonon? (NOV/DEC-2012)

Phonon is a quantum of energy in the lattioce vibrations of a crystal.
5. What is radiance or brightness? (APRIL/ MAY 2012)
Radiance is a measure in watts of the optical power radiated into a unit solid
angle per

unit area of the emitting surface.

6. What is a lambertian pattern?

In surface emitteer LED, the emission pattern is essentially isotropic with 1200 half

power bandwidth. The isotropic pattern from a surface emitter is called lambertian pattern. In
this pattern the source is equally bright when viewed from any direction. This radiation
pattern decides the coupling efficiency of LED.

7. What is emission response?

Emission response time delay is the delay between the application of the current pulse
and on set of optical emission.

8. Mention the LED configurations used in optical fiber links. (NOV/DEC 2011)
Two basic configurations
Surface Emitter LED.
Edge Emitter LED.
9. Define external quantum efficiency.
It is defined as the ratio of photons emitted from LED from the number of
photon generated internally.
10. Define Internal quantum efficiency.(MAY/JUNE 2014)(NOV/DEC 2015)
It is defined as the ratio of radiative recombination rate to the total
recombination rate.
11. What is gain guided laser? (NOV/DEC-2012)
The injection of electrons and holes into the device alters the refractive index
of the active layer. The profile of theses injected carriers creates a weak
complex waveguide that confines the light laterally. This type of device is
called as gain guided laser.
12. Mention the advantages of quantum well lasers over DH lasers.
a. Allow high gain at low carrier density.
b. Narrow linewidths.
c. Higher modulation speeds.
d. Lower frequency chrips.
e. Less temperature dependence.
13. Define quantum efficiency.

It is defined as the number of electron hole pairs generated per incident photon
of energy,.

14. Define responsivity?

The responsivity is a useful parameter as it gives the transfer characteristic of
the detector. It is defined as the ratio of output photo current to the incident
optical power.
15. What is avalanche effect? (NOV/DEC-2012)
a. Due to impact ionization effect new carriers are generated. The newly
generated carriers also accelerated by high electric field, thus gaining enough
energy to cause further impact ionization, this phenomenon is known as
avalanche effect.
16. What is transit time of the photo carriers?
The transit time of the photo carriers in the depletion region is the ratio
between carrier drift velocities and the depletion layer width.
17. What are the advantages of LED? (NOV/DEC 2011)
18. Write any two differences between a Laser diode and a LED.(NOV/DEC 2013)
S.NO LED Laser Diode
1. Optical output is in coherent. Optical output is coherent.
2. No optical resonant cavity. Optical energy from optical resonant
cavity.
3. Output has broad spectral width. Highly monochromatic.
4. No spatial and temporal coherence It has spatial and temporal
coherence.

19. For a Photodiode define quantum efficiency and responsivity.(NOV/DEC 2011)

The number of elerctron hole pairs genetrated per incident photon of energy.
20. Calculate the band gap energy for an LED to emit 850nm.(MAY 2013)
1.45 ev

21. If the absorption coefficient of silicon is 0.05 misrometer-1at 860nm, find the
penetration depth at which p(x)/pin = 0.368(MAY/JUNE 2014)
22. Define internal quantum efficiency of a LED.(NOV/DEC 2014)
It is defined as the ratio of radiative recombination rate to the total
recombination rate.
23. What are the drawbacks of avalanche photo diode.(NOV/DEC 2014)
 Fabrication difficulty due to their more complex structure.
Cost is high
High bias voltage is required.
The random nature of photo diode gives an additional noise.
1. What is bit rate?
The transmitted signal is two level binary data stream consisting of either 0 or 1 in a
time slot of duration T. This time slot is referred to a bit period.

2. Define Bit error rate (BER)? (NOV/DEC 2011)(APR/MAY 2015)

To divide the number of errors (Ne) occurring over a certain time interval t by the
number of pulses (Nt) transmitted during this interval. This is called either the error
rate or bit error rate (BER).
BER = Ne = Ne
Nt Bt

3. What is P+πpn+ reach through structure? (NOV/DEC-2012)

In the P+ (heavy doped – p type) substrate, high resistivity P – type material is
deposited followed by the construction of an n+ (heavily doped n- type) layer. The π
layer is an intrinsic layer but has some P doping because of imperfect purification.

4. Define quantum limit? (MAY 2013) (MAY/JUNE 2014)

To find the minimum received optical power required for a specific bit error rate
performance in a digital system. This minimum received power level is known as the
quantum limit.

5. How does dark current arise? (NOV/DEC-2012)

The bulk dark current arises from electrons and / or holes which are thermally
generated in the pn junction of the photo diode.
Mean square value (i2DB) = 2qID BM2 F (M)
Where ID is the primary (unmultified) detector bulk dark current.

6. How does surface-leakage current arise? (NOV/DEC 2011)

Surface-leakage current arise due to surface defects, cleanliness, bias voltage and
surface area.
Mean square value (i2DS) = 2qIL BWhere IL is the surface leakage
current.
7. How is internal noise caused?
Internal noise is caused by the spontaneous fluctuations of current or voltage in
electric circuits.

8. What is intersymbol interference (ISI)? (MAY/JUNE 2011)

ISI occurs from pulse spreading in the optical fiber when a pulse is transmitted in a
given time slot, most of the pulse energy will arrive in the corresponding time slot at
receiver.
9. Define Extinction ratio (ε)?
It is defined as the ratio of the optical power in a 0 pulse to the power in a 1 pulse. Its
effects is a power penalty in receiver sensitivity.

10. Mention types of preamplifier? (MAY/JUNE 2012)

(a) Low impedance preamplifiers (Lz)
(b) High impedance preamplifier (Hz)
(c) Transimpedance preamplifier.

11. What are the advantages of preamplifier? (MAY/JUNE 2011)

They are:
(a) Low noise level.
(b) High bandwidth.
(c) High dynamic range.
(d) High sensitivity.
(e) High gain.

12. What are the standard measurement techniques? (NOV/DEC-2011)

(a) Reference test methods (RTMs),
(b) Alternative test methods (ATMs).

13. Mention the different techniques used for measurement of fiber refractive profile?
(a) Interferometric Method,
(b) Near Field Scanning Method,
(c) Refracted Near Field Method (RNF).

14. Define effective cutoff wavelength? (MAY/JUNE 2012)

The effective cutoff wavelength is defined as ‘wavelength greater’ than the ratio
between the total power, to the launched higher order-modes and fundamental mode
power.

15. Define bend attenuation? (NOV/DEC-2011)

The bend attenuation is measure between the total power and the fundamental power.
ab (λ) = 10 log 10ps(λ)
pb(λ)
where ab (λ) is bend attenuation,
ps(λ)is total power,
pb(λ)is the fundamental mode power.

16. Mention the techniques used for determination of fiber numerical aperture.
These techniques are:
(a) farfield angle from fiber using a scanning photo detector and a rotating stage,
(b) farfield pattern by trigonometric fiber,
 (c) farfield pattern of NA measurement using a rotating stage.

17. List out the advantages of outer diameter measurement. (NOV/DEC-2010)

(a) Speed is large,
(b) More accuracy,
(c) Faster diameter measurements,
(d) Good accuracy.

18. What is meant by group delay per unit length τg(λ)? (NOV/DEC-2010)
When ∆T (λ) is the delay difference for the length difference L1 – L2, then the group
delay per unit length τg(λ) is
τg(λ) = ∆T (λ)
L1 – L2

19. Define the 3-dB optical bandwidth? (NOV/DEC-2010)

When the launched optical pulses and the fiber impulse response are Gaussian then
the 3 dB optical bandwidth for the fiber Boptmay be
Bopt x τ(3 dB) = 0.44 GHz ns.

20. What are the major mechanisms to produce dispersion in optical fiber?
They are: (a) material dispersion,
(b) waveguide dispersion
(c) intermodal dispersion.
1. 21. A digital fiber optic link operating at 1310nm, requires a maximum BER of
10-8. Calculate the required average photons per pulse..(NOV/DEC 2013)
BER = 10-8 =𝑒 −𝑁
N= 18 photons per second
21. The photodetector output in a cut back attenuation setup is 3.3v at the far end of the
fiber. After cutting the fiber at the near end , 5m from the far end, photo detector
output read was 3.92v. What is the attenuation of the fiber in dB/km?(NOV/DEC
2013)
10 𝑉2
𝛼= log10 𝑉1 = 0.149
𝐿1−𝐿2
22. What are the error sources of receiver.(MAY 2013)
1. Internal noise
1. Shot noise
2. Thermal noise
2. External noise
23. What are the receiver error sources?(MAY/JUNE 2014)
Internal noise:
Shot noise
Thermal noise
External noise:
Atmospheric noise
24. Describe the term “Quantum Limit”.(MAY/JUNE 2014)
The minimum received power required for a specific bit error rate
performance is called quantum limits.
25. Mention the advantages of using transimpedance front end receiverconfiguration.
(NOV/DEC 2014)(APR/MAY 2015)
Wide dynamis range
Little or no equalization required.
Less susceptible to pick up noise , cross talk, EMI
Easily controllable and stable.
Less sensitivity.
26. State the significance of maintaining the fiber outer diameter constant.(NOV/DEC
2014)
27. Draw and describe the operation of fiber optic receiver.(NOV/DEC 2015)
28. Mention few diameter measurement techniques.(NOV/DEC 2015)
1. Define network? NOV/DEC-2010
Network is defined as to establish connections between these stations, one
interconnects them by transmission paths to form a network.

2. What is meant by topology? (MAY/JUNE 2011)

The topology is the logical manner in which nodes are linked together by information
– transmission channels to form a network.

3. What are the types of network topology?

Three common topologies are:
(a) Bus topology,
(b) Ring topology,
(c) Star toplogy.

4. State tap loss? (MAY/JUNE 2011)

The power extracted from the bus is called a tap loss and is given by
Ltap = - 10 log CT
Where CT is the symmetric coupler.

5. Define the term simplex and full duplex?

Simplex – the term simplex means that in this configuration, information flows only
from left to right.
Full Duplex – In full duplex communications, in which stations can communicate in
either direction, but simultaneous transmission on both directions.

6. What is SONET? NOV/DEC-2010 (APR/MAY 2015)

Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) is a standard developed by ANSI for fiber
optic networks. SONET defines a synchronous frame structure for transmitting TDM
 signals in the optical fiber networks. It encodes bit streams into optical signals that are
propagated over optical fiber.

7. What is SDH? MAY / JUNE2012

SDH is Synchronous Digital hierarchy. It is a standard developed by ITU – T for fiber
optic networks. It is used in North America and the SDH is the international version
of SONET.

8. What is DWDM?
Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) is an optical technology used to
increased bandwidth over existing fiber-optic backbones. It works by combining and
transmitting multiple signals simultaneously at different wavelengths on the same
fibers.

9. What are the types of broadcast and select network? MAY / JUNE2012 (MAY 2013)
(i) Single-hop networks,
(ii) Multi-hop networks.

10. What is meant by power penalty?

When nonlinear effects contribute to signal impairment, an additional amount of
power will be needed at the receiver to maintain the same BER. This additional power
(dB) is known as the power penalty.

11. Define Kerr effect.

Nonlinearity produces a carrier-induced phase modulation of the propagating signal,
which is called Kerr effect.

12. What is meant by cross-phase modulation (XPM)? MAY/JUNE-2010

Cross-phase modulation, which converts power fluctuations in a particular
wavelength channel to phase fluctuations in the copropating channels.

13. State Link Bandwidth?MAY/JUNE-2010

If the N transmitters in a WDM link operate at bit rates of B1 through BN. The total
bandwidth is
N
B = ∑ Bi.
i =1

14. Define crosstalk?

Crosstalk is defined as the feed through of one channels signal into another channel.

15. Mention the types of crosstalk?

There are two types of crosstalk.
 (a) Intrachannel crosstalk,
(b) Interchannel crosstalk.

16. How intrachannel crosstalk arises?

It arises when interfering signal is at the same wavelength as the desired signal. This
effect is more severe than interchannel crosstalk.

17. What is solitons? NOV/DEC 2012 (MAY 2013),(APR/MAY 2015)

A solitons are pulses that travel along the fiber without change in shape or amplitude
or velocity.

18. How the speckle pattern can form?MAY/JUNE 2011

The speckle patterns are formed by the interference of the modes from a coherent
source when the coherence time of the source is greater than the intermodal dispersion
time δT within the fiber.

19. Define fundamental solitons?

The family of pulses that do not change in shape are called fundamental solitons.

20. What is called higher-order solitons? MAY/JUNE-2011

The family of pulses that undergo periodic shape changes are higher-order solitons.

21. Define full-width half-maximum (FWHM)?

The FWHM is a pulse is defined as the full width of the pulse at its half-maximum
power level.

22. What is meant by Dispersion Length (Ldisp). NOV/DEC 2012

The normalized distance parameters are called as dispersion length, Ldisp. It is a
characteristic length for the effects of the dispersion term.
Ldisp = 2πc T20
λ2D
where C is the speed of light,
λ is the wavelength in vacuum,
D is the dispersion of the fiber,
Ldisp is measured in km.

23. Give the important features of time-slotted optical TDM network?

(i) To provide backbone to interconnect high speed networks,

(ii) To transfer quickly very large data blocks,
(iii) To switch large aggregations of traffic,
(iv) To provide both high-rate.
24. Obtain the transmission bit rate of the basic SONET frames in MBPS.(NOV/DEC
2013)
 51.84Mbps.

25. Illustrate interchannel cross talk that occurs in a WDM system.(NOV/DEC 2013)

It arises when interfering signal is at the same wavelength as the desired

signal.
The interference fells completely within the receiver bandwidth.
25. List out the benefits of SONET over PDH networks.(MAY/JUNE 2014)
High speed backbone network
Basic architecture for B-ISDN
Basic architecture for ATM
High speed optical network for data communication
26. Give the significance of solitons.(MAY/JUNE 2014)
It takes the advantage of non linear effects in silica particularly self phase
modulation resulting from the Kerr non linearity to overcome the pulse
broadening effects of GVD.
27. State the concept of WDM.(NOV/DEC 2014)
The transmission of a number of peak wavelength optical signals in parallel on
a single optical fiber.
28. What is soliton.(NOV/DEC 2014)
The Soliton are pulses that travel along the fiber without change in shape ,
amplitude or velocity.
29. What is optical CDMA.(NOV/DEC 2015)
CDMA achieves multiple access by assigning a unique code to each user.
The transmitter imprints their code onto the data. The receiver then decode the
data by locking onto the same code sequence.
30. Distinguish SONET and SDH.(NOV/DEC 2015)
SONET and SDH use different terms to describe the three layers. SDH uses the
terms path, multiplex section, and regenerator section while SONET uses the terms
section, line, and path.
The values of the C2 Path Overhead (POH) byte are slightly different. Both SONET and SDH
use 0x16 and 0xCF for POS.