Fiber Optic Transmission Systems

We recommend you to submit your preliminary or firm registration at least 4 weeks before course start to ensure a seat on the course.

NEW COURSE FOR THE FALL OF 2012

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS
Fiber optic transmission is at the very core of most modern telecommunications systems. These so-called 'fiber optic networks' offer both unprecedented capacity and the deployment flexibility needed to support a wide range of evolving and emerging broadband applications. Optical technology has greatly evolved in the last decade and is penetrating all sectors of modern telecommunication networks. While the use of optics was initially focused on the long-haul transport segment, optical fibers today are commonplace in metro, access and LAN networks. Each of these fiber optics application segments has its peculiar requirements and characteristics and has thus generated a wide range of different solutions.

COURSE CONTENT
This course is intended for people who need a global view of current and future telecommunications systems based on fiber optics.

First we will discuss techniques and components that form the basis for optical transmission, we will then move on to study issues connected to transmission via the optical fiber channel. Architectures and standards ranging from low-cost transmission solutions, suitable for access and LAN networks, to optical metro backbones and most advanced long-haul systems will be presented. Finally, the last two days of the course will be dedicated to new trends on coherent optical systems for long haul ultra-high capacity systems and to passive optical network (PON) access networks.

Monday
Introduction and Fundamentals on Optical Components

The first day will provide the common ground for the course and will include the following topics: 

Introduction to Fiber Optic Transmission Systems

• Lightwave Basics: Properties of light, guided propagation
• Fiber Optic Transmitters and Receivers
• Modulation and Multiplexing Techniques: TDM and WDM
• Propagation in Optical Fibers: multimode and single mode fibers

Optical Components

• Laser Diodes and Photo Detectors
• Optical Amplifiers: EDFA, Raman and SOA
• Optical Filters
• Fiber Gratings
• Splitters and Combiners
• WDM Mu/Demultiplexers
• AWG
• Tunable Lasers and Filters
• Optical Switches and Cross Connects: ROADMS

Tuesday
Fiber Propagation Effects

The second day focuses on an in-depth treatment of fiber propagation effects. 

Fiber Propagation Effects

• Fiber Attenuation
• Fiber Dispersion and Related Effects on Signal Distortion
• Polarization Dependent Effects: PMD and PDL
• Reflections and Backscattering in Bidirectional Optical Systems
• Impact of Fiber Nonlinearities: SPM, XPM, FWM, Raman

Wednesday
"Mainstream" IM-DD Transmission Systems

The third day, focus will be on the design of IM-DD transmission systems (intensity modulation with direct detection), that after 30 years are still today the basis of most commercial optical transmission systems at all levels. We start with the general rules that apply to all systems and continue with separate discussions on the specific requirements of LAN, Access, Metro and Long-haul systems. 

Point-to-Point Link Design

• Noise Sources: ASE, shot, thermal
• Power Budget Design
• Dispersion and PMD Compensation
• Dispersion Maps
• Optical Crosstalk
• Other Transmission Impairments: self-filtering, jitter, reflections

Classification and Characteristics of Optical 
Transmission Systems

• The Access and LAN Environment: Low-cost systems, single channel transmission, directly modulated laser, no optical amplification
• The Metro and Extended-Metro Environment: Architectures for a compromise between cost and performance
• The Long-Haul Environment: High-cost and high-performance systems, based on DWDM, optical amplification and dispersion compensation

Thursday
Coherent Systems and Advanced Optical Networking

So far, we have discussed the "established" technology for fiber transmission, i.e., the On-Off IM-DD systems and DWDM. Today, we will move on to the most recent fiber transmission technologies, and in particular to coherent technologies for long-haul high capacity transmission systems (such as 100G PM-QPSK) characterized by high spectral efficiency, and on flexible optical networking in transport networks.

Coherent Optical Systems

• From IM-DD to Coherent Systems: opening the transmission degrees of freedom
• Coherent Receiver Architectures and Characteristics
• Advanced Modulation Formats (PM-QPSK, OFDM, etc)

All-optical Transport Networks

• New Trends Towards Optically Reconfigurable Networks: Add-drop multiplexers, ROADMS
• WDM Elastic Optical Networks

Friday
The last day will be dedicated to the underlying technologies used in optical access networks (PON, FTTH, FTTB etc). 

Optical Access Networks

• PON Architectures and Basic Characteristics
• The Current Standards: GPON, XGPON, EPON, GEPON
• Next Generation NG-PON2