Practical Fiber Optics

Readers will use this knowledge to develop the required techniques for design, installation and maintenance of their own fiber optic systems. * Ideal for those with some background in communications but without previous knowledge of fiber optics * Provides a comprehensive treatment of the fundamentals of fiber optic systems and their individual components * Places emphasis on practical techniques of component installation and system design

The Fiber Optic Reference Guide offers readers a solid understanding of the principles of fiber optic technology, especially as it relates to telecommunications, from its early days to developing future trends. Using a minimum of jargon and a wealth of illustrations, this book provides the underlying principles of fiber optics as well as essential practical applications. The third edition is updated to include expanded sections on light emitters, semiconductor optical amplifiers, Bragg gratings, and more systems design considerations. Fiber optics plays a key role in communications, as well as in broadcast and cable systems. Engineers working with fiber optics as well as newcomers to the industry will find the third edition of this reference guide invaluable. It will help the reader develop a solid understanding of the underlying principles of this rapidly changing technology as well as its essential practical applications. The text is thoroughly indexed and illustrated.

This text presents the basic principles of the installation and operation of fibre optic systems in varying environments. The focus throughout is on the nuts-and-bolts details of installation using prevailing industry standards.

The Handbook includes chapters on all the major industry standards, quick reference tables, helpful appendices, plus a new glossary and list of acronyms. This practical handbook can stand alone or as a companion volume to DeCusatis: Fiber Optic Data Communication: Technological Advances and Trends (February 2002, ISBN: 0-12-207892-6), which was developed in tandem with this book. * Includes emerging technologies such as Infiniband, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and MPLS Optical Switching * Describes leading edge commercial products, including LEAF and MetroCore fibers, dense wavelength multiplexing, and Small Form Factor transceiver packages * Covers all major industry standards, often written by the same people who designed the standards themselves * Includes an expanded listing of references on the World Wide Web, plus hard-to-find references for international, homologation, and type approval requirements * Convenient tables of key optical datacom parameters and glossary with hundreds of definitions and acronyms * Industry buzzwords explained, including SAN, NAS, and MAN networking * Datacom market analysis and future projections from industry leading forecasters

Within the past few decades, information technologies have been evolving at a tremendous rate, causing profound changes to our world and our ways of life. In particular, fiber optics has been playing an increasingly crucial role within the telecommunication revolution. Not only most long-distance links are fiber based, but optical fibers are increasingly approaching the individual end users, providing wide bandwidth links to support all kinds of data-intensive applications such as video, voice, and data services. As an engineering discipline, fiber optics is both fascinating and challenging. Fiber optics is an area that incorporates elements from a wide range of techno- gies including optics, microelectronics, quantum electronics, semiconductors, and networking. As a result of rapid changes in almost all of these areas, fiber optics is a fast evolving field. Therefore, the need for up-to-date texts that address this growing field from an interdisciplinary perspective persists. This book presents an overview of fiber optics from a practical, engineering perspective. Therefore, in addition to topics such as lasers, detectors, and optical fibers, several topics related to electronic circuits that generate, detect, and process the optical signals are covered. In other words, this book attempts to present fiber optics not so much in terms of a field of “optics” but more from the perspective of an engineering field within “optoelectronics.

This book tells you all you want to know about optical fibers: Their structure, their light-guiding mechanism, their material and manufacture, their use. It began with telephone, then came telefax and email. Today we use search engines, music downloads and internet videos, all of which require shuffling of bits and bytes by the zillions. The key to all this is the conduit: the line which is designed to carry massive amounts of data at breakneck speed. In their data carrying capacity optical fiber lines beat all other technologies (copper cable, microwave beacons, satellite links) hands down, at least in the long haul; wireless devices rely on fibers, too. Several effects tend to degrade the signal as it travels down the fiber: they are spelled out in detail. Nonlinear processes are given due consideration for a twofold reason: On the one hand they are fundamentally different from the more familiar processes in electrical cable. On the other hand, they form the basis of particularly interesting and innovative applications, provided they are understood well enough. A case in point is the use of so-called solitons, i.e. special pulses of light which have the wonderful property of being able to heal after perturbation. The book will take you from the physical basics of ray and beam optics, explain fiber structure and the functions of optical elements, and bring you to the forefront of both applications and research. The state of the art of high speed data transmission is described, and the use of fiber optic sensors in metrology is treated. The book is written in a pedagogical style so that students of both physics and electrical engineering, as well as technicians and engineers involved in optical technologies, will benefit. The new edition is largely updated and has new sections on nonlinear phenomena in fibers as well as on the latest trends in applications.

This unique practical handbook is the only one of its kind to provide the conceptual framework and troubleshooting tactics related to the manufacturing, selection, and installation of modern photonic networks, including optical fiber plants, optical transceivers, test and measurement equipment, and network architecture of SDH, OTN, IP/MPLS, FTTx networks, and PON. This resource includes the latest technological advancements and industry applications while covering the entire fiber ecosystem from installation to troubleshooting. This book presents the use of common tools like LPM (laser source and power meter) to overcome common issues related to optical patching and fiber plants and also discusses the use of specialized tools including the optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) for issues with fiber plants and locating fiber breaks. Readers gain an understanding of the architecture of core TDM, IP, and Optical Access Networks including PON. Specific methodologies are explored for assessing OTN, DWDM, IT/MPLS, Optical Access Networks– PON/GPON or FTTx networks. Key parameters that influence the choice of fiber based on the network and application type are discussed. This book also provides an overview of the current and future developments in optical fibers, interfaces, transceivers and backbone networks.

Optical Fiber Sensors: Advanced Techniques and Applications describes the physical principles of, and latest developments in, optical fiber sensors. Providing a fundamental understanding of the design, operation, and practical applications of fiber optic sensing systems, this book: Discusses new and emerging areas of research including photonic crystal fiber sensors, micro- and nanofiber sensing, liquid crystal photonics, acousto-optic effects in fiber, and fiber laser-based sensing Covers well-established areas such as surface plasmon resonance sensors, interferometric fiber sensors, polymer fiber sensors, Bragg gratings in polymer and silica fibers, and distributed fiber sensors Explores humidity sensing applications, smart structure applications, and medical applications, supplying detailed examples of the various fiber optic sensing technologies in use Optical Fiber Sensors: Advanced Techniques and Applications draws upon the extensive academic and industrial experience of its contributing authors to deliver a comprehensive introduction to optical fiber sensors with a strong practical focus suitable for undergraduate and graduate students as well as scientists and engineers working in the field.