Overview of Optical Fiber Communications (OFC): Motivation, optical spectral bands, key elements of optical fiber systems.

Optical fibers: basic optical laws and definitions, optical fiber modes and configurations, mode theory for circular waveguides, singlemode fibers, graded-index fiber structure, fiber materials, photonic crystal fibers, fiber fabrication, fiber optic cables.

Optical sources: Light emitting diodes (LEDs): structures, materials, quantum efficiency, LED power, modulation of an LED. Laser diodes: modes, threshold conditions, laser diode rate equations, external quantum efficiency, resonant frequencies, structure and radiation patterns, single mode lasers, modulation of laser diodes.

Power launching and coupling: source to fiber power launching, fiber to fiber joints, LED coupling to single mode fibers, fiber splicing, optical fiber connectors.

Photodetectors: pin photodetector, avalanche photodiodes, photodetector noise, detector response time, avalanche multiplication noise.

Signal degradation in optical fibers: Attenuation: units, absorption, scattering losses, bending losses, core and cladding losses.Signal distortion in fibers: overview of distortion origins, modal delay, factors contributing to delay, group delay, material dispersion,waveguide dispersion, polarization-mode dispersion. Characteristics of single mode fibers: refractive index profiles, cutoff wavelength,dispersion calculations, mode field diameter, bending loss calculation. Specialty fibers.

Optical receivers: fundamental receiver operation, digital receiver performance, eye diagrams, coherent detection: homodyne and heterodyne, burst mode receiver, analog receivers. Digital links: point to point links, link power budget, rise time budget, power penalties.

Analog links: overview of analog links, carrier to noise ratio, multichannel transmission techniques.

Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) concepts: operational principles of WDM, passive optical star coupler, isolators,circulators, Active optical components: MEMS technology, variable optical attenuators, tunable optical filters, dynamic gain equalizers,polarization controller, chromatic dispersion compensators.

Optical amplifiers: basic applications and types of optical amplifiers, Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFA): amplification mechanism,architecture, power conversion efficiency and gain. Amplifier noise, optical SNR, system applications.Performance Measurement and monitoring: measurement standards, basic test equipment, optical power measurements, optical fiber characterization, eye diagram tests, optical time-domain reflectometer, optical performance monitoring.

1. G. Keiser: Optical Fiber Communications, 4th Edition, TMH New Delhi.
2. J. M. Senior: Optical Fiber Communication- Principles and Practices, 2nd Edition, Pearson Education.
3. G. P. Agarwal: Fiber Optic Communication Systems, 3rd Edition, Wiley India Pvt. Ltd.
4. J. C. Palais: Fiber Optics Communications,5th Edition, Pearson Education.
5. R.P. Khare: Fiber Optics and Optoelectronics, Oxford University Press.
6. A. Ghatak and K. Thyagrajan: Fiber Optics and Lasers, Macmillan India Ltd.
7. S. C. Gupta: Optoelectronic Devices and Systems, PHI Learning.
8. Sterling: Introduction to Fiber Optics, Cengage Learning.