Fiber-optic communication — An overview

The idea of this paper is to give an overview on fiber-optic communication. The most important devices for fiberoptic transmission systems are presented, and their properties discussed. In particular we consider such systems working with those basic components which are necessary to explain the principle of operation. Among them is the optical transmitter, consisting of a light source, typically a high speed driven laser diode. Furthermore, the optical receiver has to be mentioned; it consists of a photodiode and a low noise high bit rate front-end amplifier. Yet, in the focus of the considerations you will find the optical fiber as the dominant element in optical communication systems. Different fiber types are presented, and their properties explained. The joint action of these three basic components leads to fiberoptic systems, mainly applied for data communication. The systems operate as transmission links with bit rates up to 40 Gbit/s and more. Furthermore optical communication systems are also used for recent application areas in the MBit/s region, e.g. in aviation, automobile and maritime industry.