Optical fibre principles

This online course explains the basic principles of optical fibre transmission and the factors that limit the performance of a link, describes the main components of optical links and the hazards of optical sources, and shows how the power budget of a link is calculated.

This course is intended for technical staff who are responsible for the installation and maintenance of optical fibre links.

By the end of this course you will be able to:

• describe the basic structure of an optical fibre and explain how infrared energy is propagated down the core of a fibre.
• describe the causes and effect of modal, chromatic and polarisation mode dispersion.
• describe the structure of different types of glass fibre (including multimode and single mode fibres) and compare their characteristics.
• explain that OSI/IEC and ITU standards exist which specify the characteristics and capabilities of various types of multimode and singlemode fibre.
• describe the features, characteristics and uses of different types of fibre connection including demountable connectors and fusion splices.
• describe the components of an optical link including lasers and Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and the role of Optical Line Terminating Equipment (OLTE), regenerators and optical amplifiers.
• explain the significance of the IEC classification of optical sources according to the hazard they present.
• explain the main causes of optical loss in a fibre transmission system and discuss methods of minimising those losses.
• calculate the power budget of an optical link taking into account factors such as system margin and dispersion penalty.
• describe the principles of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and compare coarse and dense WDM.

This online course includes assessments, the results of which are summarised in a certificate published at course completion.