Fichas de Asignaturas

Course Datasheet

Course	Optical Communication Systems
ACADEMIC YEAR:   2012/2013	2009/20102010/20112011/20122012/2013
Credits	4.5
Laboratory Classes	7
Semester	7
Coordinator/Teachers	Miguel Ángel del Casar
Course Area	Telecommunications Systems
Programmes	Sistemas de Telecomunicación (Semestre:7)
Course Syllabus	Course - Autumm

1. Competencies

The objective of this subject is to allow the student to develop the following generic competencies:

• Skilled to searching and selecting information, critical reasoning and writing and defending the reasonings within the defined area.
• Skilled for abstration, analysis and synthesis and problem solving.
• Skilled for teamwork in multidisciplinary environments.
• Learning Skills for graduate studies with a high degree of autonomy.

And the following specific competencies (Ministerial Order CIN/352/2009, were the necessary requirements to be qualified to practice as a Telecommunications technical engineer are established):

• Capacity of analysing components and their specifications for communications systems, guided and non-guided.
• Capacity for the selection of aerials, equipments and systems of transmission, wave propagation guided and non-guided by electromagnetic, radiofrequency or optical ways and related radioelectric space management and assignment of frequencies.
• Ability to use computer tools of search of bibliographical resources or of information related to the telecommunications and the electronics.
• Ability to analyze and specify the fundamental parameters of a system of communications.
• Ability to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different technological alternatives of unfolding or implementation of communication systems, from the point of view of the space of the sign, the perturbations and the noise and the systems of analogical and digital modulation.
• Ability to understand the mechanisms of propagation and transmission of electromagnetic and acoustic waves, and their transmitters and receivers.
• Knowledge of legislation and regulation of telecommunications in scopes National, European and International.

2. Learning outcomes

To develop the skills previously listed above, students must achieve the following learning outcomes:

• Interpreting the mechanisms that determine the propagation of electromagnetic waves in confined media: dielectric and optical fiber waveguides
• Analyzing and planning communications systems which employ optical medium: optical fiber and dielectric waveguides
• Understanding optical signals generation and detection processes and selecting the most appropriate devices to establish optical communications systems in different environments
• Introduction to new technologies in the deployment of optical communication systems
• Using laboratory and field instrumentation in order to develop different measures that characterize a telecommunication system

3. Contents

The training activities that will be conducted in this subject are structured in the following thematic units:

Unit1.	INTRODUCTION TO GUIDED OPTICAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
1.1.	Structure of an optical communication system
1.2.	History and comparison with other communication systems
1.3.	Future trends
Unit2.	ATENUATION AND DISPERSION IN OPTICAL FIBRES
2.1.	Basics: ray theory, modes, modal diagram
2.2.	Classification of Optical Fiber
2.3.	Attenuation mechanisms
2.4.	Dispersion
2.5.	Fiber bandwidth and impulse response
Unit3.	OPTICAL SOURCES: LED AND LASER DIODES
3.1.	General characteristics of optical sources
3.2.	Semiconductors. Electroluminescence
3.3.	LEDs: characteristics and structures
3.4.	Laser theory basics
3.5.	Structure of a semiconductor laser diode
3.6.	Types and characteristics of semiconductor lasers
Unit4.	PHOTODETECTORS
4.1.	Principles of photodetection in a semiconductor p-n junction
4.2.	P-n and pin photodiodes
4.3.	Avalanche photodiodes
4.4.	Basic structures of optical receivers
Unit5.	OPTICAL AMPLIFIERS
5.1.	Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA)
5.2.	Optical doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA and Raman)
Unit6.	FIBER OPTIC SYSTEMS AND NETWORKS
6.1.	Network types: passive and active
6.2.	WDM and DWDM Technology
6.3.	Active and passive components for optical networks
6.4.	New technologies in optical communications

Lab 1.	Optical characterization of materials. Optical fiber modes display
Lab 2.	Measuring attenuation in optical fibers
Lab 3.	Diffraction gratings and optical spectrum analyzer
Lab 4.	Measuring LEDs and lasers diodes spectrum