The Effect of Dispersion and Attenuation on Fiber Optic Communication Systems

The paper describes how signal can be transmitted effectively using fibre optic communication system. Signal transmission through this system is facilitated by optical transmitter, fiber optic cable and optical receiver. The fibre cable is classified based on refractive index, materials used and mode of propagation of light. The mode of propagation of light and refractive index of the core are used to form step index-single mode fibres,graded index-single mode fibres, step index-multimode fibres and graded index-multimode fibres. This article demonstrated the mathematical principles underpinning light wave propagation through fibre optic cable. The paper also brought to the fore the importance of total internal reflection (TIR) in fibre optic communication. The researchers derived formulae to show the significance of Acceptance Angle, Numerical Aperture (NA), Fractional Refractive Index (Δ), Normalized Frequency and Number of Modes (N) in fibre optics. Features such as dispersion and attenuation found space in the paper, while dispersion distortssignal output and thereby limiting information capacity of the communication system, attenuation introduces signal losses into the system. The techniques and mechanism that can be used to minimize signal distortion and loss in the network were mentioned. The authors also discussed formulae used to determine values of material and waveguide dispersion coefficients and attenuation coefficient. These formulae and other parameters were used to formulate tables and graphs depicting effects of dispersion and attenuation in optical network. The authors also designed fibre optic networks between Accra to Cape Coast and Accra to Sogakope.