• Blended Learning & Flipped Classroom

The Course is aimed to offer the comprehension of the present Optical Communications, the technology supporting the worldwide telecommunication networks. The Course is self-contained and provides the knowledge for designing simple optical communications nets. During the Course, leaders of the industrial sectors of the optical communications (manufacturers and operators) will be invited and the visit to major plans in the sector will be even organized. The Course is complemented by numerical exercises and labs experimentations.

Dublin descriptor 1 (knowledge and understanding). Student will learn how: a signal propagates in free-space; in modified free-space; in fiber-optic space. Student will learn how: the photons are detected; the photon statistics; Student will learn what are the main component of the noise and how to evaluate the SNR; Student will learn the laws of the radion-matter interaction; Student will learn how an optical amplifier and a laser work. 

Dublin descriptor 2 (applying knowledge and undertsanding). Students will be able to: dimension a fiber-optic propagation; dimesnion an optical fiber link; dimension a chain of  optical fiber amplifiers.

Dublin descriptor 3 (making judgements. Student will be able to: understand the fundamental limitations due to the diffraction; to understand the fundamental tradeoff between bandwidth and distance; to recognize the critical parameters in optical amplification.

Introduction. The role of the optical communications in the telecommunications stacks. Introduction to the WDM layer and to the main optical communications protocols.

Optical Fibers. The fiber-optic technology. The attenuation issues. The fiber-optic main parameters. The optical windows. The WDM grids.

The propagation phenomena. The free-space propagation. The mode concept. The Laguerre-Gauss solutions. The Gouy-phase. The dispersion diagram. The fiber-optic propagation. The importance of the cladding. The exact solutions of the fiber-optic propagation: the case of the parabolic-index and of the step-index profile. The propagation wave-vector and the main propagation parameters. The Gaussian approximation.

The transmission phenomena. The dispersion in the fiber-optic propagation. Dispersion main parameters and representations. The dispersion managements and the dispersion compensation. The non-linear phenomena in the fiber-optic transmission. Kerr-effect. Soliton solutions.

Optical amplification. The laws of the matter-radiation interaction. The Planck law and the consequence on the receivers noise. The stimulated phenomenon. The two- and three-levels systems. EDFA and Raman amplification. The noise in the optical amplification. Chain of optical amplifiers.

The optical communications system. The evaluation of the power-budget for optical links. SNR, BER, Q and quality parameters in the optical communication systems. The electrical and optical noise: origin and evaluation. The light properties and photo-rivelation statistics. The direct receiver. The coherent receiver. The importance of the coherent-detection in the multi-level transmission.

Students are required to know the basic of the differential calculus as well as basic of the field theory. They are also expected to have a basic knowledge of statistical issues and communication systems.

The examination will be only written by means open questions and exercises on the subject matter delivered during the lessons. 

is a complementary reference book for the optical communications systems aspects

is the complementary reference book for the fiber-optic propagation

is the complementary reference book for the Optical Amplification part

is the reference book of the Course