ECE 450

https://courses.grainger.illinois.edu/ece450/sp2025/

Instructor will provide course notes. Lecture slides will be provided to the students.

To reinforce fundamentals of optical fiber communication systems. Emphasizes theory with elements of design and applications.

Probability of Error in amplitude and phase signaling including NRZ, RZ, QAM, etc. (1.5 hrs)

Software will be used to model optical systems. Students have the choice of using Mathematica, Matlab, or Python.

A final project report will be required at the end of the semester.

Equipment typical of a optical communications lab will be used including, but not limited to, optical and electrical spectrum analyzers, digital communications analyzers, network analyzers, oscilloscopes, optical power meters, PN generators, receivers, laser light sources, optical fiber, optical fiber fusion splicers, etc.

The lab software will be limited to those which control instruments in the lab.

Prerequisite: ECE 313 and ECE 350. Recommended: credit or concurrent registration in ECE 459.

There is no required text for this course, as we will work from the course notes. However, several books have been placed on reserve at the Grainger Library as additional resources. A copy of the Papen-Blahut book entitled Lightwave Communications Systems can be found in the lab.

Additional books placed on reserve at Grainger are:

Fiber Optics Handbook, Mike Bass

Principles of Lightwave Communications, Göran Einarsson

Digital Optical Communications, Le Nguyen Binh

Fiber-Optic Communication Systems, G.P. Agrawal (library on-line resource)

To reinforce fundamentals of lightwave communication systems. Emphasizes theory with elements of design and applications.

A student completing this course should, at a minimum, be able to:

1. Understand Maxwell’s equations, derive the wave equation, boundaries and polarization (1,6,7)

2. Understand and measure the basic properties of the propagation of light in a guided-wave dielectric optical fiber, including attenuation, coupling, and handling (1,3,6,7)

3. Understand the difference between single mode and multimode fiber and where the two are appropriate in a real-world system (1,3,4,6,7)

4. Understand waveguiding principles, the concept of a mode in fiber, and how this limits the bandwidth in such systems, and to be able to make measurements that directly and indirectly determines these parameters (1,3,6,7)

5. Understand step-index fibers, cutoff, and calculate the mode of index and group velocity(1,6,7)

6. Understand graded-index fibers, dispersion, birefringence, PM Fiber, DSF, DFF, and DCF(1,6,7)

7. Understand how a pulse (or a bit) propagates in optical fiber and is influenced by dispersion (1,3,6,7)

8. Understand the differences between types of light sources utilized in lightwave systems, including bandwidth, power, modulation, and spectra, and the appropriateness of each in a given system configuration (1,3,4,6,7)

9. Understand the differences between types of receivers utilized in lightwave systems, and the appropriateness of each in a given system configuration, including bandwidth, signal-to-noise, and the statistical nature of light-matter interactions (1,3,4,6,7)

10. Understand how to perform eye-diagram measurements and how to utilize this to understand system jitter, intersymbol interference, and signal-to-noise ratio (1,3,4,6,7)

11. Be able to quickly assemble a fiber optic link, including source, receiver, and propagation medium and understand its main performance limitations (13,4,6,7)

12. Be able to perform standard mask testing utilizing Telcordia standards and to understand power and system margins and budgets (1,3,4,6,7)

13. Be able to perform bit error rate testing and to understand how it is limited by system impairments, and how to optimize system performance (1,3,4,6,7)

14. Understand random processes and their relationship to LTI systems and channels and calculate power spectral density for linear optical fiber with chromatic dispersion (1,6,7)

15. Understand effects (linear) of polarization mode dispersion, (1,6,7)

16. Understand nonlinear fiber channel models and effects of the nonlinear index of refraction, numerically integrate a light field in fiber(1,6,7)

17. Understand the basic principles of fiber amplifiers (1,3,4,6,7)

18. Understand effects of noise in fiber, transmitters, and amplifiers (1,6,7)

19. Derive an operational channel model for end-to-end optical communication system modeling (1,2)