OFC Network and Troubleshooting
23rd - 27th October, 2017
Two faculty members Ashish Kumar Singh and Vipin Kumar Singh of Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon attended a short term course on “Optical Fiber Communication Networks and Troubleshooting” from 23rd -27th October, 2017 at NITTTR, Chandigarh.
Day 1: 23/10/2017
Dr. BC Chaudhary (Professor & Course Coordinator) inaugurated the STC & welcomed all the participants coming from different parts of country working in government & private sector. He enlightened the participants with the importance of OFC in today’s era. The role of OFC has significantly increased with the launch of Digital India a unique initiative of Prime Minister of India with the ever increasing need of skilled manpower.
Dr. BC Chaudhary gave an overview of OFC covering basic fundamentals like the structure of fiber cable including the concepts of core, cladding, buffer coating. The fundamental concept of refractive index was explained including the advantages/disadvantages of OFC.
In the evening session a lecture on optical fiber wave guide fundamentals including the operation of operation, geometrical distribution in OFC with TE/TM modes theory.
Participants were introduced with the laboratory of OFC and were shown different types of fiber with their internal structure. During the STC duration participants were also given hands on training covering different experiments.
Participants set up a fiber optic link for analog signal transmission and measured the bandwidth of the communication link. The functionalities of digital function generator and digital signal oscilloscope were demonstrated. The participants are shown core/cladding of a fiber using 100x illuminated microscope. Light is transmitted through LASER using optic fiber continuity testing.
Day 2 : 24/10/2017
1st session of the day was on transmission characteristics and signal losses. Dr. BC Choudhary explained the performance of the fiber cable gets affected due to attenuation and dispersion. These can be minimized by transmitting fiber at appropriate wavelength, which is 1310 nm to reduce attenuation and dispersion.
2nd session was conducted by Dr. J.K Chhabra (ex- scientist CSIO) on fiber fabrication and cabling. He gave a practical demonstration of fabrication process.
3rd session was lab session. Study and practical measurement of attenuation and optical losses in optical fibers and calculation of attenuation coefficient were done.
Day 3: 25/10/2017
1st session was on optical sources and detectors by Dr. JK Chhabra. He explained the operation principle of the LEDs, LASERs and various optical detectors. He used practical examples of endoscopy to demonstrate his point. Speaker enlightened us with the research work done by Noble Laureate (Kao & Akasaki).
2nd session was conducted by Dr. BC Choudhary on fiber joints. He gave a practical demonstration on fiber splicing and connectors were given.
3rd session was lab session. Plot of PI characteristics and LASER diode was performed and the value of LASER threshold current was calculated. The expert from industry gave a demonstration of simulation softwares like OptiSim.
Day 4: 26/10/2017
Dr. BC Choudhary took the first session on OFC link design and budget calculation. He described the various parameters for determining the performance of OFC link.
2nd session was conducted by Dr. JK Chhabra on WDM/DWDM system components like attenuator, isolator, MUX and DeMUX. He also explained the principle of fiber grating which has revolutionized the optical fiber cable. Upcoming technologies which increase the data rate to Peta bits per seconds were introduced like 12 core fiber in a single core, Fan In- Fan Out device. Dr. JK Chhabra has accepted participants request for a collaboration to guide them for setting up the OFC lab in the college with minimum resources.
3rd session was lab session. Investigation of Q-factor and BER as a function of length is carried out.
Day 5: 27/10/2017
1st session was on OFC Network analysis and management by Dr. BC Choudhary. He gave practical demonstration of OTDR which helps in troubleshooting of an optical communication link, with a visit to campus showing the installation of Optical fiber cables and server room session was complete.
The STC concluded with a valedictory session by Dr. BC Choudhary. He motivated all the participants to propagate the research work carried out in OFC to the student fraternity so their technical skills can be enhanced.