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Advantages and Disadvantages of Optical Fiber
Advantages
2074 Ashwin

Fiber-optic cable has several advantages over metallic cable (twisted-

pair or coaxial).
❑ Higher bandwidth. Fiber-optic cable can support dramatically higher
bandwidths (and hence data rates) than either twisted-pair or coaxial
cable. Currently, data rates and bandwidth utilization over fiber-optic
cable are limited not by the medium but by the signal generation and
reception technology available.
❑ Less signal attenuation. Fiber-optic transmission distance is
significantly greater than that of other guided media. A signal can run for
50 km without requiring regeneration. We need repeaters every 5 km for
coaxial or twisted-pair cable.
❑ Immunity to electromagnetic interference. Electromagnetic noise
cannot affect fiber-optic cables.
❑ Resistance to corrosive materials. Glass is more resistant to corrosive
materials than copper.
❑ Light weight. Fiber-optic cables are much lighter than copper cables.

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❑ Greater immunity to tapping. Fiber-optic cables are more immune to
tapping than copper cables. Signals in the Copper cables can easily be
tapped.
Disadvantages
There are some disadvantages in the use of optical fiber.
❑ Installation and maintenance. Fiber-optic cable is a relatively new
technology. Its installation and maintenance require expertise that is not
yet available everywhere.
❑ Unidirectional light propagation. Propagation of light is
unidirectional. If we need bidirectional communication, two fibers are
needed or two frequency bands in one fiber are needed.
❑ Cost. The cable and the interfaces are relatively more expensive than
those of other guided media. If the demand for bandwidth is not high,
often the use of optical fiber cannot be justified.
❑ Easily breakable

UNGUIDED MEDIA: WIRELESS

Unguided medium transport electromagnetic waves without using a
physical conductor. This type of communication is often referred to as
wireless communication. Signals are normally broadcast through free
space and thus are available to anyone who has a device capable of
receiving them.

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Unguided signals can travel from the source to the destination in several
ways: ground propagation, sky propagation, and line-of-sight
propagation, as shown in Figure below

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In ground propagation, radio waves travel through the lowest portion of
the atmosphere, hugging the earth. These low-frequency signals
emanate in all directions from the transmitting antenna and follow the
curvature of the planet. Distance depends on the amount of power in
the signal: The greater the power, the greater the distance. In sky
propagation, higher-frequency radio waves radiate upward into the
ionosphere (the layer of atmosphere where particles exist as ions) where
they are reflected back to earth. This type of transmission allows for
greater distances with lower output power. In line-of-sight propagation,
very high-frequency signals are transmitted in straight lines directly from
antenna to antenna. Antennas must be directional, facing each other,

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and either tall enough or close enough together not to be affected by the
curvature of the earth.

Unguided Communication bands, their propagation methods and some

corresponding applications:

We can also divide wireless transmission into three broad groups: radio
waves, microwaves, and infrared waves.

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Radio Waves:
Range: 3 kHz to 1 GHz
When an antenna transmits radio waves, they are propagated in all
directions. This means that the sending and receiving antennas do not
have to be aligned.
Radio waves, particularly those of low and medium frequencies, can
penetrate walls. This characteristic can be both an advantage and a
disadvantage. It is an advantage because, for example, an AM radio can
receive signals inside a building. It is a disadvantage because we cannot
isolate a communication to just inside or outside a building. The radio
wave band is relatively narrow, just under 1 GHz.

Terrestrial Microwaves
Electromagnetic waves having frequencies between 1 GHz and 300 GHz
are called microwaves. Microwaves are unidirectional. When an antenna
transmits microwaves, they can be narrowly focused. This means that
the sending and receiving antennas need to be aligned.

❑ Terrestrial Microwave propagation is line-of-sight. Since the towers

with the mounted antennas need to be in direct sight of each other,
towers that are far apart need to be very tall.
❑ The curvature of the earth as well as other blocking obstacles do not
allow two short towers to communicate by using microwaves. Repeaters
are often needed for long distance communication.

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❑ at about 4 GHz, a new problem sets in: absorption by water. These
waves are only a few centimeters long and are absorbed by rain.
❑ Very high-frequency microwaves cannot penetrate walls. This
characteristic can be a disadvantage if receivers are inside buildings.
❑ The microwave band is relatively wide, almost 299 GHz. Therefore,
wider sub-bands can be assigned, and a high data rate is possible.
❑ Microwave communication is widely used for long-distance
telephone communication, mobile phones and television distribution
❑ Microwave is also relatively inexpensive. Putting up two simple towers
and putting antennas on each one may be cheaper than burying 50 km
of fiber through a congested urban area or up over a mountain.

Infrared
Infrared waves, with frequencies from 300 GHz to 400 THz (wavelengths
from 1 mm to 770 nm), can be used for short-range communication.
Infrared waves, having high frequencies, cannot penetrate walls. This
advantageous characteristic prevents interference between one system
and another; a short-range communication system in one room cannot
be affected by another system in the next room. When we use our
infrared remote control, we do not interfere with the use of the remote
by our neighbors. However, this same characteristic makes infrared
signals useless for long-range communication. In addition, we cannot use
infrared waves outside a building because the sun’s rays contain infrared
waves that can interfere with the communication.

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Satellite Communication
Initially, it was thought that the satellites were impractical, due
to the impossibility of putting power-hungry, fragile vacuum
tube amplifiers into orbit. However, the invention of the
transistor changed all that (1947). First satellite was launched in
1957 (Sputnik) followed by the historical landing on moon
(1969).

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  A communication satellite can be thought of as a big microwave
repeater (amplifier) in the sky.
 It contains several transponders
 Each transponder listens to some portion of the spectrum, amplifies
the incoming signal, and then rebroadcasts it at another frequency to
avoid interference with the incoming signal. This mode of operation
is known as a bent pipe.

Fig: transponder

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  The signal from a satellite is normally aimed at a specific area called
the footprint
 Transmission from the Earth to satellite is called uplink
 Transmission from the satellite to the Earth is called downlink

Fig (a) Relaying in space. (b) Relaying on the ground.

According to altitude at which they are placed in, satellites can

be classified as:
(i) GEO Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites
(ii) Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites and
(iii) Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites

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Fig source: Tanenbaum, Computer networks

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Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) or Geosynchronous satellites:
A satellite at an altitude of 35,800 km would appear to remain
motionless in the sky, so it would not need to be tracked. These
high-flying satellites are often called GEO (Geostationary Earth
Orbit) satellites.
With current technology, it is unwise to have geostationary
satellites spaced much closer than 2 degrees in the 360-degree
equatorial plane, to avoid interference. With a spacing of 2
degrees, there can only be 360/2 = 180 of these satellites in the
sky at once.
Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) Satellites: At much lower altitudes,
between the two Van Allen belts, we find the MEO (Medium-
Earth Orbit) satellites. They take about 6 hours to circle the
earth. Accordingly, they must be tracked as they move through
the sky. Because they are lower than the GEOs, they have a
smaller footprint on the ground and require less powerful
transmitters to reach them. Currently they are used for
navigation systems rather than telecommunications. The
constellation of roughly 30 GPS (Global Positioning System)
satellites are examples of MEO satellites.
Low-Earth Orbit Satellites: Moving down in altitude, we come
to the LEO (Low-Earth Orbit) satellites. Due to their rapid motion,
large numbers of them are needed for a complete system. On
the other hand, because the satellites are so close to the earth,
the ground stations do not need much power, and the round-trip
delay is only a few milliseconds. The launch cost is substantially
cheaper too.
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VSAT

Fig: VSATs using a hub

A recent development in the communication satellite world is

the development of low-cost micro stations, sometimes called
VSATs (Very Small Aperture Terminals). These tiny terminals
have 1-meter or smaller antennas and can put out about 1 watt
of power. The uplink is generally good for up to 1 Mbps, but the
downlink is often up to several megabits/sec. Direct broadcast
satellite television uses this technology for one-way
transmission.
Stringing telephone wires to thousands of small villages is far
beyond the budgets of most Third World governments, but

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installing 1-meter VSAT dishes powered by solar cells is often
feasible. VSATs have great potential in rural areas.

Fig: Electromagnetic spectrum and some applications

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Satellite Vs Fiber (2071 Chaitra)

1. Frequency range
2. BW
3. Mobility
4. Broadcast
5. Interference
6. Rapidity in deployment
7. Cost

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Antenna:
Generally, an antenna is a metallic device (such as a rod or wire) for
radiating or receiving radio waves.

Omnidirectional antenna: radiates equal power in all horizontal

directions.
Isotropic antenna: radiates equal power in all three dimensions.
Antenna array: group of antennas for increasing capacity

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 Fig: Radiation pattern of a typical antenna
A radiation pattern shows the variation of the power radiated by
an antenna as a function of the direction away from the antenna.

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Fig: 3-D radiation pattern of log-periodic array

Some commonly used antennas:

Fig: Quarter wave whip monopole antenna

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Fig: dipole antenna (Half wave dipole)

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Fig: Rabbit ears dipole antenna

Fig: Yagi-Uda antenna for analog television

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Some practical antennas continued…..

Fig: Helical antenna used in Walkie-Talkie

Fig: Microstrip antenna with single patch and array used in mobile
phones
Unidirectional Antenna: Microwaves need unidirectional antennas that
send out signals in one direction. Two types of antennas are used for
microwave communications: the parabolic dish and the horn as shown:

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Cellular system

Fig: A cellular system. The towers represent Base station which provide
radio access between mobile users and Mobile Switching Centers

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Fig: Frequency reuse in cellular system (Cluster size N=7). Cells with the
same letters use the same set of frequencies

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