Short Courses

The broad objective of this course is to provide a working knowledge of the numerous techniques and tools used to model and design the physical transport layer of fiber-optic communication networks. The main focus is to provide a comprehensive overview of nonlinear propagation modeling in optical fibers.

The course starts with the description of the generic building blocks of fiber-optic transmission systems. This includes basic transmitter and receiver designs for direct and coherent detection, a comparison of optical amplification technologies, such as erbium-doped and Raman amplifications, and a brief introduction to linear transmission effects in fibers. The course then focuses on the various techniques suitable for modeling nonlinear propagation of advanced modulation formats, highlighting the advantages and drawbacks of various methods. The course attendee will also learn how to accurately evaluate signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), optical SNR (OSNR), bit-error rate (BER), Q-factor, OSNR penalty and Q-penalty. Nonlinear mitigation and compensation techniques, both in the optical and electronic domains, are also discussed. In addition, basic network topologies, such as point-to-point, ring and mesh are presented with their implications for fiber transmission. The course concludes with a discussion of the Shannon limit for fiber-optic communication systems, both in the absence and in the presence of fiber nonlinearities.

This course should enable you to:

• Develop a functional understanding of the basic building blocks of fiber-optic communication systems.

• Learn the basic nonlinear effects present in optical fibers.

• Understand the tools used to characterize system performance.

• Develop a detailed understanding on how to model nonlinear transmission over fibers, especially how to navigate through the numerous pitfalls.

• Choose a suitable technique for modeling a specific transmission system.

• Compare the performance of various amplification technologies.

• Understand the basic technical issues encountered when configuring optical networks.

• Understand the Shannon limit and estimate the ultimate rate of transmission of information over optical fibers.

This course is intended for engineers and scientists working on fiber-optic transmission as well as those working on components and subsystems interested in developing an expertise at the fiber transmission level. The course also addresses academic researchers and graduate students with basic knowledge on optical or digital communication. It will allow them to develop a detailed knowledge of fiber-optic transmission modeling and understanding system implications of advanced transmission technologies.

René-Jean Essiambre received his Ph.D. from Laval University, Québec City, Canada and pursued post-doctoral studies at the Institute of Optics of the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY. In 1997, he joined Bell Labs at Lucent Technologies (which became Alcatel-Lucent and is now Nokia). Dr. Essiambre has an extensive knowledge of fiber-optic communication systems and contributed to the design of many deployed commercial systems. He has served on or chaired several conference committees, including OFC, ECOC, CLEO and IPC. He was program and general co-chair of CLEO Science & Innovation in 2012 and 2014, respectively. He is a recipient of the 2005 Engineering Excellence Award from OSA, a fellow of the IEEE and the OSA, a DMTS at Bell Labs, and a Rudolf Diesel Fellow of the IAS-TUM in Munich, Germany. He is member of the Board of Governors of IPS as well as adjunct VP of member advancement.