Short Courses

SC289 Basics of Optical Communication Systems and WDM

Monday, February 25, 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Gerd Keiser; Natl. Taiwan Univ. of Science & Technology, Taiwan

Level: Beginner (No background or minimal training is necessary to understand course material)

Course Description
The course covers the functions and operational characteristics of available optical fibers, transceivers, and specialized passive and active components needed for designing modern optical fiber communication links. It explains the distortion effects that dispersion and nonlinear processes have on signals, defines electrical and optical signal-to-noise ratios, and identifies measurement equipment and procedures used to verify system operating characteristics. The course also defines wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) concepts, components and applications. The topics include characteristics of wavelength multiplexers, reconfigurable optical add/drop elements (ROADMs), optical amplifier uses in WDM links, and implementation of WDM-based metro and FTTP networks.

Benefits and Learning Objectives
This course should enable you to:

• Describe the functions and operations of key components in fiber optic links.
• Summarize technology tradeoffs for implementing different types of fiber optic systems.
• Compare different component types for optical fiber link designs.
• Explain signal distortion effects due to dispersion and nonlinear processes.
• Discuss wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) concepts and components.
• Describe WDM applications to long-haul, metro, and FTTP networks.
• Identify measurement equipment and define test procedures.

Intended Audience
This course is intended for engineers in other disciplines who are new entrants to the fiber optic communications field, component and product design and test engineers, technical trainers, technical sales and marketing personnel, consultants, telecommunications managers, and anyone who needs an introductory knowledge of optical fiber communications.

Instructor Biography
Gerd Keiser has been involved with telecommunication technologies at Honeywell, GTE, General Dynamics, and PhotonicsComm Solutions. In addition, he is a consultant in the telecommunications industry, served as an adjunct professor of electrical engineering at Northeastern University and Tufts University, and was an industrial advisor to the Wentworth Institute of Technology. Currently he is a visiting professor at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology and an adjunct professor at Boston University. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, a member of OSA and SPIE, an associate editor of the journal Optical Fiber Technology, and the author of four books. His professional experience and research interests are in the general areas of optical networking technology and biophotonics.