430 Appendix D: Model Test Papers

Appendix D
Model Test Papers

Model Test Paper – Type 1

Max. Time: 3 Hours Max. Marks: 100

Note: Attempt any FIVE questions. All questions carry equal marks.

1. (a) Draw a functional block schematic of an optical fiber communication link and highlight the major
functions of each block. Which is the most vital component in the link and why?
(b) Briefly describe the construction of an optical fiber cable with the help of suitable illustration, showing
all parts of the cable. List at least four unique advantages of optical fiber cables.
2. (a) Using ray theory, explain the basic mechanism for the propagation of light in an optical fiber cable. In
optical fibers, light travels faster in cladding as compared to core. Justify it with the help of suitable
example data.
(b) The velocity of light in the fiber core of a step-index fiber is specified as 2.01 x 108 m/s. The critical
angle of incidence at the intersection of the fiber core and the cladding is 80°. Estimate the values
of the numerical aperture as well as the acceptance angle of incident light rays for the optical fiber
placed in air. Assume that the fiber has a core diameter which is suitable to be considered by optical
ray analysis.
3. (a) Compare the performance of laser diode versus LED in optical fiber communications.
(b) Find the 3-dB modulation bandwidth of a double heterojunction LED structure for a specified carrier
lifetime of 6.6 ns.
4. (a) Define the terms responsivity and quantum efficiency of a photodiode, and derive expressions for
the same. How are they related to each other?
(b) A laser diode with a power output of 4 mW is connected to a fiber length of 25 km having fiber loss
specification of 0.2 dB/km. The receiver at the other end of the fiber has a responsivity of 0.2 A/W.
How much current flows through the photodetector?
5. (a) State the principle of operation and describe the structure of a semiconductor optical amplifier.
(b) Distinguish between the amplification mechanisms in a Raman fiber amplifier (RFA) and an erbium-
doped fiber amplifier (EDFA).
6. (a) Dispersion-induced pulse broadening impose the serious limitations on the system performance.
What are these limitations? How are they related to each other?
(b) Draw a functional block schematic of the pre-chirp pre-compensation dispersion management
technique. Illustrate the waveforms at frequency-modulated (FM) output of the DFB laser, shape of

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 Appendix D: Model Test Papers 431

the optical pulse available at the output of an external modulator, and pre-chirped optical pulse that
is finally transmitted.
7. (a) Compare the salient features of an optical Fabry-Perot interferometer filter with
(i) a grating based optical filter, and (ii) acousto-optic filter.
(b) An optical power P0 = 100 µW is applied at the input port of a 2 x 2 biconical tapered optical fiber
coupler. The output optical power levels at three ports are P1 = 45 µW at output port 1, P2 = 42.5
µW at output port 2, and P3 = 3.15 nW at other input port 3. Determine the percent coupling ratio.
Assume that the device is lossless.
8. (a) What is meant by optical time-domain reflectometry? How can this technique be used to carry out
field measurements on optical fibers?
(b) In a test set-up using optical time-domain reflectometer for locating the fault in an optical fiber, an
optical power level of 200 mW is coupled from an optical power source to the optical fiber under test.
The OTDR measures a reflected power level of 20 µW. The specified fiber attenuation parameter is
0.5 dB/km. Determine the distance at which the fault has occurred in the fiber length.

Model Test Paper – Type 2

Max. Time: 3 Hours Max. Marks: 100

Note: Attempt FIVE questions, taking at least TWO questions each from Part A and Part B. All questions carry
equal marks.

Part-A
1. (a) Different generations of light wave systems improve the performance of an optical fiber communication
system. Discuss.
(b) What are the functions of the core and cladding in an optical fiber? Why should their refractive indices
be different? What would happen if the light is propagated in the fiber core without cladding?
2. (a) What is understood by index profile of an optical fiber? What are the two basic types of index profiles?
Distinguish them with the help of suitable illustrations.
(b) A typical fiber is specified to have a numerical aperture of 0.1 and a fiber core radius of 3 µm. Prove
that this optical fiber will operate in a single-mode configuration for a given wavelength = 0.8 µm.
3. (a) Describe the theory of semiconductor lasers and derive an expression for the threshold current.
(b) Find the external quantum efficiency assuming normal incidence at the semiconductor having refractive
index of 3.5 and air interface for specified internal quantum efficiency of a double heterojunction LED
of 0.75.
4. (a) Derive a general expression for power penalty (induced by intensity noise) of a p-i-n photodetector
based optical receiver by considering a finite value of extinction ratio. Neglect contributions due to
shot-noise and intensity-noise as compared to the thermal noise in the OFF state but not in the ON
state.
(b) An optical receiver has 20 MHz bandwidth operating at a wavelength of 1100 nm. It uses an InGaAs
p-i-n photodiode producing a photodiode current of 4 nA with quantum efficiency of 90%. The load
resistor of the circuit is 1 kΩ. Assuming negligible surface leakage current, find the value of dark
current and thermal noise current if the incident optical power is 300 nW.

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 432 Appendix D: Model Test Papers

Part-B
5. (a) Describe the performance parameters of semiconductor optical amplifiers in terms of noise bandwidth,
optical gain, and polarisation dependence.
(b) Illustrate the mechanism of amplification in an EDFA with a suitable energy level diagram.
6. (a) With the help of dispersion versus wavelength characteristics of standard, dispersion-shifted fibers
(DSFs) as well as dispersion-flattened fibers (DFFs), describe the pros and cons of their usage in
fiber-optic systems.
(b) A 12 km DCF fiber having dispersion parameter = 100 ps/(nm-km) is used for compensating dispersion
in a 80-km standard fiber having specified dispersion parameter = 17 ps/(nm-km). Can this DCF reduce
the dispersion to zero? If not, what is the solution?
7. (a) WDM add-drop multiplexer (ADM) can be configured using two 3-port optical circulators with fiber
Bragg gratings. Give an example of extended ADM using tunable fiber gratings.
(b) Show a P x P reconfigurable architecture of a tunable wavelength-routing switch having M number
of different wavelengths that uses a basic 2 x 2 configuration of an optical crosspoint devices and
photonic switches. List different technologies that can be used for making optical switches.
8. (a) Distinguish between the cut-back technique and insertion-loss method for measurement of attenuation
in optical fibers.
(b) Show that the fiber attenuation per kilometer for a 2 km length of multimode fiber at an operating
wavelength of 850 nm is 3.5 dB/km. The measured output voltage from the photodetector is 2.1 V
originally and then increases to 10.7 V when the fiber is cut to 2 meter length in a cut-back method
of fiber attenuation measurement techniques.

Model Test Paper – Type 3

Max. Time: 3 Hours Max. Marks: 100

Note: All questions are compulsory. There are TWO parts: Part A has 10 questions of TWO marks each, and
Part B has FOUR questions of 20 marks each.

Part-A
1. Show that -20 dBm = 10 dBµ.
2. List various factors that are responsible for reduction in dispersion in graded-index multimode fibers.
3. What are the factors on which modulation bandwidth of LEDs depend? How is modulation bandwidth
related to output optical power?
4. If the threshold current density for a particular laser device having an active area of 0.2 x 0.5 mm2 is
specified as 3 x 106 Amp/m2, then determine the threshold current.
5. Determine the responsivity of a p-i-n photodetector at 0.85 µm operation for specified quantum efficiency
of 60%.
6. Draw a suitable diagram to depict the functional properties of Erbium element.
7. Can Raman amplification provide very broadband amplification? If yes, how?
8. List the desirable properties of an ideal dispersion compensation device.
9. Can intrachannel and interchannel crosstalk accumulate in optical networks? Illustrate the effect of
crosstalk level on power penalty with the help of plot between power penalties versus crosstalk level for
number of crosstalk elements ranging from 10 to 100.

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 Appendix D: Model Test Papers 433

10. Mention key design criteria for field measurement test equipments.

Part-B
11. (a) What are essential requirements in selecting materials for optical fibers so that fiber cable can function
as reliable information channel? [8]
(b) Briefly describe some practical consequences because of insulating nature of a fiber. Can optical fiber
cables operate near nuclear installation? How is fiber optics useful in medical applications? [6+3+3]
(OR)
(a) What are typical benefits of graded-index profile optical fiber cables over step-index profile optical
fiber cables?
(b) The core diameter of a typical step-index fiber is specified as 8 µm. The values of core refractive
index and relative refractive index difference are specified as 1.46 and 0.3%, respectively. Calculate
the mode field diameter (MFD) at operating wavelength of 1550 nm.
12. (a) Compare and contrast important properties of LED and LD as optical sources. Also comment on their
suitability for various application of optical fiber communications.
(b) Find the threshold gain if the length of the cavity is 0.4 mm and the values of reflectivities on either
ends of the cavity is 0.5. Assume loss coefficient = 3 mm-1.
(OR)
(a) Define spectral response of the photodiode. What are the factors on which the spectral response and
time response of a photodiode depends?
(b) Consider a silicon p-i-n photodetector and an APD to detect light at l = 850 nm. For an incident light
intensity of 0.1 mW/mm2, the photocurrent generated by the p-i-n photodetector and APD are 10 µA
and 500 µA, respectively. In both cases, the active area is 0.2 mm2. Compute the quantum efficiency
and the avalanche multiplication factor.
13. (a) How does EDFA operate? What can cause it to become a laser? Mention some promising technical
characteristics of EDFA.
(b) Consider an EDFA (optical gain = 10 dB), which is used as a power amplifier after optical transmitter,
is pumped at 980 nm wavelength. Assume that the amplifier input is a 0 dBm level from a laser diode
transmitter. Determine the minimum required pump power for a 10 dBm output power level at 1540
nm.
(OR)
(a) With the help of plots between dispersion versus wavelength, show that dispersion compensating
fiber (DCF) exhibits uniform dispersion over 1.3 µm – 1.5 µm wavelength region as compared to
standard single-mode fiber and non-zero dispersion-shifted (at 1.5 µm wavelength).
(b) Out of direct modulation and external modulation, which approach would you prefer as dispersion
management solution and why?
14. (a) What are various types of network medium used in WDM transmission system? Give a simplified
functional block schematic diagram of a WDM system.
(b) A fiber-optic transmission system is required to operate in the spectral band of 1536 nm to 1556 nm.
If the maximum channel spacing is constrained to have 500 GHz, the how many wavelength channels
can be multiplexed in the syst4em? Also show the effect of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in
WDM.
(OR)
(a) Depict a test set-up diagram using polarization analyzer instrument. How can it determine the
orientation of the polarized component and measure the fraction of the total light power that is
polarized?

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 434 Appendix D: Model Test Papers

(b) An OTDR test set-up is used to find the fault in an optical fiber. An optical power level of 20 mW
is coupled to the optical fiber under test. The OTDR measures a reflected power level of 2 µW. The
specified fiber attenuation parameter is 0.5 dB/km. Determine the distance at which the fault has
occurred in the fiber length.

Model Test Paper – Type 4

Max. Time: 3 Hours Max. Marks: 100

Note: There are total THREE parts: Part A, Part B, and Part C.
• Part A has 10 questions of TWO marks each. Attempt ALL questions.
• Part B has FIVE questions of 10 marks each. Attempt any FOUR questions.
• Part C has THREE questions of 20 marks each. Attempt any TWO questions.

Part-A (Attempt all questions)

1. (a) What is the difference (in watts) between -60 dBm and 60 dBm?
(b) How does the light ray propagate in single mode fiber?
(c) Mention some specific aspects of an optical source to be considered for optical fiber communications.
(d) Determine the power radiated by an LED if its internal quantum efficiency is 3% and it has operating
wavelength of 670 nm with a device current of 50 nm.
(e) Draw the energy-band diagram for a semiconductor p-i-n photodiode.
(f) Determine the spontaneous emission factor for an optical amplifier having optical gain = 20 dB if ASE
is 1 mW for a fractional bandwidth of 5 x 10-6.
(g) What are the effects of pulse spreading due to chromatic dispersion?
(h) Determine the free spectral range (FSR) of a Fabry-Perot (FP) interferometer tunable optical filter
which is designed with the group index ng = 1.5 of the intracavity material used in the construction
of a FP filter having L = 100 µm.
(i) Calculate the number of channels that are demultiplexed by a phased-array optical demultiplexer if
its free spectral range is 1600 GHz and channels are spaced at 50 GHz at central wavelength of 1550
nm.
(j) List various test equipments alongwith parameters that can be measured by them in optical
measurements.

Part-B (Attempt any FOUR questions)

2. What are the functions of the core and cladding in an optical fiber? Why should their refractive indices
be different? [6+4]
3. Derive an expression for numerical aperture. An optical fiber cable has values of refractive index of 1.46
for the fiber core. If the fractional change in the index of refraction of the optical fiber is specified as 0.01,
then find its numerical aperture.
4. Illustrate a simplified block diagram of an optical receiver, depicting the essential components only.
5. Consider that an EDFA pumped at 980 nm is being used as a power amplifier with a 10-mW pump power.
When optical power of an input signal is 1 mW at ls = 1550 nm, the output of the amplifier is +20 dBm.
Compute a) the optical gain of the amplifier (in dB), and b) the input pump power required to achieve this
gain.

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 Appendix D: Model Test Papers 435

6. With the help of suitable illustrations, how the cut-back technique is used for the measurement of total
attenuation in an optical fiber?

Part-C (Attempt any TWO questions)

7. (a) The core refractive index and a relative refractive index difference of a multimode step-index fiber is
specified as 1.5 and 2%, respectively. At operating wavelength of 1300 nm, the approximate number
of propagating modes is 1000. Determine the diameter of the fiber core.
(b) Compute the threshold gain for a GaAs laser diode having the following parameters: cavity length L
= 500 µm, loss coefficient a = 10 cm-1, the facet reflectivities R1 = R2 = 0.32.
8. (a) State the principal noises associated with photodetectors. The responsivity of a typical photodiode
is specified as 0.4 A/W for a He-Ne laser source (l = 632.8 nm). The active area of the photodiode is
2 mm2. What will be the output photocurrent if the incident flux is 100 µW/mm2?
(b) Chirped fiber Bragg gratings are the most developed dispersion-compensating gratings (DCGs).
Illustrate the basic operation of chirped fiber Bragg grating for chromatic dispersion compensation
of (a) one wavelength; (b) three wavelengths as used in WDM.
9. (a) Elaborate specific advantages of point-to-point dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM)
systems?
(b) Draw a typical test set-up diagram for measurement of wavelength of an optical source. Which type
of reference laser source is normally used?

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