Undergraduate - UnitECE4043 - Optical communications

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2012 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Engineering
Offered	Clayton Second semester 2012 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Professor A Lowery

Synopsis

Students will study the characteristics of key components that make up optical communications systems, including: lasers and advanced lightwave sources and direct modulation, optical modulators, optical fibres, optical amplifiers, filters and multiplexers, optical receivers and associated electronics. Secondly, students will use this knowledge to analyse and design optical communications systems. Examples will include local-area networks, metropolitan area networks, long-haul links and transcontinental networks.

Outcomes

Knowledge of characteristics of fibres, including dispersion and non-linearity, and of multiplexers, filters and Raman optical amplifiers. Ability to prepare a power budget for an optical communications link. Understanding of the dispersion limits and compensation techniques for optical links. Knowledge of wavelength division multiplexing in links and networks. Skills to design optical communications links for short, medium and long-haul applications, and select appropriate components during link design. Ability to simulate the interactions of components and understand performance measures. Ability to propose optical network architectures for access and metropolitan networks. Ability to specify the performance of networks from an operator's perspective. Experience in making basic measurements on optical components and systems.

Assessment

Continuous assessment: 30%
Examination: (3 hours): 70%.
Students are required to achieve at least 45% in the total continuous assessment component (assignments, tests, mid-semester exams, laboratory reports) and at least 45% in the final examination component and an overall mark of 50% to achieve a pass grade in the unit. Students failing to achieve this requirement will be given a maximum of 45% in the unit.

Chief examiner(s)

Professor Jamie Evans

Contact hours

3 hours lectures, 3 hours laboratory and practice classes and 6 hours of private study per week

Prerequisites

ECE2021 (or ECE3202 or PHS2022) and ECE2041 (or ECE3402)

Prohibitions

ECE4405, ECE5043, ECE5405