Software Tools for Photonics (3 units). Many photonics software tools are available as off the shelf modeling programs, encompassing both active and passive photonics components. These products are now in use by a wide number of telecoms companies and laboratories around the world, helping to develop the next generation of telecoms components and systems. Experience in modeling enables the development of custom solutions for specialized industry telecommunication and photonics requirements.

Prerequisites: Familiarity with wave propagation analysis, component design, and network architecture as taught in Photonic Communications Engineering I (OPTI/ECE 500 A,B,C).

Meeting Times:
Lectures: T & Th 9:30-10:45

Objective: To learn software tools and techniques commonly used in the telecom industry

Course Outline:
This class will introduce students to industry recognized software packages for fiber-optic communications including fiber propagation/transmission, linear and nonlinear effects, component simulation (active and passive) as well as optical networking simulation. General modeling and simulation strategies suitable for the fast and accurate analysis of a fiber optical Wavelength Division Multiplexed (WDM) system will be presented, and will also include multi-span systems. Noise, fiber dispersion, and nonlinear effects like four wave mixing, self-phase modulation and cross-phase modulation will be simulated. Software tools will include:

• MATLAB
  • General modeling and simulation strategies for WDM networks


• VPISYSTEM
  • Introduction to fiber-optic communications
  • Modeling of optical components including optical Transmitters, optical receivers, and optical amplifiers
  • Modeling of fiber propagation, polarization effects, chromatic dispersion, and Kerr nonlinearities
  • Modeling of optical modulators and modulation formats
  • WDM systems and optical networking modeling
  • Photonic measurements


• OPNET (if time allows)
  • Modeling a broad scope of network technologies and protocols to automate network design

1. Ramaswami, Rajiv; Sivarajan, Kumar; and Sasaki, Galen (2009). Optical Networks: A Practical Perspective (3^rd ed.). Elsevier. ISBN: 978012374092



2. Agrawal, Govind P. (2010). Fiber-Optic Communication Systems (4^th ed.). Wiley-Interscience. ISBN: 9780470505113

• 2 assigned projects (take home, open book, open notes, each counting for 20% of the total grade)
• final project (take home, open book, open notes, counting for 30% of the grade)
• quiz, homework and lab assignments (30% of the total grade)