Optics: "COMSOL simulates processors for fiber optics communication"
Serge Bidnyk, Enablence Technologies Inc., Ottawa, ON, Canada
In fiber optics systems, information from an electronic source is converted into light signals. The light is guided into a glass fiber and travels down its optical core, where the refractive index of materials surrounding this is far lower than that of the optical core itself. When it reaches its destination, it is converted into the electronic form.
Optical processors, such as those that Enablence designs, manipulate the light at critical points along its path. At the source, a processor may multiplex light signals to a denser form. At the destination, optical processors can demultiplex the dense signal into fundamental wave lengths, which eases the conversion back to electronic form. And so on.