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This course is now full for our 2025 entry.

Master of Engineering (MEng)

MEng Electrical and Electronic Engineering

*This course is now closed for applications for 2025 entry.

  • Duration: 4 years
  • Year of entry: 2025
  • UCAS course code: H605 / Institution code: M20
  • Key features:
  • Scholarships available
  • Accredited course

Full entry requirementsHow to apply

Fees and funding

Fees

Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2025 will be £9,535 per annum (subject to Parliamentary approval). Tuition fees for international students will be £34,000 per annum. For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

Policy on additional costs

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

Scholarships/sponsorships

The University of Manchester is committed to attracting and supporting the very best students. We have a focus on nurturing talent and ability and we want to make sure that you have the opportunity to study here, regardless of your financial circumstances.

For information about scholarships and bursaries please visit our undergraduate student finance pages and our Department funding pages .

Course unit details:
Optical Communication Systems and Networks

Course unit fact file
Unit code EEEN40492
Credit rating 15
Unit level Level 4
Teaching period(s) Semester 2
Available as a free choice unit? No

Overview

Principles of optical propagations in different media: Optical power flow, reflection and refraction, phase and group velocity, polarization of light.

Optical Fibres: different types of fibres, single mode and multi-mode fibres, Ray propagation in fibres, attenuation and signal dispersion in fibres.

Lasers & Photodetectors:   principles of laser oscillations, semiconductor laser diodes and their properties, common types of photodetectors and their principles of operations, photodetector performance characteristics.

Optical Amplifiers:  Basic applications and types of optical amplifiers, semiconductor optical amplifiers, Erbium-doped fibre amplifiers, Raman amplifiers.

Sustainability of Optical communications networks: Data traffic growth of internet, Energy consumption in modulation, transmission, demodulation. Schemes to mitigate energy growth, longer wavelength, temperature stable lasers.

Optical Modulation and Demodulation: Direct and external optical modulators, optical realisation of modulation schemes, direct detection receivers, coherent optical receivers, types of optical noise, high level coherent and differentially coherent optical modulation schemes.

Optical transmission systems design consideration: long-haul and short-reach optical communication systems, impacts of ASE, Noise and sensitivity performance. Error rates, spectral efficiency and performance analysis. Free space optical transmission systems.

Optical Filters and Multiplexing: Common types of optical filters and their principles of operations, Polarization-division multiplexing, wavelength-division multiplexing and optical OFDM.

Passive Optical Networking:   Optical add/drop multiplexing, PONs, EPONs and GPON architectures and standards

Applications of Digital signal processing to the design of high speed optical communication systems: IF estimation and compensation, phase estimation and compensation, polarization-mode equalization, chromatic dispersions equalization.

 

 

Pre/co-requisites

Unit title Unit code Requirement type Description
Digital Communications Engineering EEEN60172 Pre-Requisite Compulsory
Foundations of Communication Systems and Signal Analysis EEEN60481 Pre-Requisite Compulsory
Digital Mobile Communications EEEN30161 Pre-Requisite Compulsory
Prereq for EEEN40492 - students taking EEEN40492 must have studied EEEN30161.

Aims

The unit aims to:

Provide a basic understanding of the principles and operation of modern optical communication systems and networks

Appreciate the essence of modern optical fibres transmission techniques for satisfying the demands of high capacity communication systems and networks.

Appreciate the role of digital signal processing techniques for compensating transmission impairments in optical communication systems.

Learning outcomes

ILO 1 - Explain the basic and advanced theories of optical devices, amplifiers, structures and fibres in modern optical communication systems.  Calculate key parameters and assess their physical limitations.

ILO 2 - Quantify the implications of the exponential growth in internet traffic carried by optical communication systems, especially in terms of energy sustainability. Be able to determine the energy per bit, and apply modern methodologies to reduce it.

ILO 3 - Compare the different types of optical modulations and demodulations and evaluate their performance.

ILO 4 - Discriminate various types of optical distortions and noise; Appraise the applications of DSP algorithms for the compensation of their effects.

ILO 5 - Compare various optical structures for wavelength division multiplexing and identify their strengths and weaknesses.

ILO 6 - Design and Analyse different types of optical transmission systems and networks; Discuss specifics of existing and future PON standards.

ILO7 - Experimentally analyse system-level performance of an optical fibre transmission systems.

Teaching and learning methods

Lectures: 30 hours

Tutorials/problems classes: 6 hours

Laboratories: 6 hours

 

Assessment methods

Method Weight
Written exam 80%
Report 20%

Feedback methods

Feedback on the report is given 14 days after report submission.

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures 30
Practical classes & workshops 6
Tutorials 6
Independent study hours
Independent study 108

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Joel Loh Unit coordinator
Matthew Halsall Unit coordinator

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