Pyofss allows construction of an optical fibre system from separate modules. A typical system consists of a Gaussian pulse generator module and an optical fibre module. The field generated is propagated through the fibre by numerical integration of an appropriate Schrödinger-type equation.

Simulated effects include that of dispersion (second, third, and higher order), attenuation, self-phase modulation, self-steepening, and Raman scattering. Resulting field profiles (including multiple traces for the fibre module) can be visualised using a range of plot types. These include standard x-y plots, top-down "map" plots, three-dimensional "waterfall" plots, and animation videos.

Pyofss is available on PyPI and can be retrieved using the pip program:

sudo aptitude install python-pip
pip install pyofss

Then import pyofss within scripts or in an interactive session:

>>> import pyofss

Pyofss depends on Numpy, Scipy, and Matplotlib. They can be installed on Linux distributions using aptitude:

sudo aptitude install python-numpy python-scipy python-matplotlib

pip install -r requirements.txt

It is recommended to install pyofss into a virtual environment, which can be initialised using:

sudo aptitude install python-virtualenv
sudo pip install virtualenvwrapper
mkvirtualenv pyofss
workon pyofss

Pyofss dependencies can then be satisfied using:

pip install numpy
pip install scipy
sudo aptitude build-dep python-matplotlib
pip install matplotlib

Install the latest development version of pyofss from GitHub:

pip install git+https://github.com/galilley/pyofss.git

Tests can be run within the pyofss package:

python setup.py test

To run a separate module use something like this:

python3 -m pyofss.modules.fibre