Telecom Fibers | previous | next | feedback |
Definition: optical fibers for use in optical fiber communications
Telecom fibers are optical fibers which are used in optical fiber communications. Mainly the following types of telecom fibers are used:
- Fused silica single-mode fibers with very low losses (e.g. 0.2 dB/km) are used for long-haul data transmission (tens or hundreds of kilometers) with very high transmission capacity.
- Fused silica multimode fibers are suitable for shorter distances of e.g. hundreds of meters (e.g. within storage area networks): they are less critical to handle, essentially due to much larger core areas, but intermodal dispersion limits the transmission distance.
- Plastic optical fibers (also multimode), typically made of PMMA (acrylic), represent the cheapest solution for short-range data transmission e.g. in home networks.
As a standard telecom fiber for the 1.3-μm or 1.5-μm wavelength region, one typically takes the SMF-28 of Corning, or the enhanced version SMF-28e. The mode field diameter is ∼9.2 μm at 1310 nm (effective mode area = 67 μm2), or 10.4 μm at 1550 nm (85 μm2). The single-mode cut-off is at 1260 nm.
ITU Standards for Telecom Fibers
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has developed a number of standards for various types of fibers as used for optical fiber communications. Some of the most important of those standards are:
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| G.650.1 (06/04) | Definitions and test methods for linear, deterministic attributes of single-mode fibre and cable |
| G.651 (02/98) | Characteristics of a 50/125 μm multimode graded index optical fibre cable |
| G.651.1 (07/07) | Characteristics of a 50/125 μm multimode graded index optical fibre cable for the optical access network (pre-published) |
| G.652 (06/05) | Characteristics of a single-mode optical fibre and cable |
| G.653 (12/06) | Characteristics of a dispersion-shifted single-mode optical fibre and cable |
| G.654 (12/06) | Characteristics of a cut-off shifted single-mode optical fibre and cable |
| G.655 (03/06) | Characteristics of a non-zero dispersion-shifted single-mode optical fibre and cable |
| G.656 (12/06) | Characteristics of a fibre and cable with non-zero dispersion for wideband optical transport |
| G.657 (12/06) | Characteristics of a bending loss insensitive single mode optical fibre and cable for the access network |
Bibliography
| [1] | W. A. Gambling, "The rise and rise of optical fibers" (an informative review on the development of glass fibers for telecom applications), IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 6 (6), 1084 (2000) |
| [2] | Standards of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), see http://www.itu.int/ |
See also: fibers, single-mode fibers, multimode fibers, optical fiber communications
Categories: communications, fibers and other waveguides
