ABSTRACT
During the development of lightwave optical communications with fiber, since the mid-1970s, the major emphasis for research has been on the technology of lightwave devices for long-distance telecommunications fields. Single-mode glass optical fiber (GOF) is one of the most predictable and stable communication channels ever developed and characterized for such areas. The data communications market has risen to the forefront even in lightwave communication because of the ever-increasing need for more bandwidth. Ethernet is now used on more than 80% of the world’s personal computers (PCs) and workstations connected to local-area networks (LANs) and capability for priority-based transmission at 1000 Mb/sec ensures that the Ethernet remains well ahead of other LAN technologies. Much higher speed transmission (10 Gb/sec) has been its challenging problem. As a physical-media-dependent issue of not only Gigabit Ethernet but also 10-Gigabit Ethernet, silica-based multimode fiber (MMF) is adopted to provide an inexpensive optical link with a combination of transceivers based on vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). Therefore, it would not be necessarily the best solution to distribute such a silica-based optical fiber even in premises and home networks or interconnections.
