Fiber-optic

communication

Fiber-optic communication is a method of

transmitting information from one place to
another by sending pulses of infrared or
visible light through an optical fiber.[1][2]
The light is a form of carrier wave that is
modulated to carry information.[3] Fiber is
preferred over electrical cabling when high
bandwidth, long distance, or immunity to
electromagnetic interference is required.[4]
This type of communication can transmit
voice, video, and telemetry through local
area networks or across long distances.[5]

An optical fiber patching cabinet. The

yellow cables are single mode fibers;
the orange and blue cables are multi-
mode fibers: 62.5/125 μm OM1 and
50/125 μm OM3 fibers, respectively.

Stealth Communications fiber crew

installing a 432-count dark fiber cable
underneath the streets of Midtown
Manhattan, New York City
Optical fiber is used by many
telecommunications companies to
transmit telephone signals, internet
communication, and cable television
signals. Researchers at Bell Labs have
reached a record bandwidth–distance
product of over 100 petabit × kilometers
per second using fiber-optic
communication.[6]

Background

First developed in the 1970s, fiber-optics

have revolutionized the
telecommunications industry and have
played a major role in the advent of the
Information Age.[7] Because of its
advantages over electrical transmission,
optical fibers have largely replaced copper
wire communications in backbone
networks in the developed world.[8]

The process of communicating using fiber

optics involves the following basic steps:

1. creating the optical signal involving

the use of a transmitter,[9] usually
from an electrical signal
2. relaying the signal along the fiber,
ensuring that the signal does not
become too distorted or weak
3. receiving the optical signal
 4. converting it into an electrical signal

Applications

Optical fiber is used by

telecommunications companies to
transmit telephone signals, Internet
communication and cable television
signals. It is also used in other industries,
including medical, defense, government,
industrial and commercial. In addition to
serving the purposes of
telecommunications, it is used as light
guides, for imaging tools, lasers,
hydrophones for seismic waves, SONAR,
and as sensors to measure pressure and
temperature.

Due to lower attenuation and interference,

optical fiber has advantages over copper
wire in long-distance, high-bandwidth
applications. However, infrastructure
development within cities is relatively
difficult and time-consuming, and fiber-
optic systems can be complex and
expensive to install and operate. Due to
these difficulties, early fiber-optic
communication systems were primarily
installed in long-distance applications,
where they can be used to their full
transmission capacity, offsetting the
increased cost. The prices of fiber-optic
communications have dropped
considerably since 2000.[10]

The price for rolling out fiber to homes has

currently become more cost-effective than
that of rolling out a copper-based network.
Prices have dropped to $850 per
subscriber in the US and lower in countries
like The Netherlands, where digging costs
are low and housing density is high.

Since 1990, when optical-amplification

systems became commercially available,
the telecommunications industry has laid
a vast network of intercity and
transoceanic fiber communication lines.
By 2002, an intercontinental network of
250,000 km of submarine
communications cable with a capacity of
2.56 Tb/s was completed, and although
specific network capacities are privileged
information, telecommunications
investment reports indicate that network
capacity has increased dramatically since
2004.[11] As of 2020, over 5 billion
kilometers of fiber-optic cable has been
deployed around the globe.[12]
History

In 1880 Alexander Graham Bell and his

assistant Charles Sumner Tainter created
a very early precursor to fiber-optic
communications, the Photophone, at Bell's
newly established Volta Laboratory in
Washington, D.C. Bell considered it his
most important invention. The device
allowed for the transmission of sound on a
beam of light. On June 3, 1880, Bell
conducted the world's first wireless
telephone transmission between two
buildings, some 213 meters apart.[13][14]
Due to its use of an atmospheric
transmission medium, the Photophone
would not prove practical until advances in
laser and optical fiber technologies
permitted the secure transport of light.
The Photophone's first practical use came
in military communication systems many
decades later.[15]

In 1954 Harold Hopkins and Narinder

Singh Kapany showed that rolled fiber
glass allowed light to be transmitted.[16]
Jun-ichi Nishizawa, a Japanese scientist
at Tohoku University, proposed the use of
optical fibers for communications in
1963.[17] Nishizawa invented the PIN diode
and the static induction transistor, both of
which contributed to the development of
optical fiber communications.[18][19]

In 1966 Charles K. Kao and George

Hockham at Standard Telecommunication
Laboratories showed that the losses of
1,000 dB/km in existing glass (compared
to 5–10 dB/km in coaxial cable) were due
to contaminants which could potentially
be removed.

Optical fiber with attenuation low enough

for communication purposes (about
20 dB/km) was developed in 1970 by
Corning Glass Works. At the same time,
GaAs semiconductor lasers were
developed that were compact and
therefore suitable for transmitting light
through fiber optic cables for long
distances.

In 1973, Optelecom, Inc., co-founded by

the inventor of the laser, Gordon Gould,
received a contract from ARPA for one of
the first optical communication systems.
Developed for Army Missile Command in
Huntsville, Alabama, the system was
intended to allow a short-range missile
with video processing to communicate by
laser to the ground by means of a five-
kilometer long optical fiber that unspooled
from the missile as it flew.[20] Optelecom
then delivered the first commercial optical
communications system to Chevron.[21]

After a period of research starting from

1975, the first commercial fiber-optic
telecommunications system was
developed which operated at a wavelength
around 0.8 μm and used GaAs
semiconductor lasers. This first-
generation system operated at a bit rate of
45 Mbit/s with repeater spacing of up to
10 km. Soon on 22 April 1977, General
Telephone and Electronics sent the first
live telephone traffic through fiber optics at
a 6 Mbit/s throughput in Long Beach,
California.
In October 1973, Corning Glass signed a
development contract with CSELT and
Pirelli aimed to test fiber optics in an urban
environment: in September 1977, the
second cable in this test series, named
COS-2, was experimentally deployed in two
lines (9 km) in Turin, for the first time in a
big city, at a speed of 140 Mbit/s.[22]

The second generation of fiber-optic

communication was developed for
commercial use in the early 1980s,
operated at 1.3 μm and used InGaAsP
semiconductor lasers. These early
systems were initially limited by multi-
mode fiber dispersion, and in 1981 the
single-mode fiber was revealed to greatly
improve system performance, however
practical connectors capable of working
with single mode fiber proved difficult to
develop. Canadian service provider
SaskTel had completed construction of
what was then the world's longest
commercial fiber optic network, which
covered 3,268 km (2,031 mi) and linked 52
communities.[23] By 1987, these systems
were operating at bit rates of up to
1.7 Gbit/s with repeater spacing up to
50 km (31 mi).

The first transatlantic telephone cable to

use optical fiber was TAT-8, based on
Desurvire optimized laser amplification
technology. It went into operation in 1988.

Third-generation fiber-optic systems

operated at 1.55 μm and had losses of
about 0.2 dB/km. This development was
spurred by the discovery of indium gallium
arsenide and the development of the
indium gallium arsenide photodiode by
Pearsall. Engineers overcame earlier
difficulties with pulse-spreading using
conventional InGaAsP semiconductor
lasers at that wavelength by using
dispersion-shifted fibers designed to have
minimal dispersion at 1.55 μm or by
limiting the laser spectrum to a single
longitudinal mode. These developments
eventually allowed third-generation
systems to operate commercially at
2.5 Gbit/s with repeater spacing in excess
of 100 km (62 mi).

The fourth generation of fiber-optic

communication systems used optical
amplification to reduce the need for
repeaters and wavelength-division
multiplexing (WDM) to increase data
capacity. The introduction of WDM was
the start of optical networking, as WDM
became the technology of choice for fiber-
optic bandwidth expansion.[24] The first to
market with a dense WDM system was
Ciena Corp., in June 1996.[25] The
introduction of optical amplifiers and
WDM caused system capacity to double
every six months from 1992 until a bit rate
of 10 Tb/s was reached by 2001. In 2006 a
bit-rate of 14 Tb/s was reached over a
single 160 km (99 mi) line using optical
amplifiers.[26] As of 2021, Japanese
scientists transmitted 319 terabits per
second over 3,000 kilometers with four-
core fiber cables with standard cable
diameter.[27]

The focus of development for the fifth

generation of fiber-optic communications
is on extending the wavelength range over
which a WDM system can operate. The
conventional wavelength window, known
as the C band, covers the wavelength
range 1525–1565 nm, and dry fiber has a
low-loss window promising an extension
of that range to 1300–1650 nm. Other
developments include the concept of
optical solitons, pulses that preserve their
shape by counteracting the effects of
dispersion with the nonlinear effects of the
fiber by using pulses of a specific shape.

In the late 1990s through 2000, industry

promoters, and research companies such
as KMI, and RHK predicted massive
increases in demand for communications
bandwidth due to increased use of the
Internet, and commercialization of various
bandwidth-intensive consumer services,
such as video on demand. Internet
Protocol data traffic was increasing
exponentially, at a faster rate than
integrated circuit complexity had
increased under Moore's Law. From the
bust of the dot-com bubble through 2006,
however, the main trend in the industry has
been consolidation of firms and offshoring
of manufacturing to reduce costs.
Companies such as Verizon and AT&T
have taken advantage of fiber-optic
communications to deliver a variety of
high-throughput data and broadband
services to consumers' homes.

Technology

Modern fiber-optic communication

systems generally include optical
transmitters that convert electrical signals
into optical signals, optical fiber cables to
carry the signal, optical amplifiers, and
optical receivers to convert the signal back
into an electrical signal. The information
transmitted is typically digital information
generated by computers or telephone
systems.
Transmitters

A GBIC module (shown here with its

cover removed), is an optical and
electrical transceiver, a device
combining a transmitter and a
receiver in a single housing. The
electrical connector is at top right and
the optical connectors are at bottom
left

The most commonly used optical

transmitters are semiconductor devices
such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and
laser diodes. The difference between LEDs
and laser diodes is that LEDs produce
incoherent light, while laser diodes
produce coherent light. For use in optical
communications, semiconductor optical
transmitters must be designed to be
compact, efficient and reliable, while
operating in an optimal wavelength range
and directly modulated at high
frequencies.

In its simplest form, an LED emits light

through spontaneous emission, a
phenomenon referred to as
electroluminescence. The emitted light is
incoherent with a relatively wide spectral
width of 30–60 nm.[a] The large spectrum
width of LEDs is subject to higher fiber
dispersion, considerably limiting their bit
rate-distance product (a common measure
of usefulness). LEDs are suitable primarily
for local-area-network applications with bit
rates of 10–100 Mbit/s and transmission
distances of a few kilometers.

LED light transmission is inefficient, with

only about 1% of input power, or about 100
microwatts, eventually converted into
launched power coupled into the optical
fiber.[28]

LEDs have been developed that use

several quantum wells to emit light at
different wavelengths over a broad
spectrum and are currently in use for local-
area wavelength-division multiplexing
(WDM) applications.
LEDs have been largely superseded by
vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser
(VCSEL) devices, which offer improved
speed, power and spectral properties, at a
similar cost. However, due to their
relatively simple design, LEDs are very
useful for very low-cost applications.
Commonly used classes of semiconductor
laser transmitters used in fiber optics
include VCSEL, Fabry–Pérot and
distributed-feedback laser.

A semiconductor laser emits light through

stimulated emission rather than
spontaneous emission, which results in
high output power (~100 mW) as well as
other benefits related to the nature of
coherent light. The output of a laser is
relatively directional, allowing high
coupling efficiency (~50%) into single-
mode fiber. Common VCSEL devices also
couple well to multimode fiber. The narrow
spectral width also allows for high bit
rates since it reduces the effect of
chromatic dispersion. Furthermore,
semiconductor lasers can be modulated
directly at high frequencies because of
short recombination time.

Laser diodes are often directly modulated,

that is the light output is controlled by a
current applied directly to the device. For
very high data rates or very long distance
links, a laser source may be operated
continuous wave, and the light modulated
by an external device, an optical
modulator, such as an electro-absorption
modulator or Mach–Zehnder
interferometer. External modulation
increases the achievable link distance by
eliminating laser chirp, which broadens the
linewidth in directly modulated lasers,
increasing the chromatic dispersion in the
fiber. For very high bandwidth efficiency,
coherent modulation can be used to vary
the phase of the light in addition to the
amplitude, enabling the use of QPSK, QAM,
and OFDM. "Dual-polarization quadrature
phase shift keying is a modulation format
that effectively sends four times as much
information as traditional optical
transmissions of the same speed."[29]

Receivers

The main component of an optical receiver

is a photodetector which converts light
into electricity using the photoelectric
effect. The primary photodetectors for
telecommunications are made from
Indium gallium arsenide. The
photodetector is typically a
semiconductor-based photodiode. Several
types of photodiodes include p-n
photodiodes, p-i-n photodiodes, and
avalanche photodiodes. Metal-
semiconductor-metal (MSM)
photodetectors are also used due to their
suitability for circuit integration in
regenerators and wavelength-division
multiplexers.

Since light may be attenuated and

distorted while passing through the fiber,
photodetectors are typically coupled with
a transimpedance amplifier and a limiting
amplifier to produce a digital signal in the
electrical domain recovered from the
incoming optical signal. Further signal
processing such as clock recovery from
data performed by a phase-locked loop
may also be applied before the data is
passed on.

Coherent receivers use a local oscillator

laser in combination with a pair of hybrid
couplers and four photodetectors per
polarization, followed by high-speed ADCs
and digital signal processing to recover
data modulated with QPSK, QAM, or
OFDM.

Digital predistortion

An optical communication system

transmitter consists of a digital-to-analog
converter (DAC), a driver amplifier and a
Mach–Zehnder modulator. The
deployment of higher modulation formats
(>4-QAM) or higher baud Rates (>32 GBd)
diminishes the system performance due to
linear and non-linear transmitter effects.
These effects can be categorized as linear
distortions due to DAC bandwidth
limitation and transmitter I/Q skew as well
as non-linear effects caused by gain
saturation in the driver amplifier and the
Mach–Zehnder modulator. Digital
predistortion counteracts the degrading
effects and enables Baud rates up to
56 GBd and modulation formats like 64-
QAM and 128-QAM with the commercially
available components. The transmitter
digital signal processor performs digital
predistortion on the input signals using the
inverse transmitter model before sending
the samples to the DAC.

Older digital predistortion methods only

addressed linear effects. Recent
publications also consider non-linear
distortions. Berenguer et al models the
Mach–Zehnder modulator as an
independent Wiener system and the DAC
and the driver amplifier are modeled by a
truncated, time-invariant Volterra series.[30]
Khanna et al use a memory polynomial to
model the transmitter components
jointly.[31] In both approaches the Volterra
series or the memory polynomial
coefficients are found using indirect-
learning architecture. Duthel et al records,
for each branch of the Mach-Zehnder
modulator, several signals at different
polarity and phases. The signals are used
to calculate the optical field. Cross-
correlating in-phase and quadrature fields
identifies the timing skew. The frequency
response and the non-linear effects are
determined by the indirect-learning
architecture.[32]
Fiber cable types

A cable reel trailer with conduit that

can carry optical fiber

Multi-mode optical fiber in an

underground service pit

An optical fiber cable consists of a core,

cladding, and a buffer (a protective outer
coating), in which the cladding guides the
light along the core by using the method of
total internal reflection. The core and the
cladding (which has a lower-refractive-
index) are usually made of high-quality
silica glass, although they can both be
made of plastic as well. Connecting two
optical fibers is done by fusion splicing or
mechanical splicing and requires special
skills and interconnection technology due
to the microscopic precision required to
align the fiber cores.[33]

Two main types of optical fiber used in

optic communications include multi-mode
optical fibers and single-mode optical
fibers. A multi-mode optical fiber has a
larger core (≥ 50 micrometers), allowing
less precise, cheaper transmitters and
receivers to connect to it as well as
cheaper connectors. However, a multi-
mode fiber introduces multimode
distortion, which often limits the
bandwidth and length of the link.
Furthermore, because of its higher dopant
content, multi-mode fibers are usually
expensive and exhibit higher attenuation.
The core of a single-mode fiber is smaller
(< 10 micrometers) and requires more
expensive components and
interconnection methods, but allows much
longer and higher-performance links. Both
single- and multi-mode fiber is offered in
different grades.
Comparison of fiber grades[34]
Fibre type Introduced Performance

MMF FDDI 62.5/125 µm 1987 160 MHz·km @ 850 nm

MMF OM1 62.5/125 µm 1989 200 MHz·km @ 850 nm

MMF OM2 50/125 µm 1998 500 MHz·km @ 850 nm

MMF OM3 50/125 µm 2003 1500 MHz·km @ 850 nm

MMF OM4 50/125 µm 2008 3500 MHz·km @ 850 nm

MMF OM5 50/125 µm 2016 3500 MHz·km @ 850 nm + 1850 MHz·km @ 950 nm

SMF OS1 9/125 µm 1998 1.0 dB/km @ 1300/1550 nm

SMF OS2 9/125 µm 2000 0.4 dB/km @ 1300/1550 nm

In order to package fiber into a

commercially viable product, it typically is
protectively coated by using ultraviolet
cured acrylate polymers and assembled
into a cable. After that, it can be laid in the
ground and then run through the walls of a
building and deployed aerially in a manner
similar to copper cables. These fibers
require less maintenance than common
twisted pair wires once they are
deployed.[35]

Specialized cables are used for long-

distance subsea data transmission, e.g.
transatlantic communications cable. New
(2011–2013) cables operated by
commercial enterprises (Emerald Atlantis,
Hibernia Atlantic) typically have four
strands of fiber and signals cross the
Atlantic (NYC-London) in 60–70 ms. The
cost of each such cable was about $300M
in 2011.[36]

Another common practice is to bundle

many fiber optic strands within long-
distance power transmission cable using,
for instance, an optical ground wire. This
exploits power transmission rights of way
effectively, ensures a power company can
own and control the fiber required to
monitor its own devices and lines, is
effectively immune to tampering, and
simplifies the deployment of smart grid
technology.

Amplification

The transmission distance of a fiber-optic

communication system has traditionally
been limited by fiber attenuation and by
fiber distortion. By using optoelectronic
repeaters, these problems have been
eliminated. These repeaters convert the
signal into an electrical signal and then
use a transmitter to send the signal again
at a higher intensity than was received,
thus counteracting the loss incurred in the
previous segment. Because of the high
complexity with modern wavelength-
division multiplexed signals, including the
fact that they had to be installed about
once every 20 km (12 mi), the cost of
these repeaters is very high.

An alternative approach is to use optical

amplifiers which amplify the optical signal
directly without having to convert the
signal to the electrical domain. One
common type of optical amplifier is an
erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA).
These are made by doping a length of fiber
with the rare-earth mineral erbium and
laser pumping it with light with a shorter
wavelength than the communications
signal (typically 980 nm). EDFAs provide
gain in the ITU C band at 1550 nm.

Optical amplifiers have several significant

advantages over electrical repeaters. First,
an optical amplifier can amplify a very
wide band at once which can include
hundreds of multiplexed channels,
eliminating the need to demultiplex signals
at each amplifier. Second, optical
amplifiers operate independently of the
data rate and modulation format, enabling
multiple data rates and modulation
formats to co-exist and enabling
upgrading of the data rate of a system
without having to replace all of the
repeaters. Third, optical amplifiers are
much simpler than a repeater with the
same capabilities and are therefore
significantly more reliable. Optical
amplifiers have largely replaced repeaters
in new installations, although electronic
repeaters are still widely used when signal
conditioning beyond amplification is
required.
Wavelength-division multiplexing

Wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) is

the technique of transmitting multiple
channels of information through a single
optical fiber by sending multiple light
beams of different wavelengths through
the fiber, each modulated with a separate
information channel. This allows the
available capacity of optical fibers to be
multiplied. This requires a wavelength
division multiplexer in the transmitting
equipment and a demultiplexer
(essentially a spectrometer) in the
receiving equipment. Arrayed waveguide
gratings are commonly used for
multiplexing and demultiplexing in
WDM.[37] Using WDM technology now
commercially available, the bandwidth of a
fiber can be divided into as many as 160
channels[38] to support a combined bit rate
in the range of 1.6 Tbit/s.

Parameters

Bandwidth–distance product

Because the effect of dispersion increases

with the length of the fiber, a fiber
transmission system is often
characterized by its bandwidth–distance
product, usually expressed in units of
MHz·km. This value is a product of
bandwidth and distance because there is a
trade-off between the bandwidth of the
signal and the distance over which it can
be carried. For example, a common multi-
mode fiber with bandwidth–distance
product of 500 MHz·km could carry a
500 MHz signal for 1 km or a 1000 MHz
signal for 0.5 km.

Record speeds

Using wavelength-division multiplexing,

each fiber can carry many independent
channels, each using a different
wavelength of light. The net data rate (data
rate without overhead bytes) per fiber is
the per-channel data rate reduced by the
forward error correction (FEC) overhead,
multiplied by the number of channels
(usually up to eighty in commercial dense
WDM systems as of 2008).

Standard fiber cables

The following summarizes research using

standard telecoms-grade single-mode,
single-solid-core fiber cables.
 Per-
Aggregate Propagation WDM
Year Organization channel Distance
speed modes channels
speed

2009 Alcatel-Lucent[39] 15.5 Tbit/s 155 100 Gbit/s 7000 km

2010 NTT[40] 69.1 Tbit/s 432 171 Gbit/s 240 km

101.7
2011 NEC[41] 370 273 Gbit/s 165 km
Tbit/s

2011[A] KIT[42][43] 26 Tbit/s 336 77 Gbit/s 50 km

about
2016 BT & Huawei[44] 5.6 Tbit/s 28 200 Gbit/s
140 km ?

Nokia Bell Labs,

Deutsche Telekom &
2016[B] 1 Tbit/s 1 1 Tbit/s
Technical University of
Munich[45]

2016 Nokia-Alcatel-Lucent[46] 65 Tbit/s 6600 km

2017 BT & Huawei[47] 11.2 Tbit/s 28 400 Gbit/s 250 km

RMIT, Monash &

[A]
2020 Swinburne 39.0 Tbit/s 160 244 Gbit/s 76.6 km
Universities[48][49]

178.08
2020 UCL[50] 660 25 Gbit/s 40 km
Tbit/s

55 (110-
184 (C-
2022 NICT[51][52][53] 1.53 Pbit/s MIMO 1.03 Tbit/s 25.9 km
band)
multiplexer)

A. Used a single source to drive all channels.

B. First result that pushes close to the
Shannon theoretical limit.
Specialized cables

The following summarizes research using

specialized cables that allow spatial
multiplexing to occur, use specialized tri-
mode fiber cables or similar specialized
fiber optic cables.
 WDM
No. of
Aggregate No. of channels Per channel
Year Organization propagation Distance
speed cores (per speed
modes
core)

2011 NICT[41] 109.2 Tbit/s 7

2012 NEC, Corning[54] 1.05 Pbit/s 12 52.4 km

3x96
University of 1
2013 73.7 Tbit/s (mode 256 Gbit/s 310 m
Southampton[55] (hollow) [56]
DM)

Technical
2014 University of 43 Tbit/s 7 1045 km
Denmark[57]

Eindhoven
University of
Technology
2014 (TU/e) and 255 Tbit/s 7 50 ~728 Gbit/s 1 km
University of
Central Florida
(CREOL)[58]

NICT, Sumitomo
Electric and 402 (C+L
2015 2.15 Pbit/s 22 243 Gbit/s 31 km
RAM bands)
Photonics[59]

single-
2017 NTT[60] 1 Pbit/s 32 46 680 Gbit/s 205.6 km
mode

KDDI Research
739 (C+L
2017 and Sumitomo 10.16 Pbit/s 6-mode 19 120 Gbit/s 11.3 km
[61]
bands)
Electric

2018[A] NICT[62] 159 Tbit/s tri-mode 1 348 414 Gbit/s 1045 km

552 (S, C
single- 144.5 3001 km
2021 NICT[63] 319 Tbit/s 4 &L
mode Gbit/s (69.8 km)
bands)
 801
2022 NICT[64][65][66] 1.02 Pbit/s 4 (S+C+L 51.7 km
bands)

Technical
2022[B] University of 1.84 Pbit/s 37 223 223 Gbit/s 7.9 km
Denmark[67][68]

A. New record for throughput using a single

core cable, that is, not using spatial
multiplexing.
B. New record for throughput using a photonic
chip.

New techniques

Research from DTU, Fujikura and NTT is

notable in that the team was able to
reduce the power consumption of the
optics to around 5% compared with more
mainstream techniques, which could lead
to a new generation of very power-efficient
optic components.

No. of WDM Per

Effective No. of
Year Organization Propagation channels channel Distance
speed cores
Modes (per core) speed

Hao Hu, et al. 768 Tbit/s

2018 (DTU, Fujikura & (661 Single-mode 30 80 320 Gbit/s
NTT)[69] Tbit/s)

Research conducted by the RMIT

University, Melbourne, Australia, have
developed a nanophotonic device that
carries data on light waves that have been
twisted into a spiral form and achieved a
100-fold increase in current attainable
fiber optic speeds.[70] The technique is
known as orbital angular momentum
(OAM). The nanophotonic device uses
ultra-thin sheets to measure a fraction of a
millimeter of twisted light. Nano-electronic
device is embedded within a connector
smaller than the size of a USB connector
and may be fitted at the end of an optical
fiber cable.[71]

Dispersion

For modern glass optical fiber, the

maximum transmission distance is limited
not by direct material absorption but by
dispersion, the spreading of optical pulses
as they travel along the fiber. Dispersion
limits the bandwidth of the fiber because
the spreading optical pulse limits the rate
which pulses can follow one another on
the fiber and still be distinguishable at the
receiver. Dispersion in optical fibers is
caused by a variety of factors.

Intermodal dispersion, caused by the

different axial speeds of different
transverse modes, limits the performance
of multi-mode fiber. Because single-mode
fiber supports only one transverse mode,
intermodal dispersion is eliminated.

In single-mode fiber performance is

primarily limited by chromatic dispersion,
which occurs because the index of the
glass varies slightly depending on the
wavelength of the light, and, due to
modulation, light from optical transmitters
necessarily occupies a (narrow) range of
wavelengths. Polarization mode
dispersion, another source of limitation,
occurs because although the single-mode
fiber can sustain only one transverse
mode, it can carry this mode with two
different polarizations, and slight
imperfections or distortions in a fiber can
alter the propagation velocities for the two
polarizations. This phenomenon is called
birefringence and can be counteracted by
polarization-maintaining optical fiber.

Some dispersion, notably chromatic

dispersion, can be removed by a
dispersion compensator. This works by
using a specially prepared length of fiber
that has the opposite dispersion to that
induced by the transmission fiber, and this
sharpens the pulse so that it can be
correctly decoded by the electronics.

Attenuation

Fiber attenuation is caused by a

combination of material absorption,
Rayleigh scattering, Mie scattering, and
losses in connectors. Material absorption
for pure silica is only around 0.03 dB/km.
Impurities in early optical fibers caused
attenuation of about 1000 dB/km. Modern
fiber has attenuation around 0.3 dB/km.
Other forms of attenuation are caused by
physical stresses to the fiber, microscopic
fluctuations in density, and imperfect
splicing techniques.[72]

Transmission windows

Each effect that contributes to attenuation

and dispersion depends on the optical
wavelength. There are wavelength bands
(or windows) where these effects are
weakest, and these are the most favorable
for transmission. These windows have
been standardized.[73]
Standard bands for optical fiber communications
Band Description Wavelength range

O band Original 1260–1360 nm

E band Extended 1360–1460 nm

S band Short wavelengths 1460–1530 nm

C band Conventional (erbium window) 1530–1565 nm

L band Long wavelengths 1565–1625 nm

U band Ultralong wavelengths 1625–1675 nm

Note that this table shows that current

technology has managed to bridge the E
and S windows that were originally
disjoint.

Historically, there was a window of

wavelengths shorter than O band, called
the first window, at 800–900 nm; however,
losses are high in this region so this
window is used primarily for short-
distance communications. The current
lower windows (O and E) around 1300 nm
have much lower losses. This region has
zero dispersion. The middle windows (S
and C) around 1500 nm are the most
widely used. This region has the lowest
attenuation losses and achieves the
longest range. It does have some
dispersion, so dispersion compensator
devices are used to address this.

Regeneration

When a communications link must span a

larger distance than existing fiber-optic
technology is capable of, the signal must
be regenerated at intermediate points in
the link by optical communications
repeaters. Repeaters add substantial cost
to a communication system, and so
system designers attempt to minimize
their use.

Recent advances in fiber and optical

communications technology have reduced
signal degradation so far that regeneration
of the optical signal is only needed over
distances of hundreds of kilometers. This
has greatly reduced the cost of optical
networking, particularly over undersea
spans where the cost and reliability of
repeaters is one of the key factors
determining the performance of the whole
cable system. The main advances
contributing to these performance
improvements are dispersion
management, which seeks to balance the
effects of dispersion against non-linearity;
and solitons, which use nonlinear effects
in the fiber to enable dispersion-free
propagation over long distances.

Last mile

Although fiber-optic systems excel in high-

bandwidth applications, optical fiber has
been slow to achieve its goal of fiber to the
premises or to solve the last mile problem.
However, FTTH deployment has increased
significantly over the last decade and is
projected to serve millions more
subscribers in the near future. In Japan,
for instance EPON has largely replaced
DSL as a broadband Internet source. South
Korea's KT also provides a service called
FTTH (Fiber To The Home), which provides
fiber-optic connections to the subscriber's
home. The largest FTTH deployments are
in Japan, South Korea, and China.
Singapore started implementation of their
all-fiber Next Generation Nationwide
Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN),
which is slated for completion in 2012 and
is being installed by OpenNet. Since they
began rolling out services in September
2010, network coverage in Singapore has
reached 85% nationwide.

In the US, Verizon Communications

provides a FTTH service called FiOS to
select high-ARPU (Average Revenue Per
User) markets within its existing territory.
The other major surviving ILEC (or
Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier), AT&T,
uses a FTTN (Fiber To The Node) service
called U-verse with twisted-pair to the
home. Their MSO competitors employ
FTTN with coax using HFC. All of the
major access networks use fiber for the
bulk of the distance from the service
provider's network to the customer.
The globally dominant access network
technology is EPON (Ethernet Passive
Optical Network). In Europe, and among
telcos in the United States, BPON (ATM-
based Broadband PON) and GPON
(Gigabit PON) had roots in the FSAN (Full
Service Access Network) and ITU-T
standards organizations under their
control.
Comparison with electrical
transmission

A mobile fiber optic splice lab used to

access and splice underground
cables

An underground fiber optic splice

enclosure opened up

The choice between optical fiber and

electrical (or copper) transmission for a
particular system is made based on a
number of trade-offs. Optical fiber is
generally chosen for systems requiring
higher bandwidth or spanning longer
distances than electrical cabling can
accommodate.

The main benefits of fiber are its

exceptionally low loss (allowing long
distances between amplifiers/repeaters),
its absence of ground currents and other
parasite signal and power issues common
to long parallel electric conductor runs
(due to its reliance on light rather than
electricity for transmission, and the
dielectric nature of fiber optic), and its
inherently high data-carrying capacity.
Thousands of electrical links would be
required to replace a single high-
bandwidth fiber cable. Another benefit of
fibers is that even when run alongside
each other for long distances, fiber cables
experience effectively no crosstalk, in
contrast to some types of electrical
transmission lines. Fiber can be installed
in areas with high electromagnetic
interference (EMI), such as alongside
utility lines, power lines, and railroad
tracks. Nonmetallic all-dielectric cables
are also ideal for areas of high lightning-
strike incidence.

For comparison, while single-line, voice-

grade copper systems longer than a
couple of kilometers require in-line signal
repeaters for satisfactory performance, it
is not unusual for optical systems to go
over 100 kilometers (62 mi), with no active
or passive processing. Single-mode fiber
cables are commonly available in 12 km
(7.5 mi) lengths, minimizing the number of
splices required over a long cable run.
Multi-mode fiber is available in lengths up
to 4 km, although industrial standards only
mandate 2 km unbroken runs.

In short-distance and relatively low-

bandwidth applications, electrical
transmission is often preferred because of
its
 Lower material cost, where large
quantities are not required
Lower cost of transmitters and receivers
Capability to carry electrical power as
well as signals (in appropriately
designed cables)
Ease of operating transducers in linear
mode.

Optical fibers are more difficult and

expensive to splice than electrical
conductors. And at higher powers, optical
fibers are susceptible to fiber fuse,
resulting in catastrophic destruction of the
fiber core and damage to transmission
components.[74]
Because of these benefits of electrical
transmission, optical communication is
not common in short box-to-box,
backplane, or chip-to-chip applications;
however, optical systems on those scales
have been demonstrated in the laboratory.

In certain situations, fiber may be used

even for short-distance or low-bandwidth
applications, due to other important
features:

Immunity to electromagnetic
interference, including nuclear
electromagnetic pulses.
High electrical resistance, making it safe
to use near high-voltage equipment or
between areas with different earth
potentials.
Lighter weight—important, for example,
in aircraft.
No sparks—important in flammable or
explosive gas environments.[75]
Not electromagnetically radiating, and
difficult to tap without disrupting the
signal—important in high-security
environments.
Much smaller cable size—important
where the pathway is limited, such as
networking an existing building, where
 smaller channels can be drilled and
space can be saved in existing cable
ducts and trays.
Resistance to corrosion due to non-
metallic transmission medium

Optical fiber cables can be installed in

buildings with the same equipment that is
used to install copper and coaxial cables,
with some modifications due to the small
size and limited pull tension and bend
radius of optical cables. Optical cables
can typically be installed in duct systems
in spans of 6000 meters or more
depending on the duct's condition, layout
of the duct system, and installation
technique. Longer cables can be coiled at
an intermediate point and pulled farther
into the duct system as necessary.

Governing standards

In order for various manufacturers to be

able to develop components that function
compatibly in fiber optic communication
systems, a number of standards have
been developed. The International
Telecommunication Union publishes
several standards related to the
characteristics and performance of fibers
themselves, including
 ITU-T G.651, "Characteristics of a
50/125 μm multimode graded index
optical fibre cable"
ITU-T G.652, "Characteristics of a single-
mode optical fibre cable"

Other standards specify performance

criteria for fiber, transmitters, and
receivers to be used together in
conforming systems. Some of these
standards are:

100 Gigabit Ethernet

10 Gigabit Ethernet
Fibre Channel
Gigabit Ethernet
 HIPPI
Synchronous Digital Hierarchy
Synchronous Optical Networking
Optical transport network (OTN)

TOSLINK is the most common format for

digital audio cable using plastic optical
fiber to connect digital sources to digital
receivers.

See also

Dark fiber
Fiber to the x
Free-space optical communication
Notes

a. Communications LEDs are most commonly

made from Indium gallium arsenide
phosphide (InGaAsP) or gallium arsenide
(GaAs). Because InGaAsP LEDs operate at
a longer wavelength than GaAs LEDs (1.3
micrometers vs. 0.81–0.87 micrometers),
their output spectrum, while equivalent in
energy is wider in wavelength terms by a
factor of about 1.7.

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"Optical sensors are advantageous in
hazardous environments because there are
no sparks when a fiber breaks or its cover
is worn."

Encyclopedia of Laser Physics and

Technology (http://www.rp-photonics.com/o
ptical_fiber_communications.html)
Fiber-Optic Technologies (http://www.ciscopr
ess.com/articles/article.asp?p=170740&seq
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Further reading

Keiser, Gerd. (2011). Optical fiber

communications, 4th ed. New York:
McGraw-Hill, ISBN 9780073380711
Senior, John. (2008). Optical Fiber
Communications: Principles and Practice,
3rd ed. Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-
0130326812

External links

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to Fiber-optic communications.

"Understanding Optical
Communications" (https://web.archive.o
 rg/web/20061230102529/http://www.re
dbooks.ibm.com/pubs/pdfs/redbooks/s
g245230.pdf) An IBM redbook
Fiber Optics - Internet, Cable and
Telephone Communication (https://site
s.google.com/site/fiberopticsuncovere
d/)

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