Information-Bandwidth-Limited Transmission at 8Gb/s Over 68.3km of Optical Fiber

Abstract

Although the fundamental and practical limits of characteristics such as laser power, transmitter/receiver speed, transmitter spectral purity, receiver sensitivity, fiber dispersion, and fiber loss can be probed at the device level, the efficiency with which a given component trades off one characteristic against another is best evaluated in the system environment. One figure of merit that measures the degree of optimization is the bit-rate times distance product. Another is the spectral width used by the transmitter, since this determines the ultimate capacity of the fiber.