The Cable and Telecommunications Professionals' Reference, 3rd Edition

6   Optical Fiber Transmission

Paul Urquhart

Universidad Pública de Navarra

Introduction

Optical fiber communication provides data capacities that are unavailable from any other transmission means, and so it exerts a substantial influence on the information society (Hecht, 1999). Optical cables have been installed in many environments—within buildings, under streets, suspended from overhead pylons, and across the world’s deepest oceans (Urquhart, 2004; Keiser, 2006; Lin, 2006; Halabi, 2003; Chesnoy, 2002). The networks they serve carry data for many end users, including domestic consumers, manufacturing, financial services, hospitals, educational establishments, and government departments. The history of the subject is one of record-breaking ...