Design of high-speed fiber optic datalinks

Fiber-optic datalinks operating at rates of OC-48 (2.5 Gb/s), OC-192 (10 Gb/s), OC-768 (40 Gb/s), and 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10.3 Gb/s) utilize high-speed broadband electronic components, and require a combination of microwave, high-speed digital, and fiber-optic design techniques. In this paper, an overview of such high-speed fiber optic devices is given, concentrating on "Metro" (metropolitan area network) 10 Gb/s applications, as this is currently an active area of industry activity. Tradeoffs between different high-speed process technologies are discussed, as well as trends in the industry.