Measurements for enhanced bandwidth performance over 62.5-μm multimode fiber in short-wavelength local area networks

The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) FO-2.2.1 Working Group on the modal dependence of bandwidth has conducted industrywide interlaboratory comparisons on measurements aimed at improving the bandwidth performance of short-wavelength, laser-based, multimode-fiber local area networks (LANs). Measurements of both transceiver encircled flux and fiber restricted-mode-launch bandwidth can together successfully predict an enhanced system performance, provided that the proper limiting criteria are selected. System performance is determined by a measurement of effective bandwidth and/or intersymbol interference. Recommendations for source and fiber selection criteria come from a risk analysis based on an extensive multilaboratory comparison involving 95 fibers and 69 laser transceivers. For this paper, enhanced system performance is defined as a performance that allows operation at a data rate of at least one gigabit per second over a 500-m length of 62.5/125-μm graded-index glass fiber.