Atlanta fiber system experiment: The chicago lightwave communications project

The Bell System installed and is evaluating an exploratory lightwave communications system in downtown Chicago. In addition to regular interoffice trunk service, the system provides a range of telecommunications services to customers in Chicago's Brunswick Building, including voice, analog data, digital data, and PICTUREPHONE∗ Meeting Service, a 4-MHz video service. This paper describes the transmission medium, its installation, and the system configuration, and includes some preliminary performance data.