Considerations in selecting fiber optic based local area network topology.

The point-to-point fiber optic links have been proven to have better performance than the copper based media for long haul telephony application. Data rates in the gigabits/sec range and repeaterless operations over several hundred kilometers have been frequently reported. However, their use in a bus topology is severely limited by high tapping and splitting losses of optical power. This paper will review the fundamental limitations of the fiber optic links in the LAN environment and address the criteria to select a suitable topology for a fiber optic based LAN. It will also discuss how the shortcomings of the bus topology can be circumvented in the centralized star-like wiring topology. This centralized wiring topology is sufficiently flexible and well suited to design an architecture for the fiber optic based LAN.