Lightwave Transmission at Multigigabits-per-Second Speeds
12 October 1989
The total transmission bandwidth of single-mode optical fibers in the low-loss wavelength regions near 1.3microns and 1.55microns approaches 50 THz. In order to explore this enormous capacity for transmission and distribution of future broadband services, the research community has been pushing the frontiers of high-speed technology to data rates beyond 10 Gb/s. Indeed, a recent 16-Gb/s system experiment has demonstrated long-distance transmission using a directly-modulated laser and a semiconductor optical preamplifier.