Chromatic Dispersion in Optical Fibers
Beginning: Telecommunications service providers have to face continuously growing bandwidth demands in all networks areas, from long-haul to access. Because installing new communication links would require huge investments, telecommunications carriers prefer to increase the capacity of their existing fiber links by using dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) systems and/or higher bit rates systems. However, most of the installed optical fibers are old and exhibit physical characteristics that may limit their ability to transmit high-speed signals. Dispersion is a consequence of the physical properties of the transmission medium. What is Chromatic Dispersion ? I n an optical fiber, different colors of light travels at different speed. The blue light may run faster, and the red light may run slower. Even though they start at the same time in the beginning, they arrive at the destination at different times. This time delay is called chromatic dispersion. Here, "chromatic