Transmission and signal processing techniques for gigabit lightwave systems

The technology of optical-fiber transmission systems has advanced rapidly within recent years; a number of laboratories having reported gigabit transmission over 100-km spans. These developments have placed increasing emphasis on the associated signal processing functions such as timing extraction and regeneration. This paper will review laser, fiber, and receiver requirements for high-speed systems and describe two recent lightwave transmission experiments featuring distributed feedback lasers, low-loss dispersion-shifted fiber, germanium avalanche photodiode receivers, and gallium arsenide logic devices.