Applications and opportunities for optoelectronics in high speed LANs

Amid the well-publicized rapid expansion of fiber optic telecommunications markets and associated optoelectronics component sales, there have been dramatic advances in optical data networking that promise an equally spectacular follow-on. Apart from the widely recognized and unrelenting increases in demand for bandwidth, mainly occasioned by the Internet, the conflux of four critical developments in recent years has set the stage for an explosive new opportunity for optoelectronics in data networks: the adoption of IEEE 802.32 standard for Gigabit Ethernet and other standards work; the commercial availability of the VCSEL; the realization of low-cost, low-profile connectors and other hardware for fiber LANs; improvements in optical fiber, allowing 10 Gbit transmission up to 300 m on multimode fiber. These developments are discussed