Recent Developments and Trends in Optical Communication

Recent Developments in optical communication such as dynamic-single-mode lasers, low-loss single-mode fibers of low dispersion and sensitive InGaAsP-avalanche photodiodes with fast response lead to fiber systems with pulse rate regenerator distance products of 25 Gbit km/s per fiber. With wavelength multiplexing more than 3 Tbit km/s have shown to be feasible. Future developments in coherent optical transmission, low-loss mid-infrared fibers, soliton transmission, and integrated optics may allow even more transmission capacity and longer distances.