Visit the Avago Technologies web site
Click on the advert above to visit the company web site

Product category: Communications ICs (Wired)
News Release from: Phyworks | Subject: PHY1060/PHY1090/PHY1085
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 15 April 2005

Chipset aims to boost bandwidth for
legacy fibre

Request your FREE weekly copy of the Electronicstalk email newsletter. News about Communications ICs (Wired) and more every issue. Click here for details.

Electronic dispersion compensation implemented in integrated circuit technology may prove to be the solution to the 10Gbit/s multimode fibre challenge.

As the density and datarate capability of networked hardware increases in enterprise local area networks (LANs), the Achilles heel preventing system upgrades in multimode fibre optical networks from the present 1Gbit/s to the required 10Gbit/s becomes apparent: the installed multimode fibre itself The primary factor limiting the reach capability of legacy multimode fibre from a few hundred metres at 1Gbit/s to a few tens of metres at 10Gbit/s is modal dispersion - the phenomenon whereby the different components of a data signal travel through multimode fibre at different speeds, and therefore arrive at the end of the fibre link at different times

Ultimately, dispersion results in reduced timing and amplitude margin at the receiver, and hence reduced link robustness.

If future transmission bottlenecks in LANs are to be avoided, enterprise IT managers must consider the two possible solutions to this dispersion problem.

First, IT managers can specify the wholesale replacement of their installed fibre base with new higher bandwidth fibre.