Bend-Insensitive and Chromatic Dispersion Compensating Multimode Fibres for Extended Reach High-Bit Rate DataCom Applications

Abstract:
Abstract After the very successful introduction of bend-insensitive singlemode fibres for FTTH networks, the same trench-assisted core technique for improving bend loss has also been applied to multimode fibres (MMFs). This paper will highlight the improvement of bending loss in multimode fibres, including the effect of leaky modes which can more easily be generated in BIMMFs compared to regular multimode fibres. These effects need precautions and adaptations in e.g. Core Diameter (CD) and Numerical Aperture (NA) measurements of BI-MMFs to ensure backward compatibility with regular MMF. Chromatic dispersion will become critical with increasing bit rates and ranges (growing Data Centre sizes). Recent developments have demonstrated the possibility of optimizing the graded-index profile of a BI-MMF to mitigate the chromatic dispersion impairments introduced by typically multimode VCSELs in multimode fibre links. Keywords: Bend Insensitive Multimode Fibres; Trench-Assisted Multi-Mode Fibre; Leaky Modes; Macrobend Loss; Insertion loss; Core Diameter; Numerical Aperture.