Determination of possibilities of SI plastic fiber application in passive optical network

Abstract

ABSTRACT The main objectives of this paper is to improve knowledge of multimode fiber transmission over step-index plastic optical fiber SI POF with 1000 μm core. The thick SI POF fibers seem a very attractive alternative in local computer networks for the “classic” (thin) single- and multimode fibers because of their low price and easy installation. In the paper we show measurements of bandwidth and attenuation of various SI POF optical paths. In particular, there was investigated a cascade of passive components (couplers, patchcords) which can be part of transparent (passive) optical networks. Keywords : plastic optical fibre, passive optical network, multimode coupler. 1. INTRODUCTION Recently there has been publish a number of papers concerning optical data transfer over plastic optical fiber [1][2]. Both point-to-point and WDM passive network configurations are considered. The concept of passive network is well known as it comes to the access networks based on single mode fiber. Such networks were proposed in several standards (APON, BPON networks). Commercial solution have been developed and deployed since. We would like to extend benefits of this network type to home networks based on multimode optical fiber. We consider such networks as a viable solution of the optical home network architecture. Along with a multimode optical cable only multimode compatible elements (couples/splitters, connectors, etc.) may be used in the network. Once deployed the upgrade of such a network should be relatively easy. Unlike to the single mode PON where the bandwidth is not an issue, the multimode network maximum operational range is defined by the fiber bandwidth (related to the intermodal dispersion) rather than by the fiber attenuation [3]. The relation among the modal bandwidth of the fiber, the launching condition and mode coupling is fairly well known for silica GI optical fibers (