III. EVOLUTION OF FIBER OPTICS
COMMUNICATION
Optical fiber was first developed in 1970 by Corning Glass
Works. At the same time, GaAs semiconductor lasers were
also developed for transmitting light through the fiber optic
cables. The first generation fiber optic system was developed
in 1975, it used GaAs semiconductor lasers, operated at a
wavelength of 0.8 µm, and bit rate of 45Megabits/second with
10Km repeater spacing.
In the early 1980’s, the second generation of fiber optic
communication was developed, it used InGaAsP semi
conductor lasers and operated at a wavelength of 1.3 µm. By
1987, these fiber optic systems were operating at bit rates of
up to 1.7 Gigabits/second on single mode fiber with 50Km
repeater spacing.
The third generation of fiber optic communication operating at
a wavelength of 1.55 µm was developed in 1990. These
systems were operating at a bit rate of up to 2.5
Gigabits/second on a single longitudinal mode fiber with
100Km repeater spacing.
The fourth generation of fiber optic systems made use of
optical amplifiers as a replacement for repeaters, and utilized
wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) to increase data
rates. By 1996, transmission of over 11,300Km at a data rate
of 5Gigabits/second had been demonstrated using submarine
cables [7].
The fifth generation fiber optic communication systems use
the Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) to further
increase data rates. Also, the concept of optical solitons, which
are pulses that can preserve their shape by counteracting the
negative effects of dispersion, is also being explored. Figure 3
shows the evolution of fiber optic communication.