Chapter 3. Networking with DWDM -2

Signal propagation in an optical fiber is limited because of attenuation. Attenuation, dispersion, nonlinearities, and other harmful effects cause the signal level in an optical fiber to degrade with their accumulation (transmission length). To sustain optical communication, the receiver (photodetector) must be able to detect or read signal pulses and distinguish between 1s and 0s efficiently.

The signal before reaching the detector suffers from multiple attenuations (it adds noise due to decrease in signal level and increase in noise due to accumulation); therefore, its signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is degraded. In Chapter 2, “Networking with DWDM -1,” we saw bit error rate (BER) as a figure of merit for optical ...

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