Dispersion in Optical Fibers

Telecommunications service providers have to face continuously growing bandwidth demands in all networks areas, from long-haul to access. Because installing new communication links would require huge investments, telecommunications carriers prefer to increase the capacity of their existing fiber links by using dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) systems and/or higher bit rates systems. However, most of the installed optical fibers are old and exhibit physical characteristics that may limit their ability to transmit high-speed signals.