Optical Communication Routes Planning

Summary Contemporary demand for data services is not a realistic demand anymore because of capabilities of currently existing optical routes. Services like Video on Demand, videoconference, realtime audio and video streams, large-file transmissions and other multimedia services lead to an increasing demand for transmission capacity. The quick transport layer is not established only on high-quality end-point equipment with sufficiency throughput, but it is necessary to ensure an equivalent physical layer by optical fiber routes. Optical fiber is an ideal medium for high-speed backbone routes - as the development in communications has shown. Due to its advantages (unlimited bandwidth usage, interference and wiretapping resistance or low price) optical fiber is also the most used medium. Continuous traffic increase has shown that even optical fibers have their limits. Tests carried out on optical fibers have shown the presence of physical effects, which have impact on transmitted signal, degrade its power and cause numerous types of light dispersion.