High-speed plastic (PMMA) optical fiber data transmission system suitable for high-speed local-area networks and interconnects

The 125 Mbaud FDDI LAN standard is being incorporated by major manufacturers into their structural wiring strategies. At floor level with wiring strategy must include direct 125 Mbaud links over distances typically in the range 50 - 100 m. Plastic optical fiber links could offer an attractive solution for such links, but have not been considered due to their predicted low bandwidth. The work discussed in this paper demonstrates practically that the speed and Bit Error Rate (BER) requirements of the Fiber Distributed Data Interface (ANSI FDDI) links can be met by plastic fiber for link lengths up to 90 m using low cost robust technology.