Abstract

Recently, plastic optical fiber (POF) is attracting much attention as a low cost transmission media for high speed data links.¹ This is because POF features a large core diameter, which results in ease of handling at the connection point. Consequently, the total link cost including installation and maintenance has become competitive at a level with that for unshielded twisted pair (UTP) links. Step index (SI) POF is widely deployed in a variety of low cost systems. However, because ordinary SI-POF has a limited modal bandwidth (as low as 5 MHz-km), it is difficult to apply to high-speed transmission links. This paper reports for the first time that a low numerical aperture (NA) SI-POF² link with low divergence angle LED³ can be applicable to 100 ~ 150 Mbps 100-m transmission. Making use of this significant feature, a low cost fast ethernet system with ten POF ports has been successfully demonstrated.

© 1996 Optical Society of America