Dispersion Another characteristic is dispersion, which is the broadening of a light pulse as it travels down the cable.

Excessive dispersion will make a signal difficult to read by the receiver. When an LED or laser sends light into a multimode fiber, a range of wavelengths of light is present. ome of those wavelengths travel at different speeds than others. !he effect is to distort waveforms, which can cause errors in reading the signal at the other end of the cable. "raded#index cable is designed to minimi$e the delay of the slower wavelengths. !here are four types of dispersion% Material dispersion &ariations in the refractive properties of the cable cause signal dispersion. Modal dispersion 'ccurs in multimode cable. Light takes different paths through the cable with light on some paths having a longer travel time than others. "raded cable balances this effect. Chromatic dispersion !his occurs because some wavelengths travel through a medium faster than others. !he longer the cable, the worse the effect, and the harder it is to read the signal. Waveguide dispersion !his dispersion occurs in single#mode fiber due to the difference in the speed of the signal between the core and the cladding. (t causes chromatic dispersion.

".)*+ cable, used in most commercial systems, takes advantage of the ,,-,.#nm window where chromatic dispersion is minimi$ed. !his window is often called the zerodispersion point#it is the range where chromatic dispersion is minimi$ed because the waveguide dispersion cancels out material dispersion. Long#haul carriers, on the other hand, have higher bandwidth and distance re/uirements, so ".)*- and ".)** 0dispersion#shifted0 fiber operating in the 1 band is preferred. !he 1 band is used for DWD2 systems, which support many closely spaced channels at data rates of ,. "bits3sec and higher. !wo other bands are now being used to boost capacity and distance% the ,,4). nm to ,,*-. nm band and the ,*)* to ,)+* L band. A newer approach employs soliton technology, which can be used to create a cable system that stretches nearly halfway around the world. ee 0 oliton.0 5ote that it is possible to support DWD2 on many older fiber cables. tandard single# mode fiber will support DWD2 at lower data rates. ome older dispersion#shifted fibers were not able to handle DWD2, but these cables may be made to act like non$ero dispersion cable by using wavelength above and below the ,,**.#nm window. 1orning and Lucent are the ma6or providers of long#haul cable. Lucent7s !rueWave and AllWave cables are made of single#mode non$ero dispersion fibers that support all the wavelength windows. !rueWave is specifically designed for optically amplified, high# powered long#distance DWD2 networks operating in both the 1 band and the L band. 8oth cable types are manufactured with a patented purification process to remove water molecules in the core, thus allowing wider spectrum usage. 1orning7s LEA9 is a single#mode 5:#D 9 fiber designed for DWD2 systems. (t combines low attenuation and low dispersion with an effective area that is -+ percent larger than non# 5:#D 9 fiber. !his allows more power to be pumped into the network over more channels without nonlinear effects that create noise, distort signals, and degrade performance. (t can operate at ,. "bits3sec or higher using high#output#power ED9As. 1orning7s 2etro1or fiber is a single#mode 5:#D 9 cable optimi$ed for short#distance metropolitan usage. (t does not re/uire the powerful lasers that are re/uired in the long# haul environment and so helps reduce the cost of implementing metropolitan fiber networks.