Appendices

Appendix 1 Terminology

After studying this unit you should be able to explain the meaning of the following terms:

all-optical network

angle-polished convex connector

bandwidth-distance product

chirp

combiner

connector

continuous wave operation

dense wavelength division multiplexing

direct modulation directional coupler dispersion

dispersion compensation dispersion-shifted fibre electro-optic material excess loss external modulation extinction ratio four-wave mixing Fresnel reflection graded-index fibre index-matching fluid (or gel) insertion loss laser diode

light-emitting diode

lithium niobate

micro-electro-mechanical system

multimode distortion

non-zero dispersion-shifted fibre

photodiode

physical contact connector

polarization mode

polarization mode distortion

power budget

Raman amplifier

receive sensitivity

refractive index

return loss

semiconductor optical amplifier

single-mode laser diode

splice

splitter

star coupler

step-index fibre

stimulated Raman scattering

total internal reflection

tuneable laser