Purpose and Scope

This document provides engineering, operational, and maintenance guidance to users and suppliers of Optical Fiber Digital Transmission Systems for telecommunications applications. The function of the fiber systems considered in this document is to relay digital signals between defined digital interfaces via an optical fiber link. The information presented applies to optical fiber systems using multimode graded or step index fibers. Single-mode systems are under consideration and will be incorporated in a future issue of this document. Bidirectional systems, in which both directions of transmission use a common optical fiber, will also be considered in a future issue of this document.

As is evident from the title, the major purpose of this document is to provide considerations and guidelines for users and suppliers of optical fiber digital transmission systems. Consequently, terms such as "required" and "should be specified" accompanying certain parameters and items, are used in the context of emphasizing the importance of these parameters/items to users and suppliers. The availability of the data to satisfy system parameters, for the purposes of this document, are considered negotiable between the supplier and the user.

Certain examples are presented to clarify concepts and to illustrate order of magnitude. The numbers presented in these examples are illustrative only and should not be considered as requirements for system design or performance.