ENGINEERING APPROACH TO FIBRE OPTIC LINK DESIGN.

By the use of worst case performance analysis the ability of a fiber optic link to perform to a given minimum standard can be guaranteed over its life, provided the manufacturer publishes worst case performance figures, rather than the normal ″typical″ data. The virtues of various means of transferring data from one point to another are discussed and several examples illustrating worst case analysis methods and unconventional use of various link formats are given. It is shown that the arithmetic of link design can be reduced to simple proportions by choosing to operate at a point above the worst case rather than trying to evaluate the exact performance of a link at given parameters.