Introduction

This document describes a methodology that is recommended for engineering a single-mode fiber optic transmission system. The methods address the design of a regenerator section in which the transmitter and receiver come from the same vendor. As an initial step, only laser systems operating in the 1300 nm region over a class IVa' dispersion unshifted fiber are being considered. As engineering technology improves, this document will be revised to include systems operating in the 1550 nm region. For systems using multilongitudinal mode lasers above approximately 0.5 Gb/s, the calculated dispersion limited lengths may be conservatively low.

As detailed below, suppliers should provide, if requested as part of system documentation, parameters which allow the design of regenerator sections. Some of the parameters in this document will be measured via FOTPs and OFSTPs. The transmission design information for terminal and regenerator station equipment is covered in Section 2, while that for outside plant cable is covered in Section 3. Worksheets 1 to 4 have been provided as examples of forms which could be used in gathering the transmission design information. Section 4 discusses how this information is used in the design and analysis of regenerator sections, which can be performed by either users or a system integrator.

In the sections which follow, the transmission design parameters are specified by their worst case values. It is the option of a user to require that suppliers guarantee the worst case values over the lifetime of their respective system components. Some users or system integrators may desire to perform analysis and design calculations via a statistical approach and to request statistical values of the parameters. The statistical approach is covered in Appendix 1. Custom engineering may further optimize the design.