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Title Lig vir Afrika
Full text http://hdl.handle.net/10210/1445
Date 2008
Author(s) Lacquet, B.M.
Abstract Inaugural lecture--Rand Afrikaans University, 22 September 1999 - The exponential growth in the use of the Internet and the consequent growing need for higher bandwidth force the telecommunications industry to expand the laid networks at a much faster rate. Optical fibre is the only transmission medium that has the potential of unlimited bandwidth and can handle very high data rates. After a brief overview of the history of optical communications, the working of a simple fibre optic link and how a simple optical fibre channel functions will be described. This is followed by a discussion on erbium-doped fibre optic amplifiers and of wavelength-division multiplexing. These are both enabling technologies that have dramatically changed the future of optical fibre communications, from being just another communication system to one that is part of our daily lives. A brief discussion of an all-optical network and the progress that has been made in LA lightwave transmission capacity since 1980 is followed by a brief overview of the required enabling technologies at the component, materials and network levels to reach an even higher capacity and L bandwidth. These needs are motivated from a business perspective, and with the help of a roadmap for the future technological needs in optical communication systems up to 2015. The question to be asked and answered is: where does Africa stand with respect to these developments and what are we at RAU doing within the industry supported Centre for Optical Communications?
Subject(s) Telecommunications; Optical fibres; Optical communication systems
Language en
Type of publication Inaugural
Rights University of Johannesburg
Repository Johannesburg - University of Johannesburg
Added to C-A: 2009-01-19;15:14:09