An FSK/FDM Multiplexed Fiber Optics System for Multichannel Asynchronous Digital Data Transmission

Abstract

In this paper the use of frequency division multiplexing to reduce the cost of fiber-optic digital data interconnects is investigated. An analysis is performed to determine the level of multiplexing achievable for a typical optical cable link and the cost of the multiplexed link is compared to that of all-parallel transmission for link distances of 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 km and data rates of 100 kb/s and 1 Mb/s. The results of this work show that for the present and the near-term future, at least, multiplexing offers substantial cost savings over all-parallel transmission.