毕业8设计英文翻译1.docVIP

Introduction to Optical Fiber Communication One of the most important technological developments during the 1980s has been the emergence of optical fiber communication as a major international industry. One indication of the extent of this development is the total length of installed fiber, which was estimated to be 3.2 million kilometers in the U.S. alone by the end of 1987.Over 90% of this fiber was placed in service during the time period of 1982-1987.Long-haul trunk installations have been dominated, accounting for about 95% of the fiber in the U.S. Although telecommunication is the rational for most of the current interest in fiber optics, this was not the case during the early days of the technology. The researchers who produced the first clad glass optical fibers in the early 1950s were not thinking of using them for communications; they wanted to make imaging bundles for endoscopy. Fiber optics was already a well-established commercial technology when the famous paper by Kao and Hockham, suggesting the use of low-loss optical fibers for communication, appeared in 1966. The first low-loss (20 dB/km) silica fiber was described in a publication which appeared in October of 1970.The date of this publication is sometimes cited as the beginning of the era of fiber communication. Although this development did receive considerable attention in the research community at the time, it was far from inevitable that a major industry would evolve. The 20 dB/km loss figure was still too high for long-haul telecommunication systems. The fibers were fragile, and a way to protect them would have to be found. There were no suitable light sources. Researchers did not know whether field termination and splicing of optical cables would ever be produced economically enough for the technology to play a ,major role in the marketplace. Although the technological barriers appeared formidable, the economic potential was very significant. As a consequence, research and development activ