JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 29, NO.
3, FEBRUARY 1, 2011
Statistical Study of Graded-Index Perfluorinated
Plastic Optical Fiber
Patrick J. Decker, Member, IEEE, Arup Polley, Joong H. Kim, and Stephen E. Ralph, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—Plastic fiber-based optical links have been proposed
for a wide variety of high-speed short reach applications. Graded-
index (GI) multimode plastic optical fiber (POF) that supports 10
Gb/s over 50 m is commercially available and 40 Gb/s over 100 m
has been demonstrated. However, unlike single-mode fiber and like
silica multimode fiber (MMF), GI POF exhibits a range of perfor-
mance that depends on launch condition and the accuracy of the
index profile. Here, we report on the first statistical study of a large
set of GI POF. We examine 40 samples of 62.5 m core POF
with four different cabling types that represent current-generation
commercially available POF. We assess performance in terms of
the 10 GbE requirements and quantify loss, chromatic dispersion,
differential modal delay, effective modal bandwidth (EMB), and
eye closure penalty. We find that nearly all of the measured 100
m fibers support the strict 10 GbE vertical-cavity surface emitting
laser source EMB requirement, and that many fibers can support
40 Gb/s over 100 m. We thus demonstrate that GI POF can re-
liably support 10 Gb/s and larger bit rates to distances of 100 m.
Index Terms—Optical communication, optical fiber measure-
ments, plastic optical fiber (POF).
I. INTRODUCTION
VER the past decade advances have been made in the
O manufacturing and handling [1]–[5], understanding
[6]–[8], modeling [9], and performance [5], [9]–[13] of plastic
optical fiber (POF) as a medium for multigigabit optical com-
munications. The transition from a very large core ( m)
Mb/s performance media to a high-bit-rate media that may be
an alternative to the traditional silica MMF has been enabled
by the development of perfluorinated (PF) POF that exhibits
significantly lower attenuation than polymethyl-methacrylate
(PMMA)-based POF at wavelengths suitable for directly
modulated vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs)
[1]. Furthermore, advances in the manufacturing process have
Manuscript received July 23, 2010; revised October 05, 2010; accepted
November 01, 2010. Date of publication December 03, 2010; date of current
version January 28, 2011. This work was supported in part by the APM, Inc.,
in part by the Chromis Fiber Optics, and in part by the Asahi Glass, Inc.
P. J. Decker was with Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332
USA. He is now with the Applied Micro Circuits Corporation, Andover, MA
01810 USA (e-mail: patrick.decker@gatech.edu).
A. Polley was with Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332 USA.
He is now with Texas Instruments, Inc., Dallas, TX 75243 USA (e-mail: arup.
polley@gmail.com).
J. H. Kim was with Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332
USA. He is now with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City Divi-
sion, Panama City Beach, FL 32407 USA (email: joong.kim@navy.mil).
S. E. Ralph is with Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332 USA
(e-mail: stephen.ralph@ece.gatech.edu).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JLT.2010.2096198
0733-8724/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE
305
enabled improved bandwidth-distance products and lower loss
[4], [5], [14].
The primary advantage of all multimode fiber (MMF) is
the enhanced alignment tolerance afforded by the large core
size. POF may have additional advantages due to the ease of
fiber preparation and connectorization, utilizing metal blades,
heaters, and crimp-on connectors to perform a wide variety of
operations from lensing to termination [2], [3]. This simplicity
of termination, combined with low attenuation near 850 nm,
make POF well suited for high-data-rate short-reach applica-
tions. For example, data centers employing a very high link
density are a primary deployment opportunity for graded-index
(GI) POF, where 10 GbE performance is a necessity and
required link lengths are typically limited to 50–100 m [15].
Home networking is another potential application for GI-POF
links, where the tight-bend-radius requirements inherent in
home applications as well as its termination simplicity may
allow GI-POF to replace copper multigigabit per second net-
working [10], [11], [16], [17]. The GI-POF link demonstrations
have explored the high data rate capabilities of GI-POF by
utilizing single-mode components to achieve bit rates
Gb/s [18]–[22]. Others used high-speed VCSELs to demon-
strate performance with these common MMF sources [23],
[24]. Fundamental assessments of any MMF fiber requires the
determination of the differential modal delay (DMD) as well as
mode coupling (MC) and differential modal attenuation (DMA)
[6], [8]. DMD investigations of a limited number of fibers have
shown some GI-POF to be capable of 10 Gb/s and higher [4],
[5], [9], [11]. However, the nature of MMF is fundamentally
different from SMF in that the slight variability of the index
profile leads to notable changes in performance. For silica
MMF, this reality has been managed by the use of a statistical
assessment of MMF performance. Specifically, the IEEE 802.3
10 GbE and 10 GbE LRM standards led to the adoption of
a standard set of MMF refractive index profiles that span the
range of performance for the installed MMF fiber base [25],
[26] and the creation of standardized metrics that qualify 10
GbE capable fiber. However, despite the increasing bandwidth
of POF, no equivalent statistical assessment of GI-POF has
been reported. Consequently, we have examined POF
fiber samples of PF-GI-POF with a variety of cabling options
and lengths ranging from 100 to 300 m each to assess the range
of performance available from current generation POF.
Challenges common to both MMF links and the assessment
of MMF fiber include: loss; chromatic dispersion (CD); and the
efficient collection of power from the fiber onto a photodetector
of sufficient speed and with insensitivity to fiber mode power
distribution. Assessing the DMD of POF is complicated by the
306
Fig. 1. High-temporal resolution DMD scan setup using single-mode offset

launch of 12 ps FWHM pulses. Combined effects of jitter and drift were lim-
<
ited to >
3 ps over 1 h. Mode-mixed collection eliminates receiver mode
dependence by ensuring consistent received power distribution.
35–40 dB/km loss, which limits testing to a few hundred me-
ters and thus necessitates a high temporal resolution. This is in
contrast to silica fiber where kilometer lengths are the norm for
testing due to its low loss (2.5 dB/km) and linear dependence of
modal delay upon length, allowing the identification of a band-
width distance product. Thus, we first validate our coupling and
receiver optics and frequency response of the required high tem-
poral resolution DMD system. We evaluate the mode power dis-
tribution and loss and report the first CD measurements of POF
near 840 nm. We next examine the statistics of the GI-POF’s
DMD. We then adapt the 10 GbE standardized VCSEL sources
developed for 50- m cores to the 62.5- m core POF and thus
report calculated effective modal bandwidth (EMBc) and ver-
tical eye closure penalty (VECP) for the ten standard VCSELs
for each of 42 fibers. As part of this statistical assessment of
VCSEL sources we directly examine specific VCSEL instances
coupled to the POF and determine the performance over a range
of EF.
II. DMD SETUP AND POF SAMPLES
We have examined 42 samples of POF using a high temporal
resolution DMD setup (see Fig. 1). Our procedure closely fol-
lows the methods developed by the TIA FO-4.2.1 [27] wherein
a single-mode source is coupled into the test fiber using a single-
mode fiber (SMF). The observed time delay of a launched pulse
versus scan position of the SM fiber across the POF core quan-
tifies the modal delay.
A mode-locked titanium-sapphire laser generated 12 ps
full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) pulses with near trans-
form limited RMS spectral width of 0.07 nm. This 845 nm
source provides high temporal resolution without incurring
significant broadening due to CD and is compliant with the
IEEE 802.3 10 GbE specifications for VCSEL transmitter
JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 29, NO. 3, FEBRUARY 1, 2011
TABLE I
CABLING OPTIONS
wavelengths [28], [29]. Separate triggering and power-moni-
toring signals were tapped from the source transport fiber to
enable precise timing (RMS jitter ps) and to eliminate
the effects of small incident power variations ( dB) that
may occur during the DMD scan. Power was butt-coupled
into the GI-POF using a SMF positioned within 10 m of the
finished fiber end-face, providing a mode field diameter of
6 m. Power was collected from the GI-POF using a 50- m
core glass fiber m long (to ensure no additional DMD
contribution) and then propagated through a mode mixer and a
short 50- m core glass patch cord. Sections III and IV discuss
the collection apparatus in more detail. The received signal
was detected with a p-i-n photodiode/amplifier optimized for
detection of impulse like signals [30] and observed via a 70
GHz (analog bandwidth) high-speed digitizing oscilloscope.
The launch offset was controlled by motorized stages.
The current generation of GI-POF are composed of the
amorphous PF polymer, polyperfluoro-butenylvinylether. This
polymer exhibits reduced attenuation in the near-IR compared
to conventional PMMA-based POF and allows formation of
the GI profile using a high line speed extrusion process [14].
The coextrusion of cladding and core allows for accurate index
profiles with continuous high volume production. GI-POF is
composed of at least three layers; the perflourinated optical
polymer and dopant core, the PF polymer cladding and a
reinforcement overcladding composed of a non-fluorinated
polymer.
All the POF samples reported here have a nominal 62.5- m
core diameter and numerical aperture (NA) specified as 0.185,
with a variety of overclad and cabling options, and are wound
on standard reels. All fibers studied had overclad outer diameter
(OD) of either 490 or 750 m. The 490- m OD fiber was either
bare (with only the core, cladding, and overclad) or fully cabled
for patch cord use. The cabled versions consisted of the bare
fiber enclosed in a thin PVC tight jacket which was surrounded
by a high-modulus yarn strength element and thick PVC outer
jacket. The 750- m OD fiber was either bare, bare with the tight
jacket, fully cabled, or “tight-buffered,” in which case the thick
PVC outer jacket was directly applied over the bare fiber (typ-
ically used in breakout cables). These options are summarized
in Table I.
III. POF MODE POWER DISTRIBUTION AND LOSS
The allowable launch offset tolerance and the optimum re-
ceiver collection optics may be different for POF than the equiv-
alent core size glass MMF due to strong MC and differential
DECKER et al.: STATISTICAL STUDY OF GRADED-INDEX PERFLUORINATED PLASTIC OPTICAL FIBER
Fig. 2. Measured excess loss versus offset for SMF launch. (a) Short and (b)
100 m samples of glass (solid) and POF (dashed).
mode attenuation. We have, therefore, characterized the mode
field profile, the loss versus launch offset, and the collection ef-
ficiency when using 50- m core collection fiber. Each of these
metrics may vary with fiber length; however, we primarily ex-
amine 100 m lengths knowing that shorter lengths will exhibit
lower loss.
Using an overfilled launch and a white light source the mode
field profile of a 100 m fiber exhibits a diameter of 47 m,
which is nearly the same as we observed from glass 62.5 m
MMF under the same launch conditions. These results are con-
sistent with the specified diameter where the overfilled intensity
falls to 5% of peak.
We next examined loss versus SMF launch offset. Strong MC
in POF may allow high order modes to couple to weakly guided
or cladding modes and thus contribute to loss. This is a form
of DMA that may lead to higher loss with increased offset and
hence may limit the allowable launch offsets. These effects are
length dependent since coupling from lower order modes will
require longer lengths to lead to appreciable DMA. Using the
butt-coupled SMF launch described in Section II, we observed
the total received power after both 2 and 100 m of POF (see
Fig. 2). The power was measured with a very large area de-
tector to ensure that all received power was collected. For 2 m
POF the loss was nearly unchanged for offsets to m and
experienced a 2 dB excess loss (compared to center launch) at
a launch offset of m. This is in contrast to glass MMF,
where the loss was unchanged until the offset exceeded m.
For longer lengths of POF, the excess loss is more pronounced
yielding a 2 dB excess loss at offsets near m.
307
This excess loss is not related to the input coupling efficiency,
which may vary with offset due to the radial variation of the NA,
which results from the MMF’s graded refractive index profile.
For reasonably collimated input beams, the coupling efficiency
remains nearly constant with offset. The finite NA of lens cou-
pled VCSELs may impact the coupling efficiency at high offsets
for both glass and POF. However, we note that 10 GbE com-
pliant transmit optical sub assemblies (TOSAs) are required to
meet two EF criteria for the power distribution launched within
a 50- m core glass fiber. First, no more than 30% of the power
can be within a 4.5 m radius, and second, at least 86% of the
encircled flux must remain within a 19- m radius. Thus, the
DMD within a m offset will provide an accurate assess-
ment of 10 GbE performance.
Fiber loss is a key metric in evaluating fiber performance and
was evaluated as part of the DMD assessment. By also including
fibers of different lengths, we estimated the average coupling
loss. The fiber had a mean attenuation of 39 dB/km and mean
total coupling losses of 1.7 dB; Fresnel losses for both faces
are 0.7 dB leaving 0.5 dB per face as excess coupling loss
attributed primarily to end-face imperfections.
IV. MULTIMODE FIBER AND DETECTION
The efficient collection from the large core into a sufficiently
fast (and thus small) photodiode presents a fundamental chal-
lenge to receiver design for MMF applications, including DMD
testing. For example, overfilled 50 m-core fiber with N.A. 0.18
requires collection optics with a magnification of 1 to image
onto a 12 m diameter detector, and thus the NA of the image
beam onto the photodiode must be on the order of 0.8, a very
difficult NA to achieve. We note that receive optics do not re-
quire imaging; however, this example illustrates the challenges
imposed by core size and NA. For 10 Gb/s operation, photodi-
odes with 50 m diameters are typical, and hence the receiver
optics are manageable. Efforts to alleviate this constraint have
demonstrated large detectors with low input impedance to con-
trol the RC time constant [31].
Similarly, an often overlooked feature of high-speed receivers
is the potential for mode selective frequency response. Indeed,
we discovered that the receiver frequency responses varied
with illumination condition. To quantify this dependence, we
launched pulses at various offsets into the short 50- m core
collection fiber, which was connected to the detector fiber. The
modal pattern incident on the detector fiber is shown for on
center [see Fig. 3(a)] and 20 m [see Fig. 3(b)] offset launches
with the corresponding receiver frequency responses, as shown
in Fig. 3(c). Note that the short fiber lengths do not influence the
frequency response via DMD. Center launch generally excites
lower order spatial modes while offset launch generally excites
the spatially larger higher order modes. For the receiver used
in this study and perhaps in other receivers, the higher order
modes result in a low-frequency enhancement of the detector
response also seen as a trailing edge enhancement (inset).
When incorporated in a DMD test, any change in frequency
response due to changes in the modal patterns incident upon the
photodiode would be incorrectly attributed to fiber behavior.
To eliminate detector dependence on mode power distribu-
tion, we employed a custom mode-mixer before the receiver,
308
Fig. 3. Frequency response variation under various modal excitations of collection fiber. Single-mode excitation of 50-m collection fiber for (a) center and (b)
offset launch revealed (c) receiver modal dependence. Addition of an intervening mode-mixer eliminated variation of illumination pattern (d)–(e) input into receiver
pigtail, ensuring consistent receiver response (f).
composed of a 50- m core glass fiber a few meters long making
numerous tight bends. This strong mode mixing ensured that the
detector received nearly identical mode-power distributions in-
dependent of the modes collected and hence exhibited a uniform
frequency response independent of mode profile at the end of
the POF or at the mode-mixer input. The mode-mixer homoge-
nizes the illumination pattern incident upon the receiver input,
as demonstrated by the modal patterns after the mode mixer for
the incident launch conditions of on-center [see Fig. 3(d)] and 20
m offset [see Fig. 3(e)]. The desired uniformity of detector re-
sponse is evident in Fig. 3(f). Stabilizing the receiver frequency
response enabled us to accurately deconvolve the system re-
sponse from individual impulse responses thereby creating high
temporal resolution DMD measurements and accurate EMBs
for the 100 m fiber.
In order to achieve sufficient temporal resolution for the 100
m fiber, we used an 18 ps FWHM impulse-response optimized
photodetector [30] with a 50- m core fiber. The collection ef-
ficiency of the 62.5- m POF coupled to the 50- m core was
measured for a number of 100-m POF samples for a range of
launch offsets to ensure we were not preferentially discarding
the highest order modes. The collection efficiency is distinct
from the launch dependent loss and was not strongly launch de-
pendent, which we attribute to the combined effects of strong
MC and the DMA demonstrated in Fig. 2. The nominal center
launch collection efficiency was 85 to 90%, which is primarily
attributed to Fresnel loss. For those fibers that exhibited a de-
creased collection efficiency with increased launch offset the
collection efficiency remained within 1 dB (2 dB) of center
launch for launch offsets to m( m).
JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 29, NO. 3, FEBRUARY 1, 2011
Since the DMD metric is determined by the normalized indi-
vidual responses it is not directly impacted by loss or by atten-
uation of higher order modes. On the other hand, actual perfor-
mance may be influenced by DMA and our DMD measurements
allow accurate performance estimates to at least 20- m launch
offset. We did not observe any correlation between the loss and
the DMD or the computed bandwidths.
V. CHROMATIC DISPERSION
The VCSEL-based fiber links as short as 100 m may be sub-
ject to CD penalties at 10 Gb/s due to the relatively large spec-
tral width ( 0.4 nm) of 10 Gb/s VCSELs. Although the mate-
rial dispersion of PF bulk polymer ( ps/nm km at 845
nm) has been reported [32] the total CD of GI-PF-POF has not.
Validating PF-POF for high-speed operation and to preclude CD
from impacting DMD testing requires an assessment of the total
CD of the GI-POF. We, therefore, measured the CD of seven
different POF samples using a 70 fs titanium-sapphire pulse
source with a 14 nm FWHM spectrum centered at 800 nm. The
broad spectrum ensured that the pulse broadening is completely
dominated by CD and that DMD is negligible. The POF samples
had nominal core sizes of 50, 62.5, and 120 m and lengths from
100 to 300 m. The CD at 800 nm ranged from to
ps/nm km (see Table II). The POF PF polymer has a very small
dependence on fluorine dopant concentration ( ps/nm km
at 850 nm with 1% vs ps/nm km at 850 nm undoped)
[32]; therefore, only a small dependence on fiber dopant con-
centration or mode power distribution is expected.
We also measured the CD of a 600-m length of 62.5 m core
POF at 845 nm using the 12 ps source used for DMD testing to
inject short pulses with a variety of spectral widths (from 0.067
to 0.631 nm) by utilizing spectral broadening due to self-phase
DECKER et al.: STATISTICAL STUDY OF GRADED-INDEX PERFLUORINATED PLASTIC OPTICAL FIBER 309

TABLE II
CHROMATIC DISPERSION

modulation in the single-mode transport fiber. A linear fit of the

dependence of the fiber output pulsewidth upon spectral width
(assuming constant contribution due to DMD) yielded a CD of
ps/nm km.
The observed wavelength dependence is consistent with the
reported material dispersion decreasing from ps/nm km at
800 nm to ps/nm km at 850 nm. We can, therefore, estimate
that the total CD in GI-PF-POF is ps/nm km at 845 nm
(slightly lower than glass MMF) with a dispersion slope of
ps/nm km.
We can estimate the CD limited transmission distance for
IEEE 802.3 compliant VCSELs at 850 nm with a worst case
RMS spectral width of 0.45 nm. Allowing a 1 dB CD penalty
with ps/nm km fiber limits the fiber length to 320 m for
10 Gb/s transmission or 80 m for 40 Gb/s transmission (as-
suming Gaussian spectra, intensity modulation, and linear de-
pendencies of pulse spread upon bit-rate, fiber length, disper-
sion, and source spectral width) [33]. Our source for our DMD
measurements has a measured RMS spectral width of 0.07
Fig. 4. Representative deconvolved DMD traces for 100 m fibers. Impulse re-
nm. The pulse spread due to CD, is 2 ps for a 100 m fiber <
sponses were typically 100 ps with many fibers exhibiting individual (fixed
[26], and scales linearly with fiber length. This broadening is offset) responses that are resolution limited.
similar to the total system jitter and is sufficiently small to be
ignored for our DMD assessment or for EMBc or link perfor-
mance assessment. The typical SNR yielded useful data to 40 GHz determined by
the stability of frequency-domain phase behavior.
VI. DIFFERENTIAL MODAL DELAY Example deconvolved DMD responses depict the range of be-
The temporal responses of the set of 42 nominally 62.5- havior observed for the POF fiber set (see Fig. 4). We note that
m core fibers were measured with respect to transverse offset. all responses are strongly confined to ps and are thus
The temporal waveforms of the POF samples were measured expected to support 10 Gb/s. A single metric is often extracted
at different launch offsets within a square grid that spanned 70 from the DMD scan. The “DMD” is the temporal delay between
m (i.e., m) in both the x- and y-direction in order to the 25% intensity point of the rising edge of the fastest impulse
ensure that all guided modes were explored. We observed that response and falling edge of the slowest impulse response as is
the impulse responses varied smoothly and slowly with offset identified by the vertical dashed lines in Fig. 4. Enhancement
(see Fig. 4). Thus, 5 m step spacing provides adequate spatial in the leading edge of the pulses at high offsets was observed
resolution. This slowing varying response is attributed to the in some fibers [see Fig. 4(d)]; however, we did not observe lag-
extrusion fabrication methods and to the strong mode mixing ging impulses at high offsets. This is consistent with index pro-
known to occur in GI-POF [8], [34]. files with excessively low index at the periphery. In the limit of
Each recorded temporal response spans 5 ns with a 1.25-ps strong MC, a nearly Gaussian temporal response after propa-
step size and incorporates 16-waveform averaging to reduce the gation through long lengths of fiber is expected [35]. Although
noise of the receiver and 70 GHz sampling. The long span and the MC is approximately five orders of magnitude stronger than
short time step allowed for frequency domain analysis with a that in glass [36], it is not sufficient to fully mix the mode power
200-MHz resolution and a high frequency limit beyond 80 GHz. distributions for fiber lengths of 100 m or less [8].
310
Fig. 5. DMD using 40-m-diameter window, 18 100 m (a) and 16 200 m (b)
fibers, arranged by cabling type. Performance is independent of cabling type
and launch offset direction (“x” in black, “y” in gray). Few fibers exhibit perfor-
mance outside the range of two standard deviations.
We report the DMD metric to quantify the performance of
each fiber and, based on the previously described excess loss
and encircled flux requirement of 10 GbE TOSAs, we quantify
DMD values for radial offsets to m for two orthogonal
diameters.
The 40- m diameter DMD is depicted in Fig. 5 arranged by
cabling type. The DMD for 100 m lengths of GI-POF ranged
from 30 to 190 ps [see Fig. 5(a)]. The high DMD’s are all as-
sociated with the highest offset responses that sometimes ex-
hibited leading edge enhancement similar to Fig. 4(d). Fig. 5(a)
shows the DMD for both “x” and “y” cuts for each fiber type.
The 40- m-diameter DMD for 200 m lengths are shown in
Fig. 5(b). The POF DMD did not exhibit any dependence on
cabling methods for the set of 42 POF. The 100 m fibers have
a mean DMD of 95.0 ps with a standard deviation of 45.2 ps,
while the 200 m fibers have a mean DMD of 185.4 ps and a
standard deviation of 124.5 ps.
Reducing the DMD window to m nearly eliminates the
highest offset leading edge enhancement found in a few fibers
and results in a notable improvement in performance of the
DMD. The 100 m fiber mean DMD dropped by 50% to 48.6
ps with a standard deviation of 10.6 ps, while the mean 200-m
fiber DMD dropped by 40% to 110.3 ps with a standard devia-
tion of 104.0 ps. This standard deviation results primarily from
a single outlier fiber in the 490 none group with DMD trace data
similar to that of Fig. 4(d).
The length scaling behavior of the DMD is a measure of the
impact of MC; strongly mode coupled fibers exhibit a square
JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 29, NO. 3, FEBRUARY 1, 2011
Fig. 6. DMD versus length for 40- and 30-m-diameter windows. Power-law
fit via least squares algorithm (without outliers) demonstrates effects of MC on
fiber performance.
root dependence [37]. The measured DMD for all offset ranges
always scaled sub linearly with fiber length (see Fig. 6). The
power-law length dependence of the 40- m-diameter DMD
yields , [see Fig. 6(a)]. Reducing the DMD window di-
ameter to 30 m results in a power law dependence .
The reduction of DMD window width significantly enhanced
the performance of the 100 m fibers and reduced the DMD vari-
ance. The longer fiber lengths allow MC to the highest order
modes, which, in a minority of fibers, exhibit the leading edge
enhancement of the impulse responses. Both the DMD traces
of Fig. 4 and the power law behavior are consistent with strong
MC. The DMD demonstrate that GI-POF will support 10 Gb/s
over 100 m for all launches within a 30- m-diameter and most
fibers will support 10 Gb/s with launch offsets within a 40- m
diameter. Furthermore, some fibers support 40 Gb/s over 100 m
from the standpoint of modal delay and CD although link power
budgets may be challenging without use of high OMA lasers.
VII. EFFECTIVE MODAL BANDWIDTH
The VCSELs are the most likely sources to be used with
MMF. However, the different transverse mode structures of
VCSEL sources and the various coupling optics excite a wide
range of fiber modes. To quantify these interactions, the EMBc
metric was developed [29]. Each of the VCSEL transverse
modes couples to multiple fiber modes, thus the combined
VCSEL/fiber response is dependent on the specific VCSEL and
optical subassembly.
A statistical study of launched MPD behavior using numer-
ical simulations of VCSELs and GI-MMF [29], [38] was per-
formed by the TIA FO 4.2.1 in parallel with the development
DECKER et al.: STATISTICAL STUDY OF GRADED-INDEX PERFLUORINATED PLASTIC OPTICAL FIBER 311

of the 10 GbE standard by IEEE 802.3 working group; one re-

sult of the study was a set of ten representative launched MPDs
for use in calculating the EMB of the VCSEL-fiber combina-
tion [26]. The ten representative MPDs span a wide range of
MPD with 86% EF radius ranging from 12 to 19 m and 4.5 m
EF ranging from 7% to 30%. This range is consistent with 10
GbE compliant TOSAs. From the launched MPDs and the mode
fields of the fiber, a set of weights (the “VCSEL weights”) was
developed. The weights allow a description of fiber MPDs based
upon the set of modes described by each offset launch. The net
impulse response of the fiber and VCSEL can then be deter-
mined via a weighted sum of the DMD trace data. A Fourier
analysis of the net impulse response yields the bandwidth of Fig. 7. Typical frequency responses of VCSEL-POF combinations after decon-
volution of the system response. The 3 dB frequency is indicated.
the VCSEL/fiber pair, the “EMBc” when using the ten standard
VCSELs. The worst performing VCSEL then establishes the
minEMBc for that fiber. The temporal response of the VCSEL
is not included in the EMBc metric.
The standard VCSEL weights were developed for 50- m core
GI-MMF. However, it is anticipated that the 62.5- m POF will
be used with 10 GbE compliant transmitters. Thus, we have de-
termined a corresponding set of DMD weights applicable to
62.5 m fiber based upon the 50- m core MPDs of 10 GbE
transmitters. We coupled the 50 m core modes to those of the
62.5- m core fiber using a numerical mode solver to compute
overlap integrals of the computed mode fields. This is some-
what different than direct excitation with a VCSEL but exactly
describes the behavior when a short 50- m core glass fiber is
between the TOSA and POF [28], [38]. The POF MPDs were
then used in conjunction with the POF DMD coupling coeffi-
cients to compute the weights for the 62.5- m core POF via a
least-squares optimization. These weights were used to calcu-
late the VCSEL/fiber impulse response and the EMBc.
Example deconvolved POF frequency responses computed
from the impulse responses are shown in Fig. 7. We readily
identify the 3 dB bandwidth as the frequency responses were
well behaved to beyond the 3 dB point even when this was 40
GHz. Using the EMBc metric nearly all fibers had sufficient
bandwidth to support 10 Gb/s for all VCSEL launch patterns.
The EMBc for all 10 VCSEL sources, arranged by VCSEL, and
cable type are depicted in Fig. 8(a); for each VCSEL-fiber pair,
the lesser of the EMBc evaluated for DMD data in the “x” and Fig. 8. (a) Calculated EMBc for ten 10 GbE standard VCSEL mode power
“y” directions was chosen to provide conservative estimate of distributions 1 through 10 (left to right) for 18 100 m fibers, grouped by cable
type. VCSEL 5 (the most outwardly weighted VCSEL) performs worst of all
fiber performance. VCSELs with larger intensity at higher ra- VCSELs for almost all fibers. (b) Calculated fiber bandwidth using VCSELs
dial offsets (VCSELs 4, 5, and 6) are more likely to exhibit with six transverse modes and with mode power distributions very similar to
lower bandwidth. However, some fibers exhibit high bandwidth the ten standard VCSELs in (a) (same fiber order).
when higher order modes are preferentially excited and are rel-
atively insensitive to the MPD created by the VCSEL, again
consistent with the DMD. For those fibers that show a lower bandwidth used to establish the required fiber bandwidth-dis-
performance with a higher proportion of power in higher order tance product and which yields a 1.3 dB penalty assuming a
modes the lower bandwidth is associated with a low-frequency Gaussian response [29]. Only 4 of the 18 100 m fibers do not
enhancement. This is consistent with the observed DMD where meet the 6.1 GHz bandwidth requirement. All four only had dif-
some fibers exhibit an “early” arrival of the pulse for high offset ficulty with one specific type of launch, i.e., either hot inside or
launch. hot outside, but not both. With some restriction of mode launch
For fibers with weak MC (such as silica GI-MMF), the band- all but one of the fibers could signal at 10 Gb/s over 100 m, as
width-distance product is a fixed metric i.e., the DMD scales 170 of the 180 total VCSEL-fiber pairs pass the bandwidth re-
linearly with fiber length. The required fiber modal bandwidth quirement. These results are slightly different than those found
needed to support 10 Gb/s depends on the allowed ISI penalty. by using the standard 50 m weights directly, which results in
We choose a bandwidth of 6.1 GHz consistent with the 10 GbE 177 passing VCSEL-fiber pairs due to the increased excitation
312 JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 29, NO. 3, FEBRUARY 1, 2011

Fig. 10. Simulation of 10 Gb/s VCSEL-POF link using Gaussian transmitter

and 7.5-GHz Bessel–Thompson receiver. The eye opening and OMA used to
calculate VECP are identified.

Fig. 9. Minimum EMBc versus length for all fibers computed from the mea- VIII. 10 GB/S VECP
sured DMD and the ten standard 10 GbE VCSELs. Nearly, all 100 m fibers
support 10 Gb/s using the minEMBc criterion. Link performance depends not only on the 3 dB bandwidth
but also on the structure of the frequency response. We, there-
fore, separately evaluate link performance using the IEEE
VECP, per 802.3 [28], which provides an estimate of the ISI
of higher order modes in the 62.5 m case. Also, four fibers ex-
penalty for each VCSEL-fiber pair at 10 Gb/s. Transmitter and
hibit GHz bandwidth for most VCSELs, demonstrating
receiver temporal behaviors conformed to the 10 GbE spread-
the potential of POF performance in 25 Gb/s VCSEL links.
sheet model that has seen widespread use: a 53 ps 10%–90%
As an independent check of POF-VCSEL performance, we
rise-time Gaussian transmitter and a 7.5-GHz fourth-order
also assessed the fiber bandwidth by direct calculation of the
Bessel–Thomson receiver. The transmitter and receiver fre-
power excited in each fiber mode when illuminated by a multi-
quency responses, the fiber response, and a non-return-to-zero
transverse mode VCSEL. The VCSEL image on the fiber was
(NRZ) OOK pseudo-random bit sequence (PRBS) were
varied in diameter, offset, and VCSEL MPD to exhibit encircled
used to simulate 10 Gb/s eye diagrams (see Fig. 10). The VECP
flux performance (% outside and % inside) within 50- m core
calculated for all ten VCSELs are shown (see Fig. 11) for the
glass fiber nearly identical to that of the ten standard VCSEL
18 100 m fibers, using the same fiber order as Fig. 8 (and again
sources [39]. Each VCSEL source was formed by the superpo-
choosing the higher penalty of either the x-cut or y-cut DMD
sition of the six lowest order Hermite–Gaussian modes, all with
data). A threshold VECP of 3.6 dB is chosen to qualify the
the same mode field diameter, with the imaged mode-field di-
fibers for 10 GbE performance as this is the allowed ISI penalty
ameter ranging from 14 to 22 m on the fiber end-face [29].
in the 10 GbE working group’s MMF power budgets [40].
The EMB performance of these ten specific VCSELs was then
91% of the VCSEL-fiber links have a VECP less than 3.6 dB.
evaluated for each of the 100 m fibers. The overall EMB be-
These four fibers that failed EMBc also had high VECP for
havior of each POF sample is very similar [see Fig. 8(b)] to that
similar launches, while two additional fibers also failed only
computed from the standardized VCSEL MPDs. Indeed, we ob-
for VCSEL 5. Thus, VCSELs 4 and 5 continued to provide the
tain similar results using other simulated VCSELs. Importantly,
greatest challenge.
there was no apparent correlation of EMBc (or EMB for direct
Comparison of a fiber’s minEMBc, maximum VECP, and
VCSEL launches) with fiber cabling type.
DMD traces confirms that the excitation of higher modes re-
The minEMBc exhibits a wide range of performance for the
sults in an increase in ISI penalty. The VECP simulates link
100 m fibers with an average of 11.2 GHz. The average EMBc
performance and is thus a more reliable indicator of whether
was nearly twice at 24 GHz (see Fig. 9). The 200 m fibers exhibit
a fiber is suitable for 10 Gb/s operation, particularly when the
an average minEMBc of 5.2 GHz and the 300 m fibers exhibit
fiber frequency response contains structure. The lack of corre-
an average minEMBc of 3.6 GHz. A number of the 200 m fibers
lation between EMBc and VECP for some fibers illustrates the
will support 10 Gb/s and one 300 m fiber will support 10 Gb/s
limitations of the 3 dB metric when the frequency response ex-
using the standardized 10 GbE VCSEL sources.
hibits significant structure. For the 100 m POF examined two
We conclude that this set of GI-POF is generally able to sup-
VCSEL-fiber pairs passed VECP but not EMBc and eight pairs
port 10 GbE over distances of 100 m, and that all fibers will
that passed EMBc did not pass VECP. Again, we note that we
support 10 Gb/s over the 50 m length as specified by the manu-
observe no correlation between performance and fiber cabling
facturer. We note the DMA of lossy modes could possibly im-
type.
prove performance with increasing propagation distance for a
specific fiber and specific launch condition. However, for fiber
with strong MC and for the launch conditions examined here, it IX. SUMMARY AND COMPARISON OF METRICS
is unlikely that this behavior is present. Lastly, many fibers sup- The 42 POF samples generally exhibited performance suit-
port much higher data rates using a VCSEL launch. able for 10 Gb/s operation over distances of 100 m or less. The
DECKER et al.: STATISTICAL STUDY OF GRADED-INDEX PERFLUORINATED PLASTIC OPTICAL FIBER
TABLE III
SUMMARY OF STATISTICS
Fig. 11. Performance of simulated 10 Gb/s links via VECP for each VCSEL-
fiber pair for 100-m lengths. VCSEL 5 again yields the lowest performance,
much more visibly and consistently than for the EMBc.
impulse response at high launch offset was sometimes broader
than that observed at low offsets, due to either the excitation
of higher order modes, which may readily couple to weakly
guided modes, or to lower precision of the index profile near
the core–cladding interface. The former mechanism is consis-
tent with our observation of increased loss at high offset.
The VCSEL launches with a larger relative intensity at high
offsets sometimes experienced significantly degraded fiber
EMBc due to these same effects. And, because it is based
upon the minEMBc calculation process, the VECP performed
similarly.
We find that all fibers exceed the manufacturer’s specifica-
tion of supporting 10 Gb/s over 50 m using the strict minEMBc
criterion. Furthermore, we find that nearly all 100 m fibers (14
313
of 18) support 10 Gb/s and that all but one fiber will support
10 Gb/s over 100 m for most VCSEL launch conditions. A few
(4) fibers support 25 Gb/s for most VCSEL launches and the
highest EMBc exceeds 50 GHz. For short reach links of
m, the set of examined GI-POF will support at least 25 Gb/s and
likely higher data rates.
Table III summarizes the means and standard deviations of
the various performance metrics evaluated for the set of 42 POF.
Generally, there is good correlation between the EMBc and the
VECP as expected. And there is good correlation between the
DMD and the EMBc. Also, we observed no significant correla-
tion between the loss and the other metrics. This suggests that
DMA is not a strong factor in determining fiber performance.
We note that the DMD metric requires each trace to be self-
normalized so that attenuated responses have equal weight in the
DMD metric. On the other hand, the EMBc and related metrics
weight the DMD traces according to the VCSEL mode power
distributions. Thus, EMBc metrics will not necessarily correlate
with the DMD metric when there are attenuated and broadened
impulse responses at some offset launch conditions, a feature
we have observed in some GI-POF. We note, however, that the
DMD does provide a good measure of expected fiber perfor-
mance. The DMD traces provide an exact performance metric
when using an SMF launch. Indeed, many fibers will support
Gb/s over 100 m and some will support 40 Gb/s over 100
m when using SMF launch. This combined with the observa-
tion that some EMBc exceed 50 GHz suggests that it is likely
that further refinements in GI-POF manufacturing will enable
GI-POF to reliably support 10 to 25 Gb/s over 100 m using VC-
SELs with 10 GbE style launch tolerances.
Not taken into account are modal noise, which will be
present when mode selective loss is present, mode partition
noise (which will be comparable to conventional silica MMF
314
due to the similar total CD), or any excess noise or jitter, which
could be present in the transmitter or receiver. Lastly, the suc-
cessful deployment of 10 GbE links requires satisfying a link
budget, which includes the ISI penalties as well as fiber and
connectorization loss. We have shown that the fiber bandwidth
meets the 10 GbE standard for fiber lengths to at least 50 m.
However, POF exhibits higher loss (4 dB/100 m) compared to
glass fiber. Thus, 50-m POF lengths should yield a successful
link budget.
X. CONCLUSION
We have characterized the loss, CD, DMD, and VCSEL-fiber
bandwidth of 42 samples of 62.5- m core GI-PF-POF. We used
high-temporal resolution measurements to quantify the DMD at
850 nm. We quantified the effects of launch condition on fiber
loss as well as the effects of received mode power distribution
on the performance of the detection apparatus. The performance
of the POF under VCSEL illumination was quantified using the
EMB, and 10 Gb/s link performance was quantified using the
VECP. We find that GI-POF will support 10 GbE over 50 m and
will support 10 Gb/s over 100 m with somewhat tighter launch
conditions, although fiber loss may be challenging. We did not
observe any correlation of performance with fiber cabling type.
Many of the fibers support data rates in excess of 25 Gb/s with
VCSEL launch it is, therefore, likely that modest advances in
POF uniformity will enable 10 GbE over 100 m.
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Patrick J. Decker (M’07) was born near New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He
received the B.S. degree in applied physics and the M.S. degree in electrical
and computer engineering, both from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta,
in 2007 and 2008, respectively, where he was a Graduate Research Assistant
pursuing a Ph.D. degree at the Ultrafast Optical Communications Laboratory,
focusing on multimode optical communications, from May 2007 to October
2010.
He worked as a summer intern at Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, in 2008. He is currently with the Applied Micro Circuits Corpo-
ration, Andover, MA.
315
Mr. Decker is a member of the IEEE Photonics Society
Arup Polley received the B.Tech. degree in electronics and electrical commu-
nication engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India,
in 2003, the M.S. degrees in electrical engineering and physics in 2005 and
2008, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering in 2008 from
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta.
From 2003 to 2008, he was a member of the Ultrafast Optical Communi-
cations Laboratory, Georgia Institute of Technology, where he was engaged in
research on modeling terahertz signal generation in photoconductive switches,
dispersion compensation of multimode fiber, design and characterization of 40
Gb/s plastic optical fiber links, and design of transimpedance amplifiers for
large-area 10-Gb/s photoreceivers. He is currently an Analog Circuit Design En-
gineer at Texas Instruments, Dallas, where he is currently engaged in research
on the design of preamplifiers for hard-disk drives.
Joong H. Kim received the B.S.E.E. from North Carolina State University,
Raleigh, NC, in 2002, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering
from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, in 2005 and 2008, respectively.
In 2001, he was selected to participate in the National Science Foundation
Research Experience for an Undergraduate Program at the Ultrafast Optical Sci-
ence Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. After completion of the under-
graduate degree, he was a Hardware Engineer with Raytheon, Portsmouth, RI.
His graduate work focused on improving the efficiency of THz photoconduc-
tive sources by introducing spatially extended photoexcitations. He is currently
a Principle Scientist in the Science and Technology Department, Naval Surface
Warfare Center, Panama City, FL.
Stephen E. Ralph (M’86–SM’07) received the B.E.E. degree (Highest Honors)
in electrical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, and the
Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
He is currently a Professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Engi-
neering, Georgia Tech, Atlanta. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at AT&T Bell
Laboratories, and was a Visiting Scientist at the Optical Sciences Laboratory,
IBM T. J. Watson. In 1992, he joined the faculty at the Physics Department of
Emory University, and later joined Georgia Tech in 1998, where he is a founder
and the Director of the new 100 Gb/s Optical Networking Consortium. Dr. Ralph
became a senior member of the IEEE in 2007.