An optical link is a
telecommunications link
In a telecommunications network, a link is a communication channel that connects two or more devices for the purpose of data transmission. The link may be a dedicated physical link or a virtual circuit that uses one or more physical links or sha ...
that consists of a single end-to-end optical circuit. A cable of
optical fiber
An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass ( silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a mea ...
s, possibly concatenated into a
dark fiber
A dark fibre or unlit fibre is an unused optical fibre, available for use in fibre-optic communication. Dark fibre may be leased from a network service provider.
Dark fibre originally referred to the potential network capacity of telecommunic ...
link, is the simplest form of an optical link.
Other forms of optical link can include single-"colour" links over a
wavelength division multiplex
In fiber-optic communications, wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) is a technology which multiplexes a number of optical carrier signals onto a single optical fiber by using different wavelengths (i.e., colors) of laser light. This techni ...
infrastructure, and/or links that use
optical amplifiers to compensate for attenuation over long distances.
Other forms of optical links include
free-space optical telecommunication links.
In the
rail transport
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...
sector, optical links are used in two forms depending on whether the feeding station is a main station or not. Thus main stations are called 'long halls', and all remaining stations are said to be 'short halls'.
See also
*
100 Gigabit Ethernet
40 Gigabit Ethernet (40GbE) and 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GbE) are groups of computer networking technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at rates of 40 and 100 gigabits per second (Gbit/s), respectively. These technologies offer significantly ...
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10 Gigabit Ethernet
10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GE, 10GbE, or 10 GigE) is a group of computer networking technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of 10 gigabits per second. It was first defined by the IEEE 802.3ae-2002 standard. Unlike previous ...
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Active cable
Active cables are copper cables for data transmission that use an electronic circuit to boost the performance of the cable. Without an electronic circuit, a cable is considered a passive cable. Passive cables are liable to degrade the data they ca ...
*
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mu ...
*
CXP (connector)
In computer networking, CXP is a copper connector system specified by the InfiniBand Trade Association. It provides twelve 10 Gbit/s links suitable for single 100 Gigabit Ethernet, three 40 Gigabit Ethernet channels, or twelve 10 Gigabit Et ...
*
C form-factor pluggable The C form-factor pluggable (CFP, 100G form factor pluggable, where ''C'' is la, centum "hundred") is a multi-source agreement to produce a common form-factor for the transmission of high-speed digital signals. The c stands for the Latin letter C ...
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Data center
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Fibre channel
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Fiber-optic communication
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Green computing
Green computing, green IT, or ICT sustainability, is the study and practice of environmentally sustainable computing or IT.
The goals of green computing are similar to green chemistry: reduce the use of hazardous materials, maximize energy effic ...
*
HDMI
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controlle ...
*
High-performance computing
High-performance computing (HPC) uses supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computation problems.
Overview
HPC integrates systems administration (including network and security knowledge) and parallel programming into a mult ...
*
InfiniBand
InfiniBand (IB) is a computer networking communications standard used in high-performance computing that features very high throughput and very low latency. It is used for data interconnect both among and within computers. InfiniBand is also use ...
*
InfiniBand Trade Association
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Interconnect bottleneck
The interconnect bottleneck comprises limits on integrated circuit (IC) performance due to connections between components instead of their internal speed.
In 2006 it was predicted to be a "looming crisis" by 2010.
Improved performance of compute ...
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Light Peak
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List of device bandwidths
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Optical communication
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Optical cable
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Optoelectronics
Optoelectronics (or optronics) is the study and application of electronic devices and systems that find, detect and control light, usually considered a sub-field of photonics. In this context, ''light'' often includes invisible forms of radiat ...
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Parallel optical interface
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Photo diode
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PIN diode
A pin is a device used for fastening objects or material together.
Pin or PIN may also refer to:
Computers and technology
* Personal identification number (PIN), to access a secured system
** PIN pad, a PIN entry device
* PIN, a former Dutch ...
*
PCI Express
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Small form-factor pluggable transceiver
Small Form-factor Pluggable connected to a pair of fiber-optic cables
Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) is a compact, hot-pluggable network interface module format used for both telecommunication and data communications applications. An SF ...
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Terabit Ethernet
Terabit Ethernet or TbE is Ethernet with speeds above 100 Gigabit Ethernet. 400 Gigabit Ethernet (400G, 400GbE) and 200 Gigabit Ethernet (200G, 200GbE) standards developed by the IEEE P802.3bs Task Force using broadly similar technology ...
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Transimpedance amplifier
In electronics, a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) is a current to voltage converter, almost exclusively implemented with one or more operational amplifiers. The TIA can be used to amplify the current output of Geiger–Müller tubes, photo multipli ...
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VCSEL
The vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser, or VCSEL , is a type of semiconductor laser diode with laser beam emission perpendicular from the top surface, contrary to conventional edge-emitting semiconductor lasers (also ''in-plane'' lasers) which ...
References
Optical communications
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