High speed POF transmission technology and its standardization

IEEE 1394 is one of the most useful candidate for next generation multimedia interface, because it can transmit both video/audio and packet data through the same line, simultaneously. However, it is hard to realize a digital network by utilizing this interface, because its maximum transmission distance is limited up to 4.5 m in an electric cable. On the other hand, plastic optical fiber (POF) is convenient to transmit a high speed digital signal for a long distance, because of its wide frequency bandwidth (more than 100 MHz) and easy handling (about l mm of core diameter). Indeed, an optical transmission technology based on a PMMA-POF had been already proposed for IEEE 1394 interface, although its maximum speed is limited up to 250 Mbps. This paper introduces high speed POF transmission technology and its standardization based on a resonant cavity LED (RC-LED) and a wideband POF, which can transmit up to 500 Mbps over 50 m long.