NIST measurement is adapted to meet telecommunications industry needs. (News Briefs).

To meet the emerging metrology needs of the telecommunications industry, NIST (National Institute of Standards & Technology, Washington, DC, www.nist.gov) The standards-defining agency of the U.S. government, formerly the National Bureau of Standards. It is one of three agencies that fall under the Technology Administration (www.technology. scientists have significantly improved NISTs measurement capabilities for chromatic dispersion See dispersion. . Dispersion causes data pulses in optical fiber systems to broaden, resulting in transmission errors. Previously, NIST produced Standard Reference Material 2524, which was an artifact with a certified zero-dispersion wavelength In a single-mode optical fiber, the zero-dispersion wavelength is the wavelength or wavelengths at which material dispersion and waveguide dispersion cancel one another. In all silica-based optical fibers, minimum material dispersion occurs naturally at a wavelength of (ZDW ZDW Zero Dispersion Wavelength (optical fiber) ). However, the emergence of wavelength-division multiplexing In fibre-optic communications, wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) is a technology which multiplexes multiple optical carrier signals on a single optical fibre by using different wavelengths (colours) of laser light to carry different signals. now requires that chromatic dispersion itself be measured over the [approximately equal to]80 nm optical bandwidth occupied by multiple wavelength channels. The NIST system has been expanded to make certified measurements of chromatic dispersion with total uncertainties as low as 0.2 %. This improved system also compensates for temperature drift and features a more sophisticated scheme for background removal, cutting the ZDW measurement uncertainty nearly in half. The system can measure a wide variety of the optical fibers found in todays sophisticate d networks.

CONTACT: Tasshi Dennis, (303) 497-3507; tasshi@boulder.nist.gov.

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Title Annotation:	National Institute of Standards and Technology
Publication:	Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology
Date:	Jan 1, 2002
Words:	152
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