Guided transmissions
Electrical and optical link performances comparison

In the field of optics, unlike in the field of electricity, there are several modes of propagation in the waveguide, depending on its dimensions [E 3 652] :

• When the section of the waveguide is of the order of a few wavelengths, it is referred to as a single-mode waveguide.

• When the cross-section is much larger than the wavelength, it is referred to as a multimode waveguide.

As we have already shown, single-mode optics offer the best performance in terms of bandwidth and linear attenuation, while multimode optics offer better...