The Development of a Light Wave Communications Laboratory

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The Laser Electro-Optics Technology Department enhances its curriculum by developing a Lightwave Communications Laboratory. With the advent of the information superhighway, the Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996, and the tremendous growth in the fiber-optics industry over the past 5 years, there will be a dramatic increase in the demand for technicians educated in lightwave communications. According to a recent Federal study, the demand for technicians educated in photonics, which includes lightwave communications, will double to 740,000 by the year 2000. The new laboratory addresses this need through the development of a state-of-the-art Lightwave Communications Laboratory. The laboratory contains two workstations, each equipped with a high-speed integrated optical modulator and support hardware, a fusion splicer, an optical timedomain reflectometer (OTDR), a fiber-optic attenuation test set, a fiber-optic fault locator, and a fiber-optic termination kit. The stations can be designed to emulate a real-world fiber-optic communication system, capable of transmitting analog and digital information at rates of up to 2.5 Ghz through several kilometers of both single-mode and multimode fiber. With the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with an actual working lightwave communication system, students are significantly better prepared to pursue careers in the rapidly growing field of photonics, telecommunications, or research and development or to continue their studies at the 4-year college and university level. *