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Technology Stocks : Lightpath Technologies: LPTH New WDM player -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: craig crawford who wrote (276)	12/16/1997 12:56:00 PM
From: Duane L. Olson	Respond to of 1219

Craig, an extension of the (significant) achievements of the laser guys, and the WDM guys, etc.. seems to me is: This increases the value of a fiber optic network (in comparison with the older MW and metalic cable)... so it raises my valuation on, for example, QWST. The recent announcement that QWST would be offering LD at 7.5 cents per minute, around the clock sort of emphasizes the resulting advantage. Then, IMHO, the success of the QWSTs, etc, feeds back...they then need more WDMs, lasers, amplifiers, etc... Of course, if a WDM signal can be transmitted 1,000 km without regen..how much they gonna sell?? <gg> Great post-- much to think about, Craig... Any further comments? Thanks... dlo

To: craig crawford who wrote (276)	12/17/1997 2:09:00 AM
From: Tim Bagwell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1219

Woah boy...this article really raises my BS flag. My guess is that this company doesn't know much about fiber. High power lasers in fiber excite a non-linear effect known as four-wave mixing which leads to signal distortion. The low line-width further exacerbates the problem because the spectral power density increases. In fact, in some applications lasers are actually modulated with a signal that effectively increases the line-width to reduce this effect. Furthermore, dispersive effects in fiber are not overcome by increasing power. Dispersion has to do with the modulation placed on the carrier, not the laser itself. The idea that increasing the laser power will increase the DWDM reach to 1000 km is bogus. High power lasers exist today but are not used in telecom for these reasons. Also, the lifetime and drift of high power lasers are too poor to be serious candidates. Also, for short haul high power is not necessary because the distances are shorter to begin with reducing the need for power. There might be some advantage in some undersea fiber which operates on a different principle (where amplifiers are expensive to maintain). But those systems are already on the drawing board so they don't represent an opportunity anytime soon. I can't see this product as a serious contender in fiber applications. Thanks for the post Craig!