According to the different refractive index distributions of fiber sections, the types of fibers can be divided into step-type fibers and graded fibers.

Sort by transmission mode

According to the number of modes of optical fiber transmission, the types of optical fibers can be divided into multi-mode fibers and single-mode fibers.

Single-mode fiber is a fiber that can transmit only one mode. Single-mode fiber can only transmit the fundamental mode (the lowest-order mode), there is no time delay difference between modes, and it has a much larger bandwidth than multi-mode fiber, which is very important for high-speed transmission. The mode fields of single-mode fibers are only a few micrometers (μm) in diameter, and their bandwidths are typically one or two orders of magnitude higher than that of graded multimode fibers. Therefore, it is suitable for large-capacity, long-distance communication.

Classification according to international standards (classification according to ITU-T recommendations)

In order to make optical fibers have a unified international standard, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) has formulated a unified optical fiber standard (G standard). According to the ITU-T recommendations on optical fibers, the types of optical fibers can be divided into:

G.651 fiber (50/125μm multimode graded index fiber)

G.652 fiber (non-dispersion-shifted fiber)

G.653 Fiber (Dispersion Shifted Fiber DSF)

G.654 fiber (cutoff wavelength shifted fiber)

G.655 fiber (non-zero dispersion shifted fiber).