| Definition | In communication technology, "dispersion" is used to describe any process by which an electromagnetic signal propagating in a physical medium is degraded because the various wave components (i.e., frequencies) of the signal have different propagation velocities within the physical medium. In an optical fiber, there are several significant dispersion effects, such as material dispersion, profile dispersion, and waveguide dispersion, that degrade the signal.
http://www.atis.org/glossary/definition.aspx?id=7348 |