bandwidth•distance product

Of an optical fiber, under specified launching and cabling conditions, at a specified wavelength, a figure of merit equal to the product of the fiber's length and the 3-dB bandwidth of the optical signal. Note 1: The bandwidth•distance product is usually stated in megahertz•kilometer (MHz•km) or gigahertz•kilometer (GHz•km). Note 2: The bandwidth•distance product, which is normalized to 1 km, is a useful figure of merit for predicting the effective fiber bandwidth for other lengths, and for concatenated fibers. Synonym bandwidth•length product.