Optical Fiber Metrology

The development of metrology to support the optical fiber communications industry is an excellent case study of how stakeholders-fiber manufacturers, their customers, standards-developing organizations, and (in the U.S.) the Federal Government-worked together to develop product specification standards that facilitated the growth of an industry. This paper reviews some of that history, primarily from the perspective of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which worked with the industry to provide independent research and neutral coordination of many industry studies and measurement comparisons.