Measuring Bit Error Rate in Plastic Fiber Optics Under Bending Conditions

Plastic optical fibers, POF, play a significant role in telecommunications. Their advantages make them a popular choice against their glass fiber counterparts and copper cables. With their resistant material and efficiency in data transmission, not to mention cost-effectiveness due to easier installation compared to that of glass fiber, applications of POF are surging. Despite being a popular choice, POF does have its limitations, mainly scarce power budget that can be impaired when transmitting under bending conditions. Investigation regarding POF behavior under bending conditions is needed to gain better understanding of the limits to their transmission properties. In this paper, additional information is provided regarding 3 fiber types: step-index, graded-index, and multicore step-index fibers, and their behaviors under bending conditions. The transmission properties measured are bit error rate, also known as BER, and optical power. This paper investigates the effects, as well as the relationship, between optical power and BER under these conditions.