Abstract

Fiber_Expert, a rule-based expert system, can help engineers to (1) maintain a data base of fiber optic components manufactured by various vendors, (2) simulate the performance of a data link or fiber optic interconnection system built by combining components from the data base, and (3) design an optimum fiber optic data link configuration that satisfies a set of user-specified constraints. The inference mechanism based on the optimization procedure is a major feature of this expert system. The optimum configuration is determined by a new, efficient, heuristic tree-searching algorithm. For simulating the performance of a specified data link configuration the program includes the spectrum of the source and the structure and the composition of the fiber. Calculations of the power budget, the bandwidth and the rise time, and the bit error rate of the system are executed by efficient and accurate modules. The software is menu-driven and userfriendly. Fiber_Expert was developed on IBM PCs but can run on practically any type of personal computer available.

© 1989 Optical Society of America