A dispersion-limited operation is an operation of a communications

Information transfer

In telecommunications, information transfer is the process of moving messages containing user information from a source to a sink.Note: The information transfer rate may or may not be equal to the transmission modulation rate.-See also:...

 link

Data link

In telecommunication a data link is the means of connecting one location to another for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information. It can also refer to a set of electronics assemblies, consisting of a transmitter and a receiver and the interconnecting data telecommunication circuit...

 in which signal waveform

Waveform

Waveform means the shape and form of a signal such as a wave moving in a physical medium or an abstract representation.In many cases the medium in which the wave is being propagated does not permit a direct visual image of the form. In these cases, the term 'waveform' refers to the shape of a graph...

 degradation

Degradation (telecommunications)

In telecommunication, degradation, which may be categorized as either "graceful" or "catastrophic", has the following meanings:#The deterioration in quality, level, or standard of performance of a functional unit....

 attributable to the dispersive effects of the communications medium

Transmission medium

A transmission medium is a material substance that can propagate energy waves...

 is the dominant mechanism that limits link performance. The dispersion is the filter-like effect that a link has on the signal, due to the different propagation speeds of the eigenmodes of the link. Practically, this means that the waveform at the input will be different from the waveform at the output of the link.

Note that the amount of allowable degradation is dependent on the quality of the receiver. Note also that in fiber optic communications, dispersion

Dispersion (optics)

In optics, dispersion is the phenomenon in which the phase velocity of a wave depends on its frequency, or alternatively when the group velocity depends on the frequency.Media having such a property are termed dispersive media...

-limited operation is often confused with distortion-limited operation

Distortion-limited operation

In telecommunication, distortion-limited operation is the condition prevailing when distortion of a received signal, rather than its attenuated amplitude , limits performance under stated operational conditions and limits....

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