Spectral width

Measurement in communication theory

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Spectral width" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

In telecommunications, spectral width is the width of a spectral band, i.e., the range of wavelengths or frequencies over which the magnitude of all spectral components is significant, i.e., equal to or greater than a specified fraction of the largest magnitude.

In fiber-optic communication applications, the usual method of specifying spectral width is the full width at half maximum (FWHM). This is the same convention used in bandwidth, defined as the frequency range where power drops by less than half (at most −3 dB).

The FWHM method may be difficult to apply when the spectrum has a complex shape. Another method of specifying spectral width is a special case of root-mean-square deviation where the independent variable is wavelength, λ, and f (λ) is a suitable radiometric quantity.

The relative spectral width, Δλ/λ, is frequently used where Δλ is obtained according to note 1, and λ is the center wavelength.

## See also

[edit]

* Spectral linewidth in optics
* Spectral bandwidth

## References

[edit]

* This article incorporates public domain material from Federal Standard 1037C. General Services Administration. Archived from the original on 2022-01-22. (in support of MIL-STD-188).

This article related to telecommunications is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

|

* v
* t
* e

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template