In optical fiber technology, multimode fiber is optical fiber that is designed to carry multiple light rays or modes concurrently, each at a slightly different reflection angle within the optical fiber core. Multimode fiber transmission is used for relatively short distances because the modes tend to disperse over longer lengths (this is called modal dispersion) . For longer distances, single mode fiber (sometimes called monomode) fiber is used.
Multimode fiber has a larger core than single mode.
Contributor(s): Mario Grullon Damian
This was last updated in March 1998