With the continuous development of optical communication technology, optical fiber communication has gone through five generations. Through the optimization and upgrading of OM1, OM2, OM3, OM4 and OM5 optical fibers, breakthroughs have been made in transmission capacity and distance. Owing to the demand of characteristics and application scenarios, OM5 optical fibers have shown a good development momentum.

1966-1976 is the development stage of optical fiber from basic research to practical application. In this stage, 850 nm short wavelength and 45 MB/s, 34 MB/s low-rate multi-mode (0.85 micron) optical fiber communication system is realized. The transmission distance can reach 10 km without relay amplifier.

From 1976 to 1986, the development stage of optical fiber communication system application was vigorously promoted with the aim of improving transmission rate and increasing transmission distance. In this stage, the optical fiber develops from multi-mode to single-mode, and the working wavelength also develops from 850 nm short wavelength to 1310 nm/1550 nm long wavelength. The single-mode optical fiber communication system with 140-565 Mb/s transmission rate is realized, and the transmission distance can reach 100 km without relay amplifier.

From 1986 to 1996, the new technology of optical fiber was studied with the aim of super-large capacity and super-long distance. In this stage, 1.55 um dispersion shifted single mode optical fiber communication system is realized. Optical fibers use external modulation technology (electro-optic devices) to transmit at a rate of up to 10 Gb/s and a transmission distance of up to 150 km without a relay amplifier.

1996-2009 is the era of synchronous digital system optical fiber transmission network. Optical amplifier is introduced into optical fiber communication system, which reduces the need for repeaters. Using wavelength division multiplexing technology, optical fiber transmission rate (up to 10Tb/s) is increased and transmission distance is up to 160km.

Note: ISO/IEC 11801 officially promulgated the standard grade of multimode optical fibers in 2002, classifying multimode optical fibers into OM1, OM2 and OM3 optical fibers, and TIA-492-AAAD officially defined OM4 optical fibers in 2009.

Optical soliton technology is introduced into optical fiber communication system, which makes use of the non-linear effect of optical fiber to make the pulse wave resist dispersion while maintaining the original waveform. At the same time, optical fiber communication system successfully expands the wavelength of wavelength division multiplexer, extending the original 1530-1570 nm to 1300-1650 nm. In addition, at this stage (2016), OM5 optical fiber is officially put on line.