The Fibre Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) is intended for use in a high-performance general
purpose multi-station network and is designed for efficient operation with a peak data rate of
100 Mbit/s. It uses a Token Ring architecture with optical fibre as the primary transmission
medium. FDDI provides for hundreds of stations operating over an extent of tens of
kilometers.
The FDDI Part: Token ring low-cost fibre physical layer medium dependent standard (LCF-PMD)
specifies the lower sublayer of the Physical Layer for FDDI. It thus specifies the power
levels and characteristics of the optical transmitter and receiver, and the interface optical
signal requirements including jitter. LCF-PMD also specifies the connector receptacle
footprint, the requirements of conforming FDDI optical fibre cablings, and the permissible bit
error rates.
LCF-PMD is one of a set of alternative international standard PMDs for FDDI. This set
includes the original PMD, the Single Mode Fibre PMD (SMF-PMD), and the Twisted-Pair
PMD (TP-PMD).