There have been considerable advances towards higher speed (100 Mb/s) workgroup LANs which support the existing UTP and STP structured cabling utilized by 10 BASE-T and token ring LANs. The paper describes the transmission techniques used by an IEEE 802.12 demand priority network with UTP and STP structured cabling. The UTP transmission scheme supports categories 3-5 UTP (i.e. voice-grade and data-grade) using a 5B6B block coded binary signalling scheme on four pairs. This binary signalling scheme is shown to provide better immunity against crosstalk and external (impulse) noise than multilevel signalling schemes. The STP scheme combines the strengths of the 5B6B block code with signalling technology similar to existing SDDI links.

Design techniques which enable the performance of subcarrier multiplexed FM broadcast optical networks to be optimized at the planning stage are described. At the transmitter node, criteria for maximizing the subscriber carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) are presented. At the subscriber node, it is shown that under the majority of circumstances, the optimum direct detection receiver consists of a low-noise III-V avalanche photodiode and high-impedance front-end preamplifier. Sensitivities approaching -40 dB (1 mW) for 16.5 dB CNR in 36 MHz subscriber bandwidth are predicted for a 60-channel system. Preliminary experimental tests on an optical-feedback subcarrier receiver showed -34 dB (1 mW) sensitivity at 1.55 mu m from 16.5 dB CNR in a 36 MHz bandwidth centered on 1.2 GHz with a 12% modulation index single-channel FM test signal.>