Which term describes the maximum data-carrying capacity of fiber in the material?

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Bandwidth is the term that describes the maximum data-carrying capacity of fiber in the material. It defines the usable spectrum the fiber channel can carry, and together with modulation techniques determines the achievable data rate. In practice, a wider bandwidth means more information per second can be transmitted, and approaches like wavelength-division multiplexing can further boost capacity by sending multiple channels simultaneously. Attenuation is the loss of signal power with distance, which impacts how far the signal can travel but not how much data per second the channel can carry. Dispersion causes different parts of the signal to travel at different speeds, which can smear pulses and limit effective data rate, especially at higher speeds. Return loss describes reflections at connectors and splices, affecting signal integrity but not the channel's data-carrying capacity.