Effective mode volume

For an optical fiber, the effective mode volume is the square of the product of the diameter of the near-field pattern and the sine of the radiation angle of the far-field[?] pattern. The diameter of the near-field radiation pattern is defined here as the full width at half maximum and the radiation angle at half maximum intensity.

Note: Effective mode volume is proportional to the breadth of the relative distribution of power amongst the modes in a multimode fiber. It is not truly a spatial volume but rather an "optical volume" equal to the product of area and solid angle.

Source: from Federal Standard 1037C