By , when Dr. Kao shared the Nobel Prize in Physics, it was estimated that the number of fiber optics cables in use worldwide, if placed end to end, would constitute a fiber more than million miles in length. This groundbreaking work has allowed society to communicate more quickly, more efficiently, and with better transmission capabilities.
Fiber optics work by sending coded information through a beam of light down a glass or plastic pipe. Each cable contains incredibly thin strands of glass or plastic: optical fibers.
Each cable can be made up of as few as two strands or as many as several hundred. The strands, each only one-tenth the width of a human hair, are capable of transmitting around 25, telephone calls each. So, a cable made of hundreds of strands has the capacity to carry millions of calls. The light bounces back and forth off the walls of the cable pipe. Each photon light particle bounces down the pipe like a bobsled on an ice track.
While you might expect the light to leak through the edges of a glass pipe , the light is directed at shallow angles no more than 42 degrees , which reflects it back into the pipe. This is known as total internal reflection. The cable also keeps light in the pipe.
The core of the cable is the bit the light travels through. A second layer of glass, called cladding, is wrapped around the outside of the core. The cladding keeps the light signals inside the core. Now, not all fiber optic cables are the same. There are several modes that help the light travel in different ways. Modes are just the path that a light beam tracks down the fiber. One mode goes straight down the middle.
Another may bounce down the fiber at narrow angles. Generally, single mode optical fibers used in telecommunications operate at nm or nm wavelength while multimode fiber at nm and nm. Compared with single mode fiber, multimode fiber has a limited transmission distance by model dispersion because it has a large core size and supports more than one light mode from OM1 to OM5.
Single mode fiber is suitable for long distance applications such as km between buildings while multimode optical fiber is used in short distance transmission within buildings such as computer network linking. From all the above, you may have a general understanding of what fiber optic cable is and its working theory. Designed to use light pulses, optical fiber can offer quicker data transmission speed. The light beams can travel though the core by following a variety of different paths, or in multiple different modes.
These cable types can only send data over short distances. Therefore, they are used, among other applications, for interconnecting computer networks. Each OM has a minimum Modal Bandwidth requirement.
In addition, fiber optic cables can be made to comply with industry standard requirements for installation in air plenums. These are used inside buildings with special materials and compounds for jacketing. Simplex fiber optic cable constructions contain a single strand of glass. Besides plenum cable constructions, fiber optic cable assembly manufacturers create:. You may have seen plastic fibers carrying colored lights in decorative applications. What you may not have seen are the real glass fiber optic cables that are now the foundation of our communication and computer networks.
For examples of uses of optical fiber in our daily life include applications such as:. In recent years, other fiber optic uses have arisen. That is, for example, Fiber to the:. The problem of attenuation and distortion for copper wires gets worse the longer those wires get—so the farther away from your neighborhood node and internet service provider ISP you live, the worse your signal could get.
Attenuation and distortion also get worse with your internet speed. Like we mentioned, fiber-optic internet lines transfer data using modulated light instead of electricity. Fiber internet connections work at speeds up to 1 gigabit per second—literally times faster than those old copper wire connections. But both DSL and cable internet speeds got better over the years, so you may not readily see the difference when you compare these types of internet plans.
Here's a quick look at some fiber, cable, and DSL internet plans to compare. This is the holy grail of fiber connections. Fiber to the curb FTTC means your fiber connection goes to the nearest pole or utility box—not an actual concrete curb.
This means your connection is made up of part fiber-optic cables, part copper wires. Fiber to the node or neighborhood FTTN provides a fiber connection to hundreds of customers within a one-mile radius of the node. The remaining connection from the node to your home is often a DSL line that uses existing telephone or cable lines.
For FTTN fiber internet, this is where things get tricky. The farther you live from the node, the longer the DSL line needs to be to reach your house—and the longer the line, the more attenuation and distortion you get, causing slower internet. Fiber internet uses a newer technology, and therefore tends to be more reliable and faster.
You may not need 1, Mbps download speeds, but even if you grab a Mbps fiber internet plan, you'll likely see fewer outages and overall faster speeds than you would with a Mbps cable or DSL plan. So if you pay for a Mbps fiber connection, your upload speed should also be Mbps.
With cable and DSL, upload speeds normally only rev up to an average of 10—15 Mbps. Faster upload speeds are a huge boon to anyone who deals with large files or jumps into a lot of video calls.
Right now, fiber is mostly available on the East Coast and in big cities—though there are a few small ISP startups offering fiber elsewhere. The best way to find out if these ISPs are worth their salt is to see what real customers have to say and compare performance and pricing.
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