The Amazing Technology of Fiber Optics

Fiber optics is one of the most advanced communication methods currently available. It uses strands of glass or other transparent material of high purity covered by other materials to transmit light. Individual strands can be as thin as a single human hair. The strands carry signals over much longer distances than other media like copper, and do it faster and at a higher density. Nowadays, they also do it cheaper.

Systems using optical fibers convert electrical signals into pulses of light and send them into the glass strand. On the other end, the pulses of light are converted back into electrical signals. The signal can carry data for televisions, telephones, computers, and anything else electronic. Modern infrastructure relies on the high transmission rates offered by this system.

Because these strands of glass use light rather than electrical signals, they transmit data slightly faster than copper. Also in contrast to copper, the light cannot be interfered with by electromagnetic noise, and the protective layers prevent other light from entering the glass. Different wavelengths of light do not interfere with one another, so a single strand of glass can carry many different signals in different wavelengths simultaneously.

One of the many advantages of fiber optic technology is distance. The signal in copper wires degrades over distance, due to resistance and interference. A single wire can only be so long before the signal degrades too much to be useful. Therefore, every so many meters, the wire must include a repeater, which reads the signal and retransmits it at full strength.

A signal can travel many orders of magnitude further on an optical fiber, so fewer repeaters are needed. This makes them both cheaper and easier to install. The infrastructure is also much simpler. Using fewer repeaters means less processing. This also speeds up the transmission of data.

Because each strand can carry so much data at once, one strand can replace dozens of much heavier and more expensive cables. The lower cost and size allows high speed connections to be made much more easily, and has contributed to the explosion of high speed internet in many countries. Individuals who formerly could not afford high speed connections now have access to content from all over the world. With this technology, the market for high speed internet is much greater.

Another application requiring additional bandwidth is high definition TV. HDTV requires much more data transmission than traditional television. HD content is much higher resolution and cleaner than standard content. Fiber optics can easily keep up with the demand for HD picture and audio, but traditional cable cannot cope with all the data.

Cellular phones also interact with land lines. Although cell phones connect to cell towers wirelessly, the signal uses land connections to reach the goal. The high volume of cell calls and other content streamed to modern cell phones requires much higher connection speeds than traditional cables.

Modern internet content involves many billions of images, sound files, and video files being transmitted. Fiber optics allows such content to move quickly through the global network. Without this powerful technology, the data the world relies on would be greatly restricted.



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