All you need to know about Fiber Optics
What’s so great about fiber optics? Well they are actually the
best and easiest way to get your data and information transferred. Through the
years it has wrong rapidly and has now become the most demanded installation to
be done for countless of companies, it’s not only limited towards the business
uses but also for personal and can be done in houses.
But before we go any deeper into the whole idea of fiber optics, it is best to have a full understanding on what fiber optics are and why they are highly demanded in the past few years.
Fiber Optics?
Fiber optics are made up of either glass or plastic strands that
are fairly thin (usually compared to a hair strand), the fiber strands are less
thick than an average human strand would beand varying with the amounts of
strands that are within them from as little as two to at least a several
hundred strands.
The core is generally the center of the cable, within that parameter it would act as the pathway that guides the light to travel forward, the next layering is the cladding which is made from glass in which it would reflect the light, it is the layer that would cause the light to bounce around for the reason of avoiding loosing signal or even the light slipping though the cable on the bended areas.
There are two main types of
fiber optic cables, it being the single mode and the multi-mode fiber. We will
go more into detail what exactly are both the modes are and pointing out the
difference between them.
As previously mentioned
fiber optics are a highly demanded solution in various fields that require the
utmost best systems and security, the use of fiber optics can be found in use
in areas that would probably not cross your mind. They can usually be found
applied for telecommunication systems that apply towards global networks as
well or even desktop computers, the fibers would be used to transfer high
capacity data around that through regular copper cabling would take very long
to process, whereas the use of fiber cabling would do the job in “light speed”.
Transferring files such as voice data, video and such files, the files would be
able to be transferred as far as less than a meter and around a few hundreds of
kilometers, that is using one of the standard designs that are generally used
for fiber cabling designs.
Apart from
telecommunications, fiber cabling can be found being used at multinational
firms as they would require the use of a reliable system and feel more secure
to transfer confidential files between buildings and to transfer worldwide.
Also television companies would use fiber for the reason being of delivering
the digital video and data, as the high bandwidth that fiber optics provide is
the best choice for transmitting broadband signals through HDTV (high
definition television)
Brief Fiber Optics History
Having a brief introduction into the history of fiber optics and
when were they generally introduced to the world and began being used.
Dating back to more than 40 years ago, fiber optics were first
installed in Chicago, IL, USA in 1976 for the R&D Labs, soon after that in
the early 1980s the fiber cables were connected to all the major cities in all
coasts. Through time during the mid 80s fiber began growing rapidly and was
used in all directions, replacing all the uses of telco copper, microwave and
satellite links. Which later on fiber was introduced in the markets for phone
and internet services, this way they had now been used in multiple markets and
showed no signs of evolving.
Eventually other applications from aircraft, ship, CCTV, hospitals
and so much more have begun to use fiber optics as they found it the most
reliable solution to date. As of now more than 80% of long distance data
transferring is done through the use of fiber optic cabling.
Different Modes
Since
getting a brief history on the origins of fiber optics, but going back to both
single mode and multi-mode are we’ll have to break it down to have a better
understanding.
As we already know the light gets carried along through the fiber which are called modes, it’s simply the path that the light follows down the fiber. One of the modes would be for the light to go simply straight down the path of the fiber, and the other would be for it to bounce around down the fiber but at a shallow angle, some other modes would also be bouncing but yet in different angles for some less or more steep than the other.
Single-Mode
The basic and simplest mode for an fiber optic would be the single mode, having a fairly thing core that would be 5 to 10 microns in diameter (millionths of a meter), in this mode the light (all signals) travel straight down the middle of the fiber and would not bounce on the edges.
Certain industries are known to use this mode, from cable tv, internet as well as telephone signals, they all use a single mode fiber as they can send information for over 100km.
Multi-Mode
As for the multi-mode fiber, they are at most 10 times bigger than a single-mode cable. That would result in the light being able to travel through the core in not one a single path, but multiple paths which is why it is called multi-mode. The downside to the multi-mode cables would be how the information that is being sent don’t reach very far and can send over short distances, this is why they are used to link computer networks together and many other scenarios.
I’m sure if you were trying to find a way to install fiber optics, you would be able to find the right companies in your region that would be able to explain fiber optics and what they best options for you to use would be. Simply searching what you have in mind may direct you in the right direction. Buy Fiber Optic Connectors online in UAE.