How Fiber Optic Cables are Constructed

With the paperless office now commonplace and the modern office relying more than ever on dependable high-speed internet connections, fiber optic cables are often the cornerstone of 21st-century business. But what exactly are fiber optic cables, and do they help you meet the demands of the modern workplace?

Let’s start with the basics. "Optical fiber" is a length of material-either glass or plastic-that can carry and move light throughout itself. These optical fibers are primarily utilized for fiber optic communications, as they offer several key advantages over other methods of data communication that traditionally use metal wires to transmit information. While metal wires are prone to signal loss due to factors such as electromagnetic interference, fiber-optics, by using light, are much less prone to signal loss. This makes fiber optic cables an ideal fit for increasingly high demands placed on internet and network communication. Because fiber optic cables are nowhere near as loss prone as metal wires, they can successfully transport significantly higher volumes of data over long distances without sacrificing speed or quality.

While fiber optic cables can be designed for a variety of uses, including security and even simple illumination applications, let’s focus on the role of fiber optics in the office as we examine how they are constructed. Optical fibers are bundled together and light is then retained in the core of the optical fiber bundle through total internal reflection. Some fibers may be equipped to support a variety of transverse modes. These are called multi-mode fibers (MMFs). Single mode fibers (SMFs), as the name implies, are only capable of supporting a single mode.

The MMFs, while larger than the SMFs and with a thicker diameter, are generally employed in situations where a high degree of power needs to be transmitted. MMFs are also used in short-distance communication, where SMFs are used in nearly all communication links longer than 1,500 feet. But how exactly does the construction of fiber optic cables enable such advances in communication? To understand that, we’ll have to look back a bit further.

Despite the many cutting edge applications of fiber optic cables, fiber optic technology itself is far from new. In fact, to learn about the birth of optical fibers, we’ll have to start all the way back in the mid-1800s. In 1840 in Paris, Jacques Babinet conducted one of the first demonstrations of guiding light via refraction. Several years later, John Tyndall began to demonstrate the process in England.

By the early 20th century, practical applications of this rudimentary fiber optic system were already starting to show up. Chief among the early fiber-optic users were dentists. In order to gain better illumination while working on a patient’s teeth, dentists would use small tubes to transport light into their mouths, making it substantially easier for them to practice accurate and effective dentistry. At the start of the 1950s, the medical community was using a similar system to illuminate internal medicine examinations.

By 1952, physicist Narinder Singh Kapany discovered a way to incorporate the idea into something much more than simple illumination. After a series of experiments, Kapany succeeded in inventing the modern version of optical fiber, using a clear glass or plastic tube to transport light. Kapany soon added a transparent cladding to the fiber, creating a larger refractive index.

The modern variants soon found uses as well, especially when it came to using the light passing through an optical fiber as a means of transmitting an image. Developers learned about the importance of fiber bundle composition in relation to the quality and speed of communication while working on advanced medical applications for the fibers. By 1956, the fiber-optic semi-flexible gastroscope was invented. The gastroscope employed optical fibers for more than simple illumination, and provided doctors with a means of transmitting interior images of the body down the flexible fiber optic bundle. Shortly afterward, many other fiber optic image transmission devices began to emerge for medical and eventually communication purposes.

But it wasn’t until the early 1990s that the communication potential of optical fiber really took off, thanks to the development of photonic crystals capable of guiding light via diffraction from a periodic structure as opposed to refraction. The ability of photonic crystal fiber optics to transmit an even greater degree of data and power has opened many doors in area of communication, especially when it comes to business and even personal use.

Fiber optic cables are now commonly used to transmit telephone, television, internet, and other communication signals, all with a much higher resistance to loss and interference than other communication technology. When fiber optic communication technology first emerged, it was often difficult to install and could require a great deal of time. This was especially true in cities, where many businesses might benefit from the advantages of fiber optic cables. Because of these early drawbacks, fiber optics were initially installed when required to meet long distance communication needs, as their large capacity and speed would be worth the difficulty and cost of installation.

Fortunately, the days of installation difficulty and high costs are over. During the last 10 years, additional fiber optic advances have made fiber optic systems not only much easier to install and maintain but also more affordable. As demands for high-speed, high-volume communication increase on a seeming daily basis with email, blogs, wikis, social networking, websites, viral marketing and media distribution, this is a good time to start thinking about all the advantages a fiber optic system can offer.

Article Source: http://www.seoserviceprovider.com/articles

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