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Fiber Optics - Contained transmission

August 20th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Fiber optics is the overlap of applied science and engineering concerned with such optical fibers.  Fiber optics is the contained transmission of light through long fiber rods of either glass or plastics.  The biggest challenge remaining for fiber optics is economic.  Today it is a serious competition for the more established communications systems.

Cables
Fiber optics was needed because television cables were becoming more capable of carrying more information than copper wire so computer and telephone companies needed something to compete.  Optical fiber cables can be installed with the same equipment that is used to install copper and coaxial cables, with some modifications due to the small size and limited pull tension and bend radius of optical cables. 

Optical cables can typically be installed in duct systems in spans of 6000 meters or more depending on the duct’s condition, layout of the duct system, and installation technique.  The longer cables can be coiled at an intermediate point and pulled farther into the duct system as necessary.  Installation of spare fibers today is more economical than installing additional cables later.

Fiber optics is based on sending signals by light and the science and technology of optical fibers comes down to transparent thin fibers, usually made of glass or plastic, used for transmitting light and how to send light through without any effort.

 

Multiple Usages

July 13th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

One of the things that I find truly fascinating about the technology behind fiber optics is that not only can you transfer light over huge distances without seeing any significant loss of strength but it can also be used to transfer data using the exact same technology.

Now I can’t say that I have any expert knowledge about how this works (I really don’t) but as a user I have great benefits from it. One of the most obvious benefits is that I can write this and post it to this blog instantly using the data transfer technology in fiber optics.

Currently (where I am located) we are seeing transfer speeds of about 100Mbit per second but I know that other parts of the world are seeing even faster transfer rates. Recently I stumbled upon an old article posted at ABC News Online that states that a Japanese company made a data fiber optics transfer record by sending a 2 hour movie through fiber optic cables in 0.5 seconds!!!

“A Japanese company has developed technology to transmit a two-hour movie in 0.5 seconds, the world’s fastest speed achieved with fibre-optic cables in the field, it says.
Kansai Electric used fibre-optic cables on power-transmitting steel towers to achieve the speed of one terabit per second, which is more than 100 times faster than inter-city data transmissions currently in use, a spokesman says.
The company, Japan’s second-largest power supplier, has not decided when to put the technology into practical use but says it is possible that it would come in 2010 or later.” - Find the original article here

Imagine what they can do today? I can’t wait to see what the current record is. The funny part is that within a few years (or 5 years maybe) we will all have fiber optic cables hooked to our computers and we’ll experience data transfer speeds that we would never have dreamt of when we bought our first 52kb modem *lol*.

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