Saturday, July 28, 2018

How Fibre Optic Cables Work


Fibre optic cables have been known for about 20 years, and in this short amount of time, it has almost taken over the entire communications industry. The use of fibre optic cables are so important to the availability of the internet that it cannot function with the old type of cables used as modems have changed to be able to function in union with the fibre optics. One of the reasons for its popularity is because of the cost effectiveness of fibre optic cables for long distance communication when compared to the original copper cables.

Fibre Optic Cables

When you are dealing with technology, it is important that you have as much information as possible on the product in order to make an informed decision on how it will benefit your business. Here is some background information on fibre optic cables.
A fibre optic cable can be compared to a very long straw. The inside of the straw will have a mirror coating. With the mirror coating, when you look through the one end of the pipe and another person shines a torch from the other end, the light will reflect all the way to your side.
If the torch would be switched on and off at regular intervals, say with Morse code, your friend on the other side will be able to read the code by the light reflecting off the mirrored sides.
Fibre optic cable works in the same way, except that it is coated with glass. The glass that is used is of the purest quality, causing the same amount of reflection that a mirror would be able to. The glass itself is in strands that are the width of a human hair and it is then coated with plastic.
The function of the plastic covering is to create a mirrored image from the glass strand within the covering. This creates reflection from the inside and thereby mimics the reflection of glass. The light that then travels through the glass fibres stay inside the fibre as it directly bounces off the sides of the plastic covering.
Digital signals are changed to voice signals through a fibre optic cable, therefore relating in a conversation being possible. The transmission of a laser at the one end of the fibre cable relates to transmission of billions of bits per second. This laser turns off billions of times per second, relating in the possibility of communication.
These fibre optic cables can transmit signal from a distance within a room up to about 100 km. The wonderful thing about the quality of the fibre optic cable is that, even though the distance is 100km, you will get the same high quality communication as you would if the distance between the two points of communication is within one room.

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