Properties of Fiber-Optic Cabling
Optical fiber cable transmits data over longer distances and at higher bandwidths than any other networking media. Unlike copper wires, fiber-optic cable can transmit signals with less attenuation and is completely immune to EMI and RFI. Optical fiber is commonly used to interconnect network devices.
Optical fiber is a flexible, but extremely thin, transparent strand of very pure glass, not much bigger than a human hair. Bits are encoded on the fiber as light impulses. The fiber-optic cable acts as a waveguide, or “light pipe,” to transmit light between the two ends with minimal loss of signal.
As an analogy, consider an empty paper towel roll with the inside coated like a mirror. It is a thousand meters in length, and a small laser pointer is used to send Morse code signals at the speed of light. Essentially that is how a fiber-optic cable operates, except that it is smaller in diameter and uses sophisticated light technologies.
Fiber-optic cabling is now being used in four types of industry:
• Enterprise Networks: Used for backbone cabling applications and interconnecting infrastructure devices.
• Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH): Used to provide always-on broadband services to homes and small businesses.
• Long-Haul Networks: Used by service providers to connect countries and cities.
• Submarine Networks: Used to provide reliable high-speed, high-capacity solutions capable of surviving in harsh undersea environments up to transoceanic distances. Click here to view a telegeography map that depicts the location of submarine cables.
Our focus in this course is the use of fiber within the enterprise.