What is so great about

Fiber Optics?

Fiber advantages.

Some of the advantages of fiber optics are wide bandwidth which means extremely large amounts of data can be transmitted across them, low loss which means almost the entire power of the signal reaches the receiver, electromagnetic immunity, they are light weight, small size, safety, and security.

Immunity

Unlike copper cables, optical fibers do not radiate or pick up electromagnetic radiation. Any copper conductor acts like an antenna, either transmitting or receiving energy. EMI is a form of environmental pollution with consequences ranging from annoying to deadly. Since fibers do not radiate or receive electromagnetic energy, they make an ideal transmission medium when EMI is a concern. High-voltage lines can present another problem, since they also emit energy. Copper signal cables cannot be run next to such lines because energy from the high-voltage line couples onto the signal line. Fiber optic lines can be run beside high-voltage lines with no detrimental effect, since no energy couples onto it from the high-voltage line. Digital transmission requires that signals be transmitted without error. A burst of EMI may appear as a pulse where no pulse occurred in the original pulse stream. Fibers offer very high standards in error-free transmission.

Shorting

Shorting is what happens when the positive and negative are accidentally connected. The potential of shorting does not exist with fiber because it does not carry electrical pulses. It carries light pulses.

Size

A fiber optic cable is smaller than its copper counterparts. This smaller size allows it to be run in areas where the larger copper wire cannot fit. One strand of fiber is about the size of one strand of your hair. An average copper cable is 4.5 inches in diameter. A typical fiber is .5 inches in diameter but it contains as many as 144 strands of fiber.

Capacity

Copper cable is 4.5 inches in diameter and can carry as many as 40,300 two-way conversations over short distances. The fiber optic cable, which contains 144 fibers in its .5 inch diameter structure has the capacity to carry 24,192 conversations on each fiber pair or nearly 1.75 million calls on all the fibers. Depending on the peripheral equipment even these awesome numbers can be increased significantly.

Safety

A fiber is a dielectric (it does not carry electricity). It presents no spark or fire hazard, so it cannot cause explosions or fires as a faulty copper cable can. It does not attract lightning. Fiber can also be run through hazardous areas, where electrical codes or common sense does not allow the use of wires. There is no doubt by now that your probably thinking forget copper let’s just use fiber but let’s continue anyway.

Loss

Loss indicates how far the information can be sent. As a signal travels along a transmission path, whether it is on copper cable or fiber optics cable, it looses strength. This loss is called attenuation. In copper wire, the higher the frequency of the information signal, the greater the loss. In fiber, the attenuation is flat meaning different frequencies have no bearing on the amount of loss. Severe attenuation requires repeaters at intermediate points in the transmission path. For copper cables, distances between repeaters, in general, decrease as operating speeds increase. For fibers, distances between repeaters increase along with operating speeds and let’s face it less repeaters means less money.

Transmission security

Fiber optics is a highly secure transmission medium. It does not radiate energy that can be received by a nearby antenna, and is extremely difficult to tap into. The only possible way to access a signal would mean that the signal power would have to be compromised which would be detected quickly. There is no way to pull information from or listen to a fiber optic cable because the light would not yield any information that would be useful unless the signal was actually split. This would also cause the power to drop, which would be detected immediately. Both government and businesses consider fiber optics a secure medium. The military has been using Fiber for many years because of the security benefits.

Repeater distances

Severe attenuation requires repeaters at intermediate points in the transmission path. For copper cables, repeater spacing, in general, decreases as operating speeds increase. For fibers, the opposite is true: repeater distances increase along with operating speeds, because at high data rates very efficient, low-loss fibers are used.

In 1988, AT&T installed the first transatlantic fiber optic telephone link. It carried 37,800 simultaneous voice conversations in each direction on a pair of fibers. Repeater distances are 35 km. In contrast, the best transatlantic coax system handles 4200 conversations and has a repeater spacing of only 9.4 km.

Price competitive

Fiber is becoming very cost competitive with copper. Because it uses less repeaters, fiber optic’s overall cost is less than copper. As the demand for more fiber optics systems grows the competitive prices become more affordable.

Established and standardized

Fiber optics has become established and standardized. The EIA/TIA recognizes fiber optics and has made a long list of standards concerning fiber optics. As with any other industry there must be standards to ensure quality and professionalism.

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