Fiber optic cables have become increasingly popular over the past few years as the demand for faster data transmission speeds increases in networks, however, some people may still be in the dark about what fiber optic cables are.
What is fiber optic cable?
How does it work?
This article will give you information about the definition of optical cable and the working principle of optical cable.
What is fiber optic cable?
Fiber optic cable is an Ethernet cable that consists of one or more optical fibers and is used to transmit data.
It is a cable-like component used to carry light, and the price of optical cable is much higher than that of copper cable.
Fiber optic cables are designed to use pulses of light to support long-distance telecommunications and high-speed data transmission.
Typically, fiber optic cables can run at speeds of 10 Gbps, 40 Gbps, or even 100 Gbps.
Therefore, it is widely used in most of the world's Internet, cable TV and telephone systems.
What does fiber optic cable consist of?
Usually, an optical cable consists of five parts: core, cladding, coating, reinforcing element and outer sheath.
The "core" is a very thin strand of glass or plastic called an optical fiber.
The "cladding" is an insulating sleeve that tightly surrounds the "core" and provides a lower refractive index for the fiber to operate.
"Coating" is the protective layer of optical fiber.
"Reinforcing elements" or stiffening members help protect the core from extrusion forces and excessive tension during installation.
The outer sheath is used to protect the cable from environmental hazards.
How does fiber optic cable work?
After understanding "what is an optical fiber cable", let's take a look at "how does it work"?
Light travels along fiber optic cables by repeatedly reflecting off the inner walls. The core and cladding bend the incident light at an angle and have their own refractive index. When light signals are sent through fiber optic cables, they bounce around in a series of Reflection from the core and cladding is a process called total internal reflection.
Fiber total internal reflection
Fiber optic cable type
Generally, there are two types of optical cables, single-mode fiber (SMF) and multi-mode fiber (MMF).
The core of single-mode fiber is very thin, with a diameter of about 5-10 microns, while the core diameter of multi-mode fiber is about 10 times that of single-mode fiber. Typically, single-mode fiber used in telecommunications operates at 1310nm or 1550nm wavelengths, while multimode fiber operates at 850nm and 1300nm.
Compared with single-mode fiber, the transmission distance of multi-mode fiber is limited by model dispersion because it has a larger core size and supports multiple optical modes (from OM1 to OM5). Single-mode fiber is suitable for long-distance applications such as 100km between buildings, while multi-mode fiber is suitable for short-distance transmission within buildings, such as computer network links.
Fiber optic cable type
Summarize
This article mainly introduces what optical cables are, how optical cables work, and are designed to use light pulses to provide faster data transmission speeds. In addition, both SMF and MMF can meet different transmission distance requirements.
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