Optical cables: advantages more than disadvantages

In the seventies, it became very fashionable to have in the bedroom light, consisting of a hemispherical base and protruding from the beam waveguides. In the dark this design radiated a dim light in the form of small dots burning on the tips of thin translucent fibers. This really is a beautiful thing was made from waste products of the new information conduits. The name im - optic cables (otherwise – fiber-optic cable, i.e. fiber optic lines).

Working Principle of fiber optic

Any electrical conductor has resistance, not only active but also reactive (capacitive and inductive). These physical parameters depend on the diameter of the wire, it has wave properties and, of course, the length of the line connecting the sender of the signal with the receiving device. Particularly sensitive to the resistive properties of the communication channel of the high frequency channels. Fiber optic cable does not have this drawback, losing it is much smaller than conventional conductors, as a carrier of information is light energy. The principle of operation of the channel is quite clear and simple. The input line when the signal is converted from electrical to optical. At the exit it is demodulated, and it enters the receiving information device in the form of the usual voltage pulses.

Advantages of fiber channels

In Addition to resistance to interference and attenuation, optical cables have other very significant advantages. The transmission of information via the fiber channels is much easier to keep it confidential, since it is almost impossible to secretly connect to. Another advantage of this transfer method is economic in nature. Copper – non-ferrous metal and expensive, the waveguide materials more affordable price. Optic cable made from quartz or special polymer compositions (fluorine-aluminate, or fluoro-zirconate), which also (third advantage) is much lighter than metal conductors that need to be escaped.

Disadvantages of optical communication

Yes, optical cables, like everything else in this world, is not without flaws.

First, to restore the connection when the line break requires replacement of only the damaged section, spliced waveguides are not, therefore, repair work seriously raise the price of supplies.

Second, the installation work is also not cheap. For their implementation it is necessary precision, and it is expensive. And qualification specialists, required a great deal, and they need and pay accordingly.

Third, to the signal converters at the input and output lines and connectors (devices that provide switching), very high requirements on reliability, optical loss, and accuracy. The fact that the quality is worth the money, anyone do not need to explain.

Bond future

Still more advantages. Optical cables can transmit a broadband signal, which significantly increases the speed of information exchange (measured already in Terabit per second). The very low attenuation (at a wavelength of 1.55 microns, it is only 0.22 dB/km). In addition, the ability of light waves to move in opposite directions (with different polarization) in one conductor increases the possibility of VOLS. Their improvement continues.