In the recent years, fiber optics is steadily replacing copper wires.
Fiber optics is a better and apt means of transmitting communication signals. Today, fiber optics cable span across long distances between local phone systems. In addition, it also serves as the backbone for many networking systems including:
- Telephone systems
- University campus
- Office buildings
- Industrial plants
- Electric utility companies
- Internet connectivity
Why Fiber Optics?
Because of the Low loss, high bandwidth properties of fiber cable they can be used over greater distances than copper cables, in data networks this can be as much as 2km without the use of repeaters. Their light weight and small size also make them ideal for applications where running copper cables would be impractical, and by using multiplexors one fiber could replace hundreds of copper cables.
The gap between the unfilled growing needs of the telecommunications industry and the growing demands for more bandwidth created a huge opportunity for fiber optics to make a breakthrough in performance and cost.
In many ways, the telecommunications industry was adopting much of the technology that had been deployed in submarine fiber optic systems for years. Submarine fiber optic systems, which must run for thousands of miles underwater, have always been on the leading edge in terms of the largest possible capacity and the longest possible transmission distance on a single fiber as well as the highest possible reliability.
Until the Internet created a need to dramatically increase the capacity of terrestrial systems, most of the technologies associated with leading edge submarine fiber optic systems had been largely ignored by the telecommunications industry.
In the late 1990’s, many large telecommunications equipment suppliers recognized the huge financial opportunity that was looking for greatly expanded capacity and distance on the fibers that they already had deployed. However, most of the new systems that were being developed tended to be evolutionary, rather than revolutionary.
The new systems that many of the telecommunication equipment suppliers conceived would increase the capacity by a factor of eight or perhaps sixteen and may double the maximum distance to a few hundred kilometers.
Interested in more information on fiber optics and related topics?
Call 1-800-898-3336 or email sales@nutecelectrotel.com.
Contributed by Erick Preza
