Ever Wonder about the origin of Fiber Optics?

Fiber optic cable was originally developed for use in medical applications, such as endoscopy. However, these early fiber devices could only send signals a few dozen feet, so they were not practical for telecommunication. In the early 1970s, researchers at Corning devised a way to efficiently produce optical fibers using chemical vapor deposition. This method allowed for the construction of fiber cables up to several kilometers long, which made the technology ideal for long-distance and high-bandwidth communication. The rest is history!

Ever Wonder how fiber transmits information?

Here are  3 questions & answers that will help you with fiber transmission 101.

Q. How can a beam of light possibly carry information?
A. The one’s and zero’s of the binary data are converted to light pulses and sent down the fiber at very high frequencies.

Q. For every pulse of light that is sent down a fiber optic cable there is some light which is lost because it is beyond critical angle and cannot be reflected. If part of this mode is lost then doesn’t that mean the data is sent as incomplete? How can the computer make sense of an incomplete signal?
A. The data is sent as a stream of bits and so the amount of light that is lost merely reduces the strength of the signal. The pulses of light that reach the other end will have lost some of their strength but they will still be large enough to reassemble into bytes of information. Multi-mode transmission simply means that the light travelling down the fiber will take multiple paths, it does not mean that each mode is transmitting different data. Each pulse of light comprises all modes.

Q. I know that the time between transmitting each pulse must be enough so that the first pulse completely arrives at the receiver before the second pulse does. What happens if two pulses do crossover one another? Do they mix to create a different pulse, does the PC say transfer error, or the screen freezes etc.?
A. The pulses all travel at the same speed so it is not possible for one to overtake another. The main reasons for errors in a fiber system are too much attenuation (reduction in signal strength), and reflections or backscatter at poor connections which if large enough will interfere with the signal.

Ever Wonder… For those of us in the in the cable industry we work with fiber optics on a daily basis. Since its invention in the early 1970s, the demand and use of fiber has grown tremendously.

Optical fiber uses today are quite numerous and part of our everyday live. However, It wasn’t until recently when a new person in our company asked me in the hallway about fiber its origin and history that I realized I had no real easy reference site to send them to so… I began a search.

What turned up was a great site, hosted by Corning Cable Systems, full of history, key points and reference material. I share it here so that when you are asked you to will have a place to send that new person who “just wants to know” more.

Do you have good reference site you think would be helpful? Let us know.