Household Fiber Optics

There are three uses of fiber optic cables that are becoming more readily used in the modern day home are cable television, telephone, and internet. The optic system works by sending light through glass or fiber tubes carrying information along the line bouncing off of the cladding product to the destination. According to datacomsolutions.ca, “At one end of the system is a transmitter. This is the place of origin for information coming on to the fiber-optic lines. The transmitter accepts coded electronic pulse information coming from copper wire. It then processes and translates that information into equivalently coded light pulses. A light-emitting diode (LED) or an injection-laser (ILD) can be used for generating the light pulses. Using a lens, the light pulses are funneled into the fiber-optic medium where they transmit themselves down the line.”According to Howitworks.com, “Fiber-optic lines are strands of optically pure glass as thin as a human hair that carries digital information over long distances. They are also used in medical imaging and mechanical engineering inspection.” Below is an image displaying the standard fiber-optic cable.

The Core is made of a very small in diameter glass tube that allows light signals carrying the information to travel along. The Cladding is the outside material around the core that reflects the light traveling through the cable back into the core moving the information down the cable. Finally the buffer coating is made out of a protective material that keeps the cladding and core from being damaged. This cable can carry information to computers, televisions, and telephones much faster than the typical lines that are currently in place all around the world.

The Fiber optic cable comes in large rolls ranging from a couple thousand feet to hundreds of miles. One down side to using this fiber optic system is the equipment needed to install the cable. According to jimhayes.com, “Installation requires special pullers or plows, and even trailers to carry giant spools of cable. Long distances mean cables are spliced together, since cables are not longer than about 4 km (2.5 miles), and most splices are by fusion splicing. Connectors (SC, ST or FC styles) on factory made pigtails are spliced onto the end of the cable. After installation, every fiber and every splice is tested with an OTDR.” This equipment can get very expensive costing up to $100,000 for the splicing tools alone. Illustrated below is a crew installing a reel of fiber optic cable. There are three forms of fiber optic cables. The first being single mode, the second being multi mode, and the third being plastic fiber (POF). According to datacomsolutions.ca, “The Single Mode cable is a single strand of glass fiber with a diameter of 8.3 to 10 microns that have one mode of transmission.” The single mode system costs more than the multi mode system but you get what you pay for. According to datacomsolutions.ca, “The single mode fiber gives you a higher transmission rate and up to 50 times more distance than the multimode system.” The multimode cable is made up of many glass fibers and has a common size of 62.5 micrometers. The light is distributed into many paths resulting in producing a greater bandwidth than the single mode system because it is only distributed into one glass tube. The POF is the newest form of optic cable available. According to datacomsolutions.ca, “POF promises performance similar to glass cable on very short runs, but at a lower cost.

When deciding if one wants to use the traditional copper cable, or the fiber optic cable, it depends on the quality and service that one wishes to have. According to jimhayes.com, “at today's network speeds fiber is hardly working hard at all and can look to the future of ten gigabit speeds with confidence. Copper on the other hand, can handle gigabit Ethernet but only if it is carefully installed and tested with very expensive test equipment and components.” The speed of the new fiber optic cable system is much faster than the traditional copper system. According to jimhayes.com, “operators use fiber because it's much cheaper. They optimize their network to take advantage of fiber's speed and distance advantages. In LANs, you need to follow the new EIA/TIA 568 B.3 standard to optimize the fiber usage, and then it can be cheaper than copper.” Even better than the speed that the information is sent and received at the net fiber optics system allows homeowners and companies to grow in their communication abilities. According to datacomsolutions.ca, “Our fiber optic technology allows your business to meet increased data, voice, and soon video demands.” Growing in communication areas and making the methods better and faster for homeowners and business is good, especially since many calls are done over the internet overseas, and from state to state. The Fiber optic cable system is more reliable than the traditional connection. Optical fibers are the ideal method of carrying digital information. Where fiber optic systems have the best connection services available, it allows the user to avoid receiving the “system is off air” message.

There are many safety and security factors when using the new fiber optic method over the old copper method. Absolutely no electricity runs through the fibers making the system almost completely fireproof. Also since no electricity transfers through the fibers, if lightning or any other form of power serge comes through the system, there is less of a chance that the device plugged into the port will be damaged. If there is a concern of getting your lines tapped on to, than the fiber optics system is a good choice. According to datacomsolutions.ca, “A fiber network is virtually impossible to tap, keeping your system and important data secure from unwanted users.” This can be viewed as a good thing from the individual homeowners, and by business owners, because your information is truly confidential, and there is never any fear of getting your information hacked. This can be viewed as a bad thing from the government’s side because they can no longer listen into suspicious conversations, or needed information.

According to litelink.com there are 2 forms of telephone transmission systems for the fiber optics system. “Both multimode and single-mode versions are available and connections to and from the telephone and telephone line are by means of standard modular plugs. In addition, integral indicators are provided on both units to continuously indicate the presence of the off-hook condition as well as the presence of operating power making system troubleshooting simple.”

Fiber cables can send information more than a distance of ten miles without having the need of repeaters or amplifiers. According to datacomsolutions.ca, “Fiber also features a high signal-to-noise ratio. So you get a perfect picture-with sharp resolution, detail, contrast and color-even when connecting a camera to a monitor or recorder over long distances.” It is important for the new systems like the fiber optics going into place to have these high resolution rates, and sharp pictures so that they are compatible with the new high definition televisions and computers being sold today. There are 12 different forms of connectors for the fiber-optic system. In the figure below form datacomsolutions.ca, displays the different connectors and how they are used.

The sources used for research in this paper are as follows: