What Are Fibre Optic Cables? A Guide For Novice Network Builders
For those just beginning to build their computer networks, you’ve likely already done your fair share of research on configuring networks on a budget. In your research, you’ve likely encountered a fair amount of terms or networking equipment you’ve had to Google. After all, networking as a discipline is accompanied by many newfangled technologies, like all fibre optic cables, for starters.
If you’re curious about why there are so many different types of fibre optic cables, we’re here to provide you with some much-needed answers. This guide will help you light speed on fibre optics and explain how they can benefit your network. Read on to expand your knowledge of this quintessential piece of networking equipment.
What are fibre optic cables?
Fibre optic cables have existed since the ‘70s, although they gained widespread adoption in the ‘90s and early 2000s as the internet gained traction and began being used worldwide. Nowadays, fibre optics form the very core of our modern communications networks.
The cables themselves are composed of a glass or plastic core (the fibre itself) wrapped in an insulated material. This fibre is roughly the width of a human hair, and there can be over a hundred of them in one cable.
Around each fibre is another glass layer called the cladding that stops light particles from bleeding out (more on these light particles later). Surrounding this core are another few layers designed to protect the delicate fibres in various ways.
How do fibre optic cables work?
The glass or plastic fibre transmits networking data uniquely, using the information as light beams. Laser light is used to conduct optical fibre communications. This technology also works on a massive scale, using dense wavelength-division multiplexing (or ‘DWDM’). DWDM is the reason why the internet is now available all over the globe.
You are returning to your network set-up. However, optic fibre cables send pulses of light through their core, with networking data transmitted as code through these light pulses. Fibre optic cables can transmit data at two-thirds the speed of light – not travelling faster as the light travels through the glass instead of through a vacuum.
As previously mentioned, the cladding is a vital part of this process, as without it, light would simply escape. The cladding of your cables assists data transmission by allowing light to bounce repeatedly off the walls of the cable instead.
But how does the cladding cause the light to bounce back if it is also made of glass? The glass of the cladding is a different type of glass, precisely one with a lower refractive index. This means that light travels at significantly different speeds through the glass of the fibre than the glass of the cladding.
The benefits of using fibre optics for your network
The core of the advantages of fibre optics is relatively easy to identify: speed. Fibre optic cables have much better bandwidth when compared to other cables. Better bandwidth, of course, means higher download and upload speeds. The signals transferred are cleaner, too, as the signals within one fibre of a wire do not interfere with another as they might with electrical signals. When used for those applications, this results in cleaner television broadcasts or more explicit phone calls. The signal also can’t be tapped into in the same way as other data transfer methods, giving fibre optics a high level of security.
Fibre optic cables can also transmit data over a longer distance, spanning tens of kilometres. They also have an excellent lifespan, lasting over a hundred years! It’s no wonder that this little piece of networking technology has seen such widespread adoption over the last few decades.
Types of fibre optic cables
There are two main types of cables: multi-mode and single-mode. Each mode varies on how the light bounces around (or doesn’t) inside of the fibre.
Multi-mode cables are the type that has been described up until now and are most likely going to be the cables you use to set up your network. The fibres are much larger than those of a single-mode cable, and the laser light has many different paths to travel through. These cables are suitable for smaller distances and are thus perfect for computer networks.
Single-mode cables have a much thinner fibre (though many of these individual cables are often wrapped together) and are frequently used to facilitate internet and telephone signals. These cables are best suited for carrying signals over longer distances.
Disadvantages of fibre optic cables
While fibres are incredible technology in many ways, they can come with their fair share of caveats. One of the most immediate disadvantages is the cost of using fibre optics. With all its benefits, it’s naturally not the most cost-efficient solution, sometimes even requiring specialised test equipment.
Due to their glass components, the cables themselves can also be quite fragile. If they are bent too much, they will break. This fragility of the cable once again contributes to the difficulty and expense of fibre optic installations, as a delicate hand is required during this installation process.
Even with the disadvantages listed above, fibre optics continue to take the world by storm. The market is predicted to reach USD 13.7 billion by 2030, which means that their price will continue to go down with time.
It is no wonder, seeing as this is the cable that much of the world’s networks are already built using – the appeal is clear when it comes to using it when creating your network. Ultimately, the choice is up to you. However, by most accounts, the pros of fibre optic cables seem to outweigh the cons heavily. Adopting fibre optics is the way to give yourself the network of the future, with longevity to boot.
