Optical fiber consists of thin glass fibers or plastic that can carry information at frequencies in the
visible light spectrum and beyond. The typical optical fiber consists of a very narrow strand of glass
called the core. Around the core is a concentric layer of glass called the cladding.
An optical transmission system has three basic components
(a) Light source
(b) Transmission medium (fiber optics)
(c) Detector
Light source: In such a system a pulse of light indicates bit 1 and the absence of light indicates
bit 0. Light source can be an LED or a laser beam.
Transmission medium: Transmission medium is the ultra-thin fiber of glass.
Detector: A detector generates an electrical pulse
A typical core diameter is 62.5 microns .Typically cladding has a diameter of 125 microns.
100 microwatts power (roughly) a light emitting diode can couple into an optical fiber.
Coating the cladding is a protective coating consisting of plastic, it is called the Jacket.
The loss in signal power as light travels down the fiber is called attenuation. An important
characteristic of fiber optics is refraction. Refraction is the characteristic of a material to either
pass or reflect light. When light passes through a medium, it bends as it passes from one
medium to the other. An example of this is when we look into a pond of water If the angle of
incidence is small, the light rays are reflected and do not pass into the water.
If the angle of incident is great, light passes through the media but is bent or refracted. Optical
fibers work on the principle that the core refracts the light and the cladding reflects the light.
The core refracts the light and guides the light along its path. The cladding reflects any light back
into the core and stops light from escaping through it - it bounds the medium! Fast data
transmission rate is an advantage to using fiber optics data transmission
Advantages of Optical Fiber
1. They are not affected by electrical and magnetic interference as the data travel in form of light.
2. Optical fiber offers higher bandwidth than twisted pair or coaxial cable.
3. Optical fibers are thin, lighter in weight and small in size as compared to other wired Medias. It is
easier to group several optical fibers in one bundle.
4. Glass is more resistant to corrosive materials as compared to copper. Hence can be laid in different
environments.
5. In optical fibers, attenuation (loss of signal) is very low. Therefore these fibers can run several
kilometers without amplification.
6. Fibers do not leak light and are quite difficult to tap. So they provide security against potential
wiretappers.
7. There is no cross-talk problem in optical fibers.
8. They are highly suitable for environments where speed is needed with full accuracy.
9: Photons in fiber do not affect one another (as they have no charge) and are not affected by stray
photons outside the fiber. But when electrons move in a wire they affect each other and are themselves
affected by electrons outside the wire.
10. The size (diameter) of the optical fibers is very small (it is comparable to the diameter of human hair).
Therefore a large number of optical fibers can fit into a cable of small diameter.
11. The material used for the manufacturing of optical fibers is "silica glass". This material is easily
available. So the optical fibers cost lower than the cables with metallic conductors.
12. As the light rays have a very high frequency in the GHz range, the bandwidth of the optical tiber is
extremely large. This allows transmission of more number of channels. Therefore the information
carrying capacity of an optical fiber is much higher than that of a co-axial cable.
Disadvantages of Optical Fiber
1. Fiber optics cables are fragile i.e. more easily broken than wires.
2. Being fragile, optical fibers need to be put deep into the land. This causes a lot of installation cost. Also
the interface used for these fibers are expensive.
3. Optical fibers are unidirectional for two-way communication, two fibers are required.
4. It is a newer technology and requires skilled people to administer and maintain them.
Characteristics of Optical Fiber Cables:
Fiber optic cables have the following characteristics:
1. Fiber optic cabling can provide extremely high bandwidths in the range from 100 mbps to 2 gigabits
because light has a much higher frequency than electricity.
2. The number of nodes which a fiber optic can support does not depend on its length but on the hub or
hubs that connect cables together.
3. Fiber optic cable has much lower attenuation and can carry signal to longer distances without using
amplifiers and repeaters in between.
4. Fiber optic cable is not atlected by EMI effects and can be used in areas where high voltages are
passing by.
5. The cost of tiber optic cable is more compared to twisted pair and co-axial.
6. The installation of fiber optic cables is difficult and tedious.
Applications:
1. Optical fiber transmission systems are widely used in th~ backbone of networks. Current optical fiber
systems provide transmission rates from 45 Mb/s to 9.6 Gb/s using the single wavelength transmission.
2. The installation cost of optical fibers is higher than that for the co-axial or twisted wire cables.
3. Optical fibers are now used in the telephone systems.
4. In the Local Area Networks (LANs).
