Operating principle of fiber optic cable
The cable can contain a different number of fibers – from several pieces to several hundred. The next layer is the sheath surrounding the fiber core. The buffer tube layer protects the shell.
Optical fiber transmits data as particles of light – photons that pass through the cable. Glass fiber core and shell have different refractive index bending entrant light at a definite angle.
The key principle of fiber optic cable operation is full internal reflection. It consists in the fact that during transmission over an optical fiber cable, light signals are reflected from the core and shell in a plurality of zigzag jumps. Due to dense glass layers, light signals cannot gain the speed of light; they are about 30% slower.
How is fiber used?
Fiber optics are used to create data networks over long distances and with high performance. For example, fiber is used in telecommunications services: Internet, television and telephone communications.
Fiber optic cables have an advantage over copper cables: they have higher throughput and data transfer rates. Fiber-optic Internet provides faster speeds than DSL or cable Internet. Fiber now supports up to 10 Gbps of data.