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fibre optic communication

What you must know about fibre optic communication

Sneha Mahawar

January 3, 2024

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This article has been written by Sujit Kumar Sircar and edited by Shashwat Kaushik.

This article has been published by Sneha Mahawar.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Fibre optic communication has completely revolutionised long-distance transmission, and as a result, today, the whole world can be interconnected through the internet. This new mode of communication has resulted in high-speed data transmission, clarity of voice calls, and faster Internet connectivity, which is now necessary for modern-day communication.

In this mode of communication, light waves are used to transmit data through these guided fibre cables. With a higher bandwidth (between 10,000 and 400,000 GHz), this kind of transmission can transmit a high level of information at very low signal loss, which is approximately 0.2db/km.

Therefore, optical fibre is preferred for:

Telecommunication
Local area networks
Computer networks.

In this type of communication, electrical signals are converted into light for transmission, and again, they are reconverted into electrical signals at the receiver’s end. This kind of communication has proved to be highly efficient for high-speed and long-distance communication compared to many other modes of communication.

History

The following is the chronology of various inventions related to fibre optic communication that have taken place over the last three centuries:

1790: French Chappe brothers were the first to invent the first “optical telegraph.”
1840: Two physicists, Daniel Collodon and Jacques Babinet, demonstrated that light could be directed in the same way as water in a fountain display.
1854: A British physicist called John Tyndall demonstrated that light can also travel through a curved water stream and thus proved that light signals can also be bent.
1880: The famous telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell patented his first optical telephone system. Also, William Wheeler developed a light pipe system with a reflective coating for illuminating the home.
1888: Dr. Roth and Dr. Reuss from Vienna attempted to use certain bent glass rods to guide light images.
1898: David Smith from America used a curved glass rod to create a dental illuminator.
1920: John Logie Baird patented for the first time how to transmit images for TV by using a grid of transparent rods.
1930: Heinrich Lamm transmitted an image by using a bundle of optical fibres.
1954: At Columbia University, the “MASER,” which stands for “microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation,” was developed by Charles Townes and his colleagues.
1958: The concept of the laser was introduced by Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow.
1960: An operable laser was invented, which produced a light pulse.
1964: Charles Kao and Hockham showed that impurity removal could help reduce light loss in glass fibres.
1970: Bell Labs and the Ioffe Physical Institute in Leningrad demonstrated a semiconductor diode laser that could emit continuous waves at room temperature.
1991: Desurvire and Payne demonstrated that the fibre-optic cable itself contains an optical amplifier that can carry 100 times more information than cable using electronic amplifiers.
1996: Fibre optic links around the globe became the longest single-cable network in the world, enabling the next generation of Internet applications (Timbercon newsletter, 2018).

Basic components of an optical fibre cable

The following are the main components of optical fibre cable

Core- Fibre optic cables are usually composed of glass or plastic. The optical signals are transmitted from one source to another through a physical medium. Its core diameter is less than the diameter of our hair, which is the smallest component of the cable.
Cladding- Cladding of fibre optics surrounds the core and reduces the refractive index to enable optical fibre operation. Because of its thin layer, data may move across the complete length of the wire.
Coating- The entire optical fibre layer will protect against moisture, shock, and scratches, which may harm the cladding. It also offers an extra defence against unequal cable bends.
Strengthening fibres- During installation, it helps to prevent any strain and crushing of the core.
Cable jacket- This is the outermost layer of the cable, which protects the cable from any kind of environmental threat (Mainframe Communications, 2020).

How does it work

As mentioned before, in the optical fibre communication process, the signal is first converted into light from electrical pulses and signals. It is then transmitted, and finally, at the receiver end, it is again converted into electrical signals.

Transmitter side

Now, let us assume that the data is an analogue signal from the transmitter end. This data will first be converted into digital data using a suitable coder circuit. When we say digital, we mean it is in the form of 0 or 1, based on the data.

This data will be fed to a light source transmitter circuit. If your input signal is already digital, it will be directly fed to a light source transmitter circuit to convert all the data into light waves.

Optical fibre cable

After receiving the light signal from the above transmitter, it will be fed through a fibre optic cable, which can transmit the light signal to the receiver end. The signal will be sent at the speed of light.

Receiver side

On the receiver end, there will be a detector, such as a photocell, which will receive the transmitted light carried by the optical cable. The photocell can convert the received light signal into a digital signal, which can be further decoded into meaningful data.

In most cases, the data requirement is digital. However, if there is a need for analogue data at the receiver end, then there will be an additional converter circuit to convert the digital signal into an analogue signal.

The complete process of optical fibre communication is converting the input electrical signal into light and then, through the fibre cable, transmitting it at the speed of light to the receiver end and reconverting it back into an electrical signal (Abhimanyu Pandit, 2019)

Advantages of fibre optic communication

The advantages of fibre optic communication are:

Its bandwidth is much greater than that of traditional copper cables
It has less power loss and can easily transmit data for longer distances
Optical cable can offer resistance to electromagnetic interference
Fibre cable is a better option than copper wires as its size is 4.5 times bigger.
Being lighter and thinner, fibre optics use less area than copper wires
Because of its lesser weight, it is easy to install.
As these optical fibres cannot generate electromagnetic energy, they are hard to tap, and hence, these connections can enable the secure transmission of data
Optical fibre can resist acidic elements from the atmosphere that can easily affect copper wires
As compared to the same length of copper wire, optical fibre cable will often be cheaper.
Fibre optic cables may allow much more cable as compared to copper twisted pair cables.
Fibre optic cables have much higher bandwidth than copper twisted pair cables (geeksforgeeks.org, 2020)

Disadvantages of optical fibre

The disadvantages of optical fibre are:

Investment costs can be quite high.
More expensive optical receivers and transmitters will be needed for fibre optic transmission .
As compared to wires, fibre optics are difficult and expensive to cut or splice.
More fragile.
Can be affected by chemicals.
Opaqueness.
Needs special skills to handle.
Not as robust as wires.
Special devices may be needed to ascertain transmission (bharathuniv.ac.in – Admin, 2017).

Applications of optical fibre communication

Nowadays, there are many applications for optical fibre communication. A few of the most common applications are as follows:

Telephone

These days, all telephone calls made from longer or shorter distances are achieved through optical fibre communication. In earlier days, getting a clear reception of a telephone call from a distance was almost impossible. However, it is now easily possible.

Medical applications

These optical fibre cables are very flexible and have many applications in the medical diagnostic field. It is quite easy to view the conditions of internal body parts using these fibre cables, often needed during medical diagnostics.

CCTV cameras

For CCTV cameras, you may need to make a big initial investment and fibre optic cables are preferred so that the whole system can work efficiently for a longer time (geekforgeeks.org, 2023).

Defence

For defence and military applications, secured data is needed for transmission, where fibre optics can be very useful. You can find their uses in aerospace, hydrophones for SONAR and many other defence applications.

Industries

In many difficult-to-reach areas, these fibre optic cables are preferred for taking various safety measures and giving lights for the interior and exterior of cars. Also, they are used for traction control airbags to send data at high speed. Besides that, fibre optics has wide applications for testing and research purposes.

Broadcasting

Fibre optic cables also find applications for transmitting HDTV (high-definition TV) signals that require higher speed and bandwidth. Fibre optic cables will be cheaper to use than copper cables. (Venkatesh Gowda, K R, 2022)

The future of fibre optic communication

We are now living in the digital age, where all businesses are achieving significant growth and as a result, the demand for fibre optic communication is increasing manifold. This is creating a big challenge for the industries that manufacture fibre optic cables.

Not only are fibre optics limited to business or professional applications, but their applications are also rising in domestic sectors. In the near future, we will see a more significant improvement in our lifestyle due to the applications of fibre optics, as 5G will become a part of our lives.

It is expected that fibre optics will grow at a rate of 10.9% in the coming years, and by the year 2027, it is going to be an 8.2-billion-dollar industry.

Conclusion

There has been a revolutionary change in the field of modern-day communication due to the presence of fibre-optic communication. Nowadays, we can send any data from one corner of the world to another at lightning speed with an unbelievable bandwidth and almost zero loss of signal for many different applications.

The technology has evolved after the contributions of many well-known researchers over the last few centuries, and now it has taken on an advanced shape. We can find many advantages, like high bandwidth, resistance to any interference, and secure data transmission. It also finds a very useful application in medical diagnostics.

It has a promising future and can also transform our lifestyle in many different ways after 5G becomes a part of our lives.

References

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