Fiber Optics

Abstract

The following paper will describe why there is a great demand and large market share to bring fiber optic connectivity into the suburban home. Well known vendors are putting together large comprehensive packages that at first glance could be considered affordable. The packages include high fidelity cable television, telephone service over the internet and high speed bandwidth internet service. Our learning team has put together a comprehensive review of a few key areas such as the vendors that provide the service, the advantages and disadvantages of fiber server, future trends, and global implications and then decide what the return on investment will be.

Fiber is a broadband tool that accelerates the technology in the homes and businesses of today's society. Fiber is used by the public in homes, and businesses. Fiber optic cable is convenient to home owners because most are use to dial up connections. The First fiber optic cable was used in long Beach California in the late 1970's. Fiber optic makes it easy for home owners to surf the internet and start their own small businesses if they choose to. The convenience of fiber optic is moving the technology into the next generation. Some companies are using power lines to carry fiber to homes and businesses. Though it hasn't been proven to be completely successful it is known as BPL (Broad Band powerlines). Fiber is used in many different companies. Some common names are Time Warner, Cox cable, and many others like AT&T, and Verizon. This is the direction the technology is going to provide quick and easy access to the homes and businesses. Fiber is also known to have a greater bandwidth than the ordinary metal cables. The greater bandwidth is allowing fiber to carry twice the data faster.

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How Fiber Optics Began

Fiber Optics has been around since the turn of the century, when the Romans first started making glass fibers. But it wasn't until the 1790's when two French scientist brothers (Chappe) invented the "optical telegraph", which was a series of mirrors mounted in towers, using Morse code to send messages. Then in the 1920's, two research scientists made big strides in fiber optics, John Logie Baird, was the first to patent a method to arrays of transparent rods to produce images for television; the other researcher Clarence W. Hansell, filed the same patent for the fax machine.

But in 1930, Heinrich Lamm, started what we are using today; he was the first to transmit an image through a bundle of optical fibers. It wasn't until 43 years later, that "Bell laboratories developed a modified chemical vapor deposition process that heats chemical vapors and oxygen to form ultra-transparent glass that can be mass-produced into low-loss optical fiber. This process still remains the standard for fiber-optic cable manufacturing." (Timbercon, 2007) During the late 70's and early 80's telephone companies started looking into incorporating fiber optic technology into their existing phone system. Sprint, was the first telecommunication company to install and utilized fiber optics in 100% of their telephone system.

Research for better ways to send the fiber optic signal increased, then in 1986 - 1991, David Payne and Emmanuel Desurvire of Bell Laboratories, modified laser technology, "by using an erbium-doped fiber amplifier, to reduce the cost associated with long distance fiber systems by eliminating the need for optical-electrical-optical repeaters." (Timbercon, 2007) thus creating the first transatlantic fiber optic telephone cable, having built the amplifiers inside the cable, enabling the transmission to send 100 times more than any other cable that used electronic amplifiers. In addition to built-in optic amplifiers, they also developed the photonic crystal fiber, which guides optic light through diffraction, improving the flow of electricity from the old method of internal reflection. In 1996, there was another major breakthrough in fiber optic technology, when the first all optic fiber cable was laid across the Pacific Ocean; "then in 1997, Fiber Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG), was the first longest single optic cable laid for the next generation Internet applications." (Timbercon, 2007)

Fiber Optics Transmission

The basic components that made up a fiber optic system are built on the same platform as the traditional copper-based telephone systems; it consists of a transmitter, a receiver, and a medium to route the data from one end to another. Fiber optics transmitters encode the information using an electrical interface to modulate the signals either AM, FM or digital. The transmission travels using a laser diode (Emits coherent light when forward biased) or LED (Light Emitting Diode), with an output of 850, 1310, and 1550 nautical miles. The optical fiber is used to connect between the transmitter and receiver in single (8-9 microns) or multi mode (62.5 micrometers). The fiber is constructed of three different types of materials; the core glass fiber, the glass cladding around the core, which protects the core transmission from EMI noise, and the thick plastic coating that encases and protects the fiber core from damage. The receiver uses a Photo Detector, either a pin photodiode (Single transmission) or a avalanche photodiode (Multi-mode transmission) to convert optical signal back to electrical signal; and the data modulator converts the data back to the original electrical transmission. There are other more complex types of optics transmission that require more high technology modulators to send variations of data; some components such as the wavelength division multiplexer (WDM), can send two transmissions through a single fiber cable, Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexer (CWDM) or Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexer (DWDM), allows up to eight to transmit through a single optic cable for up to 1550nm. Finally, when sending long distance transmissions, the system requires many medium parts in order to keep the optic transmission strong and prevent data degradation; by use of multiplexers, couplers/splitters, signal fan outs, dispersion management equipment, remote monitoring interfaces, and error correction components.

Types of cables

There are two basic types of fiber optics cables made for the commercial telecommunications industry in the United States; Loose tube cable and Tight buffered cable. Loose tube cable, are primarily used for outside installations; these types can house up to twelve single fibers per buffered tube with a maximum per cable count of