Optical Cable is a type of cable which constitutes one or more optical fibers which are used to carry light. Wait for a minute optical fiber what is that?
Details on optical fiber
An optical fiber is a transparent and flexible fiber which is made by silica glass or drawing plastic that usually has the diameter a little thicker than a human hair. Optical fiber is widely used in fiber optics communication as it is employed in means of transmitting light from one fiber end to another. The benefit of using this fiber is they permit transmission of messages over a long distance and basically in a higher bandwidth that is date rates. Hence compared to wire cable these materials a far more durable and flexible in using them for communication purposes.
Fibres are used instead of metal wires as the signal travel through them with the very little loss as compared to metal cable wires. These fibers are also immune to a problem which affects the metal wire that is electromagnetic interference. These wrapped bundles of fibers are used to carry images, for example, confined viewing of images in fiberscopes; they are also used for illumination purpose. They do have some other implementations such as special optical cable is being used as fiber lasers and fiber optic sensors.
Why is it used in cables?
These are nothing but optical fibers individually and typically coated with a plastic layer which is further contained in a protective tube hence these are made so sturdy so that they can be used in such environment where metal cable gets deployed. The primary application of these types of cables is they are used to provide high-speed data connections among buildings or long distance telecommunication etc.
The principle on which this depend is total internal reflection therefore inside an optical fiber there are layers of core and cladding where the light gets reflected causing total internal reflection because of differences of medium refractive indexes.
Why should people choose these?
In this modern world, the communication plays a very potent role hence if any mishap happens on this platform then there will be many issues over the world. It is proved in labs that one single optical wire can transfer up to one petabit per second over a long distance of 50 km. So a bundle of thousands of these fibers can carry one terabyte per second which are something unimaginable but yes it’s possible.
These wires are adamant, flexible, and durables don’t get affected by weather issues. Therefore, people should now try using this optical cable as it’s time for a change!
