2. Fiber internet is one of the smartest options to go
with these days if you are considering installing or
upgrading your internet.
Everyone has heard of fiber, or at least about how
the government plans to expand its availability
across the country.
Many experts see the service provided by fiber
optic internet providers as the next step in the
evolution of digital communication, and the
following is a look at why that is probably not too
far off the mark.
FIBER INTERNET
3. Fiber internet is basically internet that gets
delivered to you via fiber optic lines.
This kind of access is unique because unlike cable
and DSL, which send information as electric signals
through copper lines, fiber optic lines make use of
tiny glass or plastic strands that carry data in the
form of light.
The system employed by fiber optic internet
providers uses binary transmissions, and delivers
immense speed and reliability to users.
4. WHY IS FIBER SO FAST?
The speed of internet is highly dependent on the
amount of data your infrastructure is capable of
handling.
DSL and cable use traditional copper wires which were
initially meant for only voice communication, and that
limits how much data they can carry within a certain
time.
Satellite internet too falls short in this regard, mostly
because of tremendous distances that the signals have
to traverse to get from one end to the other.
In fact, satellite internet gets you much the same
speeds as cable and DSL, but brings the problem of high
latency, which in this day and age is hard to work past.
5. WHY IS FIBER SO FAST?
Fiber optic lines, on the other hand, send modulated
light in place of electricity, and that raises their
bandwidth capacity.
Typical connections from fiber optic internet
providers deliver speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second
– a hundred times as fast as data coming in through
old copper wires.
Gamers and avid streamers get the best out of
connections from fiber optic internet providers,
because they need something that can transfer
tremendous amounts of data quickly and reliably.
6. Fibers individually surrounded by multiple
layers of strengthening material that protects
them and keeps the light signals from leaking
out.
A typical cable laid by one of the fiber optic
internet providers packs several individual
fibers of this sort, which enables transmission
of high volumes of data using a single
connection.
FIBER OPTIC CABLES:
ANATOMY
7. Single-mode optical fiber contains a smaller
core and relays laser diode transmissions for
very long distances.
Multimode fiber relays LED light with the help
of a bigger core by making the light “bounce”
until it reaches its destination a shorter
distance away.
The latter type of fiber is considerably cheaper,
which is why it is commonly used inside city
networks.
SINGLE-MODE VS.
MULTIMODE FIBER
8. Ribbon fiber optic cable packs fibers in a close
formation and is a lot cheaper than its main
alternative, loose tube fiber optic cable.
The latter gives more emphasis to protecting
the fibers, and achieves this through the use of
greater padding to ensure external damage is
kept to a minimum.
The number of fibers a cable contains can be
two, several hundred, or anywhere in between.
RIBBON VS. LOOSE
TUBE CONSTRUCTION
9. A lot of the times, all the fibers inside a cable
happen to be of the same type. In these cases,
the outer layers are accordingly color-coded.
On top of that, fiber optic internet providers
also mark individual fiber bundles inside the
cable to ensure ease of installation when cables
need to be spliced together.
COLOR CODING
10. Since it is usual for connections to go two ways,
cables are mostly sold in one of two packaging
styles: duplex and simplex.
Duplex cables carry two separate fiber cables
joined by a mutual outer coating, and have two
exits on each end.
Each cable only relays data in one direction,
making duplex cables highly suited to high-
traffic connections such as at fiber switches,
servers, and backbone ports.
SIMPLEX VS. DUPLEX
11. It is not uncommon for cables to be installed
with surplus unused fibers.
These are called “dark fibers”, and can be used
in the event that more capacity is required in
the future.
As a result, fiber optic networks are highly
scalable especially in relation to coaxial cable
and DSL.
A network set up by one of the fiber optic
internet providers has the potential to easily
grow as and when the need arises.
DARK FIBER