4. WHAT ARE OPTICAL FIBERS ? Q.) And how deep is the Pacifica ocean? Ans) At the deepest point called the Marina Trench, The pacific ocean is all of just 13km deep…..!!!!! Optical Fibers are thins long (km) strands of ultra pure glass (silica) or plastic that can to transmit light from one end to another without much attenuation or loss. The glass used to make Optical Fibers is so pure that if the Pacific Ocean was filled with this glass then we would be able to see the ocean bottom form the surface….!!!! This is to be believed as repeater distances on long haul routes for optical fibers vary from 50 to 150 km.
5. Working of Optical fibers? The light source (LAZER) at the transmitting (Tx) end is modulated by the electrical signal and this modulated light energy is fed into the Optical Fiber. At the receiving end (Rx) this light energy is made incident on photo-sensors which convert this light signal back to electrical signal.
6. As mans need and hunger for communication increased, the amount of bandwidth required increased exponentially. Initially we used smoke signals, then horse riders for communicating. But these ways were way to slow and had very little bandwidth or data caring capacity. Then came the telephone and telegraph that used copper wires for communication. But soon demand out striped the capacity and capability of copper wires and data transport got added to voice communication. Then came Coaxial copper cables, VHF and UHF Radios, Satellite but demand still outstripped the supply. It was not until Optical Fibers came on the scene that large amount of communication bandwidth became economically and easily available to everyone. As an example 50,000 voice / data circuit copper cable is massive in size and very expensive, while a single Optical Fiber, the diameter of human hair, can carry 5,00,000 circuits of voice and data. This capacity is increasing day by day as supporting electronics is developing. In itself the capacity of Optical Fibers is limitless. Why Optical Fibers ?