Optical cables: there are more advantages than disadvantages

In the seventies it became very fashionable to have in the bedroom a night light consisting of a hemispherical stand and a bundle of waveguides sticking out of it. In the dark this design radiated a dim light in the form of small dots burning at the tips of thin translucent fibers. This really beautiful thing was made from the waste produced by a new type of information conductors. The name is optical cables (in other words - fiber optic lines, that is, fiber-optic communication lines).

How FOC works

Any electrical conductor has a resistance, not only active, but also reactive (capacitive and inductive). These physical parameters depend on the diameter of the wire, its wave properties and, of course, the length of the line connecting the signal sender to the receiving device. High-frequency channels are particularly sensitive to the resistive qualities of the communication channel. Fiber-optic cable is deprived of this lack, the losses in it are incomparably lower than in conventional conductors, because the information carrier is the light energy. The principle of the channel is quite clear and simple. The input of the communication line is fed by a signal converted from electrical to optical. At the output, it is demodulated, and it enters the receiving information device in the form of the usual voltage pulses.

Advantages of fiber channels

In addition to resistance to interference and attenuation, optical cables have other very significant advantages. When transmitting information over fiber channels, it's much easier to keep it confidential, since it's almost impossible to connect to them secretly. Another plus of this method of transfer is of an economic nature. Copper is a non-ferrous metal, and waveguide materials have a more affordable price. The optical cable is made of quartz or special polymer compositions (fluoro-aluminate or fluorine zirconate), which, moreover (the third advantage) is much lighter than metallic conductors, which must also be screened.

Disadvantages of optical communication

Yes, optical cables, like everything in this world, are not without flaws.

Firstly, to restore communication when the line breaks, the entire damaged area needs to be replaced, the waveguides are not subject to splicing, so the repair work is seriously expensive.

Secondly, installation work is also not cheap. Precision equipment is necessary for their carrying out, and it is expensive. And the qualification of specialists requires considerable, and they need to pay accordingly.

Thirdly, to these signal converters at the input and output of the line, as well as connectors (devices providing switching), very high demands are placed on reliability, optical losses, accuracy. The fact that quality is worth the money, no one needs to explain.

Relationship of the future

Still, there are more advantages. Optical cables can transmit a broadband signal, which significantly increases the speed of information exchange (measured already in Terabits per second). At the same time, the attenuation is extremely small (at a wavelength of 1.55 microns it is only 0.22 dB / km). In addition, the ability of light waves to move in opposite directions (with different polarizations) in one conductor increases the potential of fiber-optic links. Their cultivation continues.