The Science Behind Fiber Optic Networking: A Deeper Dive
When it comes to communication and data transmission, fiber optic networking is often considered one of the most reliable and efficient methods available. But have you ever stopped to think about how light actually travels through these tiny tubes? That's what we're going to explore in this article.
Fundamentally, fiber optic cables work by encoding data into pulses of light that travel around the world carrying our phone calls, business conferences, and important internet data. This may seem like magic, but it's actually a sophisticated process that requires careful consideration of many factors. One of the key principles behind fiber optic networking is total internal reflection.
A fiber optic system doesn't just shine light down any random hollow tube. Instead, optical cables are made up of a core of glass or plastic surrounded by an outer layer called cladding. Both the glass and the cladding have an inherent property called a refractive index, which is essentially a measure of how fast light can travel through something. For the system to work properly, the cladding needs to have a slightly lower index of refraction than the core.
This difference in refractive indices allows the fiber optic cable to behave differently than your average flashlight. While a flashlight will scatter and weaken its light over short distances, the cladding in an optical fiber is carefully designed to reflect light back into the core at a shallow angle. This means that instead of passing through the cladding, the light will continue on down the fiber in a zigzag pattern indefinitely. In theory, this should allow the signal to keep going all the way until it reaches the other end of the fiber.
However, the real world has a way of throwing a wrench into even the most high-tech systems. No matter how pure and perfect an optical cable is, there will always be some imperfections - even if they're so small that you could only see them at the molecular level. These imperfections cause some of the light to scatter, weakening the signal over distance until eventually it can't be understood by the equipment at the other end.
To combat this, long-distance fiber runs are often assisted by repeaters or amplifiers. A repeater gets placed at a point down the fiber where the signal will have weakened significantly but is still strong enough to be read once the light hits the repeater, it's turned into the corresponding electronic signal, which is then turned back into light much as it was at the origin point and sent along on its merry way. This process allows the signal to continue down the cable, even if it's weakened by imperfections.
Repeaters come with a latency and a complexity cost, however. Many modern long-distance systems now use amplifiers instead. An amplifier is an optical fiber that is doped with chemicals which directly amplify light when the weakened signal hits them. The ions in the fibers themselves will re-emit the same signal but much more strongly than what came in, allowing it to continue down the cable.
This versatility makes fiber optics a more viable choice for long-distance communication than copper wiring. Not only is it more cost-effective, but it's also more power-efficient and can carry enormous amounts of data without requiring a boost. Additionally, because it's thinner and doesn't cause electromagnetic interference to the cables around it, it's common to bundle multiple fibers into one large cable.
This ability to transmit massive amounts of data with minimal loss has found uses outside of just communication. For example, fiber optics have been used in endoscopy, where their flexibility allows a user to light up and view inside very hard-to-reach spaces. This is useful in fields like engineering, plumbing, and even medicine.
Becoming Great at Math, Science, and Computer Science
As we explore the fascinating world of fiber optic networking, it's worth taking a moment to appreciate the tools that make it all possible. Brilliant is a problem-solving website and app with a hands-on approach. With over 50 interactive courses, you'll learn concepts bit by bit and build up to an interesting conclusion.
Each course on Brillant comes with storytelling, code writing, interactive challenges, and problems to solve. You'll unravel concepts in unexpected places and discover deep truths along the way. And as a special offer for our viewers, the first 200 of you to click the link in the description will get 20% off an annual premium subscription.
That's all for today's article on fiber optic networking. We hope you learned something new about this incredible technology and how it continues to shape our world.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enif you've ever built a tree fort you've probably also tried to send a secret message to your friend using morse code and a flashlight and fundamentally fiber optic networking works in the same way encoding data in pulses of light that travel around the world carrying our phone calls business conferences and important internet data but now hold on a second how exactly do you send light over great distances and still manage to extract information from it i mean fiber optic cables have to carry light for literally thousands of miles like across oceans yet if you've ever shined a flashlight down a long hallway you'll know that over any more than a short distance the light scatters and eventually becomes too dim to make out well that is where optical fibers come in those really skinny tubes that make your christmas tree look nice without having to string up any messy lights have some special characteristics that allow them to work over incredible distances the main way that fiber optics behave differently than your flashlight is that they take advantage of a physical phenomenon called total internal reflection you see a fiber optic system doesn't just shine light down any random hollow tube instead optical cables are made up of a core of glass or plastic surrounded by an outer layer called cladding both the glass and the cladding have an inherent property called a refractive index which is basically a measure of how fast light can travel through something for the system to work properly the cladding needs to have a slightly lower index of refraction than the core now sometimes this is achieved by using pure glass that is silicon dioxide for the core and then doping the cladding with chemicals to lower its refractive index while other times the core itself can be doped to raise the same value either way this different means that if light hits the cladding at a shallow enough angle it will be completely reflected at the same angle instead of passing through the cladding that means that it can continue on down the fiber in a zigzag pattern indefinitely yeah well not quite although in theory the optical signal should just keep going all the way until it reaches the other end of the fiber the pesky real world always has a way of throwing a wrench in the pudding no matter how high end and pure an optical cable is there will always be some imperfections even if they're so small that you could only see them at the molecular level and these will cause some of that light to scatter weakening the signal over distance until eventually it can't be understood by the equipment at the other end so to combat this long distance fiber runs are assisted by repeaters or amplifiers a repeater gets placed at a point down the fiber where the signal will have weakened significantly but it's still strong enough to be red once the light hits the repeater it's turned into the corresponding electronic signal which is then turned back into light much as it was at the origination point and then sent along on its merry way repeaters come with a latency and a complexity cost though so many modern long distance systems now use amplifiers instead these gadgets have optical fibers which are doped with chemicals that directly amplify light when the weakened signal hits them so the ions in the fibers themselves will re-emit the same signal but much more strongly than what came in and it continues down the cable in this way optical fiber runs can be designed to be really long making them a more viable choice for long distance communication than copper optical fiber is not only more cost effective than copper wiring it's more power efficient and it even goes farther without requiring a boost also because it's thinner and doesn't cause electromagnetic interference to the cables around it it's common to bundle a bunch of optical fibers each of which can carry multiple wavelengths of light into one large cable making it possible to transmit enormous amounts of data without taking up too much space this versatility means that fiber optics have found uses outside of just communication such as an endoscopy where their flexibility allows a user to light up and view inside very hard to reach spaces this is useful in fields like engineering plumbing and even medicine speaking of which i gotta run and get to a doctor's appointment that hopefully doesn't involve sticking a fiber optic scope up somewhere embarrassing oh i know what the doctor ordered this message from our sponsor becoming great at math science and computer science doesn't have to be dull brilliant is a problem-solving website and app with a hands-on approach with over 50 interactive courses brilliance courses have storytelling code writing interactive challenges and problems to solve and with brilliant you get to unravel concepts bit by bit and build up to an interesting conclusion and discover deep truths in unexpected places for example check out their new course on differential equations where you'll learn about the lorenz equations and experience tons of real world examples the first 200 of you to click the link in the description will get 20 off an annual premium subscription so thanks for watching guys like dislike leave a comment if you have a suggestion for a future fast as possible and i will see you next timeif you've ever built a tree fort you've probably also tried to send a secret message to your friend using morse code and a flashlight and fundamentally fiber optic networking works in the same way encoding data in pulses of light that travel around the world carrying our phone calls business conferences and important internet data but now hold on a second how exactly do you send light over great distances and still manage to extract information from it i mean fiber optic cables have to carry light for literally thousands of miles like across oceans yet if you've ever shined a flashlight down a long hallway you'll know that over any more than a short distance the light scatters and eventually becomes too dim to make out well that is where optical fibers come in those really skinny tubes that make your christmas tree look nice without having to string up any messy lights have some special characteristics that allow them to work over incredible distances the main way that fiber optics behave differently than your flashlight is that they take advantage of a physical phenomenon called total internal reflection you see a fiber optic system doesn't just shine light down any random hollow tube instead optical cables are made up of a core of glass or plastic surrounded by an outer layer called cladding both the glass and the cladding have an inherent property called a refractive index which is basically a measure of how fast light can travel through something for the system to work properly the cladding needs to have a slightly lower index of refraction than the core now sometimes this is achieved by using pure glass that is silicon dioxide for the core and then doping the cladding with chemicals to lower its refractive index while other times the core itself can be doped to raise the same value either way this different means that if light hits the cladding at a shallow enough angle it will be completely reflected at the same angle instead of passing through the cladding that means that it can continue on down the fiber in a zigzag pattern indefinitely yeah well not quite although in theory the optical signal should just keep going all the way until it reaches the other end of the fiber the pesky real world always has a way of throwing a wrench in the pudding no matter how high end and pure an optical cable is there will always be some imperfections even if they're so small that you could only see them at the molecular level and these will cause some of that light to scatter weakening the signal over distance until eventually it can't be understood by the equipment at the other end so to combat this long distance fiber runs are assisted by repeaters or amplifiers a repeater gets placed at a point down the fiber where the signal will have weakened significantly but it's still strong enough to be red once the light hits the repeater it's turned into the corresponding electronic signal which is then turned back into light much as it was at the origination point and then sent along on its merry way repeaters come with a latency and a complexity cost though so many modern long distance systems now use amplifiers instead these gadgets have optical fibers which are doped with chemicals that directly amplify light when the weakened signal hits them so the ions in the fibers themselves will re-emit the same signal but much more strongly than what came in and it continues down the cable in this way optical fiber runs can be designed to be really long making them a more viable choice for long distance communication than copper optical fiber is not only more cost effective than copper wiring it's more power efficient and it even goes farther without requiring a boost also because it's thinner and doesn't cause electromagnetic interference to the cables around it it's common to bundle a bunch of optical fibers each of which can carry multiple wavelengths of light into one large cable making it possible to transmit enormous amounts of data without taking up too much space this versatility means that fiber optics have found uses outside of just communication such as an endoscopy where their flexibility allows a user to light up and view inside very hard to reach spaces this is useful in fields like engineering plumbing and even medicine speaking of which i gotta run and get to a doctor's appointment that hopefully doesn't involve sticking a fiber optic scope up somewhere embarrassing oh i know what the doctor ordered this message from our sponsor becoming great at math science and computer science doesn't have to be dull brilliant is a problem-solving website and app with a hands-on approach with over 50 interactive courses brilliance courses have storytelling code writing interactive challenges and problems to solve and with brilliant you get to unravel concepts bit by bit and build up to an interesting conclusion and discover deep truths in unexpected places for example check out their new course on differential equations where you'll learn about the lorenz equations and experience tons of real world examples the first 200 of you to click the link in the description will get 20 off an annual premium subscription so thanks for watching guys like dislike leave a comment if you have a suggestion for a future fast as possible and i will see you next time\n"
