Optical Fibre Cable and its applications

  Optical Fiber Structure   In the initial stage, glass or silica material was utilised to create an optical fiber. Advancements in technology though, called for the use of plastic material to make the optical fiber. There are actually three different kinds of materials utilized to construct optical fibers. Here they are:   Fiber Optic Cable made of glass material   This kind of material has a centre and cladding that is constructed out of premium quality and durable silica.  An advantage of this glass material is that the attenuation losses are very low, which is an attribute that makes it one of the top options for remote telecommunication systems. A high quality and pure glass optic fiber cable has both a core and cladding made of glass for offering the least amount of attenuation/extinction losses. The glass FOC is made of Silicon Dioxide and Fused Quartz.     Figure 1: Silicone Dioxide   Some other complementary materials like titanium, ...

  Buffer is the protective layer of the fiber cable that cushions fiber from itself from the outside stress. There are two types of buffers – tight and loose tube. Tight buffer is usually made of PVC or Nylon and is applied directly on top of the optical fiber or fibers. Tight buffer makes termination and installation process easier. However it is only used indoors, due to inability to work in temperature changing environment. Temperature changes expand buffer which transmits expansion and contraction forces to the fiber. Constant force is damaging the fiber strand creating transmission errors or disrupting transmission completely. Nevertheless, cable manufacturers offer special outdoor solutions with tight buffer that are able to work in rough environments. Loose-tube buffer is a plastic pipe that accomodates one or several fibers inside. Empty space in the tube is filled with protective material that would ensure cables strength. Protective materials include different water block...

  Structure of the optical fiber cable   Core and cladding are typically made of glass or plastic. Most important specification of the core is the index of refraction which is the value for light bending passing through the material and for the speed of that light could travel through material with. Cladding is having lower refractive index than the core. It allows light to stay inside the fiber and not escape into cladding, since it will be reflected. Coating is simply a protective layer that is protecting core and cladding from the fracture. Whether the fiber is single mode or multi-mode is defined by the thickness of the fiber optic stand. Thin core would support only single pathway for the light. Thicker core means more angles for input signal, thus being able to transmit data in multiple paths and modes. Single mode fiber have some additional limitations due to nature of the cable. The concentrated laser is required, which is able to send signal precisely through such thi...

 Structure of fiber optics cable The same way as copper cables, fiber cables vary in specifications, mainly depending on the applications they are designed for. Variations might affect core diameter, materials used, and environment cable could be used in. In order to better understand  how fiber cable works, one should have a look at its components (see Figure 1). When stripping optical fiber cable of its layers, following components can be observed: Outer jacket; Optional protection from physical damage; Strength members; Buffer; Optical fiber stand. Each optical fiber stand has three components inside: Core; Cladding; Coating. Size of the core is varying between 8 and 63 microns. Pieces of the strand are so tiny they can easily penetrate skin and in some cases travel through human body with blood vessels. This is one more reason why installation should be done by professionals using specially intended gear.