Optical fiber cable has become very popular for interconnecting infrastructure network devices. It permits the transmission of data over longer distances and at higher bandwidths (data rates) than any other networking media.

Optical fiber is a flexible but extremely thin transparent strand of very pure glass (silica) not much bigger than a human hair. Bits are encoded on the fiber as light impulses. The fiber-optic cable acts as a waveguide, or “light pipe,” to transmit light between the two ends with minimal loss of signal.

As an analogy, consider an empty paper towel roll with the inside coated like a mirror that is a thousand meters in length and a small laser pointer is used to send Morse code signals at the speed of light. Essentially that is how a fiber-optic cable operates, except that it is smaller in diameter and uses sophisticated light emitting and receiving technologies.

Unlike copper wires, fiber-optic cable can transmit signals with less attenuation and is completely immune to EMI and RFI.

Fiber-optic cabling is now being used in four types of industry:

Our focus is the use of fiber within the enterprise.