Sunday, November 1, 2009

Light Your Home Through Fiber Optics

By Scott Rodgers

A large variety of data transmission media have been developed till now but the one which has extensive range of advantages over the old unreliable sources is the optical fiber system. Optical fibers refers to transparent thread like structures that allows data in the optical form to pass through them.

Data is modulated with light and is then transmitted. The property of light that is commonly known as total internal reflection is its basic principle. When a beam of light passes from denser medium to a less dense medium, reflection occurs and light ray moves away from normal. Therefore if the angle of incidence is changed to such an extent that light ray bends 90 degrees to the normal. This angle is known as critical angle. The angle of incidence beyond which critical angle increases is known as total internal reflection. Fiber optics is mainly based on this phenomenon.

Several advantages of fiber optics communication are as follows: Since today is an age of digital electronics, fiber optics provide you the facility to transmit your data digitally. Moreover the distortion is almost negligible.

Telephone lines that comes to your home are also made up of fiber cables because the signal remains undistorted at the receiver's end. The signal does not attenuate, thus possessing a complete signal strength. Electromagnetic interference and radio frequency interference do not degrade its performance. The data carrying capacity of optical fibers is also more than the traditional systems.

The other important advantage of fiber optics is, it has very low bit error rates. Not only this, it is resistant to all kinds of temperature variations also.

Another positive point of fiber optics that makes it suitable for data transmission is its flexibility. These cables are so flexible that makes it easily transportable. This property makes them applicable in many digital cameras. These are very thin having a diameter of a human hair. These are now-a-days used to decorate homes. Light lamps and other such articles that are made up of fiber optics are commonly used for home decor.

They are light weight which makes them portable and consumes less space on the ground. They are less expensive as compared to copper cables and this is mainly because they are made up of glass which in turn is made up of sand.

All these qualities make fiber optics the highest speed communication system. Advantages outlined above supports its use in almost every field. They are mainly applicable in telecommunications and computer networks. They are also used for medicinal purposes for inspecting the inside of a body. Plumbers are these days using this technology for fixing the damaged sewer lines.

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