Fiber Optics Vs.

Copper Wire When computer networks were invented, copper wiring was used for the cables that handled the Internet. However, soon after fiber optics were introduced, many Internet service providers opted to build the bones of the Internet with the new communication medium in the belief that it would be better in the future.

Transmissions Through Copper

Copper wiring was first used for communication through the telephone. To save resources, the same infrastructure was used for Internet data transfer. Phone cables were suitable for ADSL lines because the unused frequencies at which they operate were still capable of hauling large amounts of data. However, there is a limit to how much data can be transferred at one time, and the Internet grows more speedhungry by the day. Transmissions Through Fiber Optics

The use of fiber optic cables started emerging in the 1980s shortly after the first transmissions in 1977, when General Telephone Electronics started demonstrating the potential of this technology. The technology has seen improvement over the years and has a large transmission velocity even across long distances (up to about 200 kilometers). This seemed to solve most problems that were presented by copper wiring. Most of the installations of fiber optics were done for commercial reasons. Installations for personal use were often rare.

High Costs of Fiber Optics

People did not install fiber optic lines in their houses because it is rather expensive to invest in this technology. The cost of a fiber optic Internet setup is very high, and it is not worth it if you just want an average 6 Mb connection. Even some ISPs around the world did not invest in fiber optics because of the high cost of replacing their already-established copper infrastructures.

Advantages of Fiber Optics

From the perspective of an ISP, it is almost always a good investment to put money in fiber optics. Using fiber optics, an Internet infrastructure would require a lower maintenance than a copper wire infrastructure, since the fibers are much stronger. Just to give you an idea of how strong fiber optic wires are, airplanes are normally manufactured with fiberglass (which fiber optic cables are composed of) in place of steel because of the impact strength and light weight of the fibers in comparison with that of steel. This is not the only benefit. The worries about distance from a central office would also be eliminated because there would be an equal distribution of bandwidth no matter how far customers are from the office. Fiber optic cables can transmit signals for up to 200 kilometers. Advantages of Copper Wire

For personal use, fiber optic lines are often times not a good idea. Unless someone wants to start a personal data center or orders a very high speed Internet connection (such as something above 1 Gb per second), putting money in fiber optics is not a wise investment. Copper works on simple ADSL connections since there is not much of a distance from a modem to a phone jack on a wall. Copper usually transmits data without loss at distances of two kilometers or less. On top of all that, the demand for bandwidth in an ADSL connection is often low enough (around 6 to 8 Mbps on average) to use copper wires

The Advantage of Fiber-optic Cable over Copper-core Cable

Fiber optic filiments carry signals as light waves. Digital computer traffic can travel over fiber-optic or copper-core cable. But the type of signal produced determines which to use. A copper cable only carries electronic waves, and a fiber-optic cable only carries light waves. The two are not interchangeable, and the fiber-optic cable has several advantages over the copper.

More Information

The frequency of a signal determines how much information or "bandwidth" it carries. The higher the frequency, the more information the signal can carry. Electronic waves peak at about 300 GHz. But light frequencies go several times higher, allowing computer traffic speeds well into the gigabytes. Longer Distance

Because of the higher loss in copper cables, electronic signals need to be amplified at periodic intervals. But fiber optic cable has less resistance to the light waves and allows the signals to travel much farther before amplification is needed.

Cleaner Signal

Although the shield of a copper-core cable reduces interference from unwanted signals, it cannot eliminate them completely. However, fiber-optic cables act like an infinite number of tiny mirrors in a tubular pattern that allows no other light to enter and cause interference or distortion. Less Maintenance

Copper can corrode or expand and contract with temperature changes, but glass cannot. Therefore copper-core cables need periodic maintenance programs to prevent corrosion and loosened connectors. Because glass never corrodes, such maintenance is not necessary.

Bandwidth Capacity of Fiber Optic Cable

Fiber optic cable Fiber optic cable transmits information using light signals. Fiber optic networks operate under the standards 10 Base-F, 100 Base-F, FDDI, FDDI duplex, 1000 Base-F and 10 Gbase, which include bandwidth capacity in their definitions.

Single and Multimode Fiber

Single mode fiber optic cable is the earliest form of fiber optic cable. This type of cable sends a single beam of light down the cable. Multimode fiber optic cable is an improved version of fiber optic communication. Because multimode fiber sends several light beams that combine into one signal, performance may be slightly higher, as the multimode installation includes several lasers which may combine to produce a maximum transmission rate greater than the specification standard rate to improve reliability. For example, a 10 gigabyte multimode network may include four lasers sending at 3 gigabytes. 10 Base-F

Older installations operate with lower bandwidth, especially if the signal is sent over long distances without amplification. The 10 Base-F standards from 1993 are the earliest standard for fiber optic transmission over Ethernet networks, according to the

University of California, Berkeley. 10 Base networks send information at 10 megabytes per second.