Networking: Optical Fiber and Fiber Optics Essay

Submitted By Mayor222
Words: 348
Pages: 2

Advancement of Fiber in the next 5 Years

Fiber Optics has evolved and changed the world of technology. The effectiveness of communications depends on that technology. In 1870, John Tyndall, using a jet of water that flowed from one container to another and a beam of light, demonstrated that light used internal reflection to follow a specific path. William Wheeling, in 1880, patented a method of light transfer called “piping light”. Wheeling believed that by using mirrored pipes branching off from a single source of illumination. The first commercial optical fiber network was implemented as recently as 1977. One of the first uses of fiber optics was the telephone, and today, fiber optic technology has revolutionized long distance calls. It has also made wiretapping more difficult and helps to prevent electrical interference. Probably the biggest use today for fiber optics is the Internet, which is information that fiber optics cables send digitally.
The most amazing thing about optical fiber is that the speed of processors is double every 18 months and the capacity of storage double every 12 months but, the speed of optical fiber networks doubles every 9 months! The capacity for optical fiber communications is potentially 100,000 times or more that of the nearest rival for long distance, Satellite/microwave. Scientist has no clue what the actual capacity of optical communication may actually be. It is not unthinkable that with advances over the next ten or twenty…