Fibre optic cabling—is it the future?
In today’s tech-advanced society, businesses and individuals are relying on some form of proficient network connection to perform daily tasks. Although in the past the majority of our applications have used metallic wiring, it is usually fibre optic technology that provides for us in our everyday life—and many of us aren’t even aware we’re using it.
This is because fibre optics has undergone a rapid expansion just in the last decade, and so it would seem its here to stay. Here’s everything you need to know about fibre optic cabling.
What is fibre optic cabling?
A fibre optic cable incorporates highly flexible glass threads as thin as human hair, each of which is able to transmit messages modified into light waves. It may seem absurd to create cables out of glass, but each one is highly durable and coated in a protective cladding that not only binds the fibres together but also reflects light back into the core of the cable. A further protective layer is then placed on top.
The benefits of fibre optic cabling
Fibre optics is proven to have many advantages over the traditional metal wiring and delivers a superior amount of quality, convenience, and durability. An often overlooked and unknown benefit of the fibre optic cable is the enhanced safety. As it uses light rather than electricity it doesn’t carry the usual risk of sparking and causing fires. The use of light signals rather than the older analogue, electric signals also keeps communications clearer. The signals don’t interfere with each other within the cable, so it ensures good signal.
The very nature of the fibre optics is that they were designed for a modern world. This means carrying our new digital signals is quite literally what they were made to do whereas older wiring has had to adapt to new forms of communication. On a similar note, the fibre optics can be very easily added to and adapted to accommodate increased demand and increased bandwidth. In this day and age, the world of technology is ever changing so this adaptability is absolutely invaluable.
The fibre optic cables also have benefits from a hardware point of view. The cables are much thinner than the older copper wires. Not only does this make them significantly lower in weight and much more practical for installation but it also means the cost of the cabling is considerably less than its predecessor. Staying on the hardware side of things, the fibre optic cables are also much hardier. They don’t suffer when encountering temperature fluctuations and an extremely useful function is that they can be submerged fully in water enabling them to run in places that copper wiring simply couldn’t.
It is clear that fibre optics are here to stay and will remain at the forefront of all cabling infrastructures for the foreseeable future. Invest in your ICT infrastructure today, and improve your data communication network with fibre optic cabling solutions.