what’s fiber optic communication. How does it work?
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has declared that everyone in the UK must enjoy fiber optic Internet service.
But what’s the fiber optic Internet service and how fast is it?
British Treasury Secretary Sajid Jawed said the £5 billion investment would secure the delivery of “fiber optic Internet service” to 20 percent of UK regions.
Johnson said that the service was necessary to improve the UK’s infrastructure and productivity and would be fully put into service by 2025.
A government report published last year estimated the cost of covering the UK with this service by the old deadline, 2033, would be around £33 billion.
What’s the difference?
With more people using live streaming, smart devices and video calls, we need more data.
According to the British Telecommunications Regulator, average household use was 240 GB per month in 2018, up 26 percent from the previous year.
There were many benefits for consumers and companies in delivering that service to all:
Creating jobs focused on infrastructure.
Increasing corporate productivity.
Reduce the need for mobility by making remote work easier.
Faster Internet speeds help download movies faster, play online and use live streaming services.
What is fiber optic communication?
A fiber-optic communication service is a high-speed connection, to transmit Internet data and other types of movement.
There are three main types of communication service linking the local telephone exchange to the consumer:
First: (ADSL) Brass cables are used to connect subpacks in streets and houses.
Second: The FTTC is based on a fibre-optic cable between the partition and the sub-cans and a copper cable between the can and the house.
Third: The FPOS is based on fibre-optic cable down to the house, without the need to use any copper cable.
Copper cables are the backbone of the Internet infrastructure in Britain, and are used in telephone networks throughout the United Kingdom and reach most homes.
But this network is older and slower than fibre optic cables made from glass or plastic and uses light to transmit data.
But digging the ground and extracting copper cables and replacing them with fibre optic cables to homes requires a lot of work and is very expensive.
How fast is the fiber optic connection?
The United Kingdom government currently sets high-speed Internet service at over 30 megabytes per second (Mbps).
The most fast Internet is over 100 megabytes per second.
The speed of the Internet using a combination of fibre optic and copper (FTTC) can be around 66 MB per second.
The Internet, which makes full use of fiber optics, has a speed of 1 gigabyte per second (Gbps), or 1000 megabytes per second.
The United Kingdom ranks religious among European countries in terms of Internet speed, for example, more than half of homes in Latvia, Lithuania and Spain enjoy high-speed communication.
Can fifth-generation phones provide a similar speed?
One company planning to launch a 5G fifth-generation mobile service believes that the service will be so fast that many homes in the UK will not need the Internet via terrestrial cable.
What are fibre optics and what are their uses and types
Fibre optics or fibre optics refers to the medium and technology associated with the transmission of information and data through a glass, plastic, or fiber tube. Fiber optics is also commonly used in communications services such as the Internet, television, and phones.
Fiber optic cables are used because they have features that copper cables do not have, such as high bandwidth and large transmission speeds. The fiber optic cables can contain a varying number of such fibers.
Fibre optic mode of operation
Fiber optics relays data in the form of photovoltaic particles – or photons that pulse through the fiber optic cable, and when light signals are sent through the fiber optic cable, they are reflected and entered into a series of cascading reflections through a process called total internal reflection.
Light signals are not transmitted at the speed of light due to dense glass layers, however, they are transmitted at very high speed. To strengthen the signal at long distances, repeaters are installed at long distances to regenerate the light signal by converting it into an electrical signal, processing that electrical signal and re-sending the light signal.
With today’s progress, fiber-optic cables tend to support signals of up to 10 gigabits per second, usually as the bandwidth of the fiber-optic cable increases.
fiber optic cable types
Multiple fiber cables and single fiber cables are the primary types of fiber optic cables. Single fibers are used for long distances due to the smaller diameter of the fiberglass nucleus, which reduces the potential for weak signal power and a smaller aperture insulates light in a single beam, providing a direct path and allowing the signal to move a longer distance.
Single fibers also have a much higher bandwidth than multiple fibers. The light source used for single fibers is often lasers, and single fibers are usually more expensive because they require accurate calculations to transmit laser light in a smaller aperture.
Multiple fibers are used in short distances because the larger core aperture allows optical signals to bounce and reflect more along the way, and the larger diameter allows multiple light pulses to be sent through the cable simultaneously, resulting in the transmission of more data. This also means that there is a greater likelihood of loss, reduction or overlap of the signal.
Previously, copper cables were the traditional option for telecommunications, networks and cable connections for years, but today fiber optics is a common alternative. Most of the long-distance lines of telephone companies are now made of Cabella.
Fiber optics carries more information than conventional copper wires because of high bandwidth and high speeds. Because glass does not deliver electricity, fiber optics is not subject to electromagnetic interference and the signal loss is reduced to a minimum.
Advantages and disadvantages of fiber optics
- Fibre optic cables are used primarily for their advantages over copper cables. Advantages include:
- Support for high bandwidth capabilities.
- Light can travel farther without much strengthening the signal.
- Less prone to interference like electromagnetic interference.
- They can be submerged in water where fiber optics is used in more vulnerable environments such as sea cables.
- Fibre cables are stronger, thinner and lighter than copper cables.
- They do not need to be maintained or replaced frequently.
- However, it is important to note that fibre optics has defects that users must know. These include:
- Copper wires are often cheaper than fiber optics.
- Fiberglass requires more protection within an external cable than copper.
- The installation of the new cables requires considerable labor.
- Fibre optic cables are often more fragile. For example, fibers can break or a signal can be lost if the cable is curved around a radius of a few centimeters.
Uses of fibre optics
Computer networks are a common example of fibre optic uses because of their ability to transmit data and provide high bandwidth. Similarly, fibre optics is frequently used in television broadcasts and electronics to provide better communication and performance.
The Internet and television are among the most widely used areas of fibre optics, and fibre optics can be installed to support long-range communication between computer networks at different locations.
Military and space industries also benefit from fibre optics as a means of communication and signal transmission in addition to their temperature sensing capability. Fibre optic cables can be useful because of their light weight and small size.
Photovoltaics are frequently used in a variety of medical tools to provide accurate lighting and increasingly enable biomedical sensors used in medical processes. Since photovoltaics are not subject to electromagnetic interference, they are ideal for various tests such as magnetic resonance imaging. Other medical applications of photovoltaics include X-rays, internal visualization, light therapy and screening.
Comparison between adsl, fibr optic
The presence of the Internet has become an essential thing in any home or workplace and a need of the times that we need in our daily dealings, but it’s not enough to have it alone. We need speed as well so that we can keep up with our needs. Our speed search may lead us to choose between ADSL subscription or Optic Fiber, and here we will compare ADSL.
The comparison between both technologies will be in terms of basic features and characteristics first and in terms of price second and we’ll try to compare us thoroughly and help you choose the best fit for you according to your needs.
ADSL lines
The asymmetric digital subscription line, which is the most common type of Arab subscription in the region, operates on landlines and the speed of data transmission varies according to the value of the subscription and the service required. The ADSL line is highly suitable for home use, and small companies have a speed of up to 20 megabits/s.
This type of font distinguishes that it is possible to convert the normal fixed-line phone line to the ADSL line, that is, you don’t have to extend a separate line to the Internet again, and it’s flawed by some confusion when you make phone calls in the case of the common line, but this problem can be solved through a simple Splitter tool that insulates connections from each other, and also twice the speed at which files are uploaded.
Fiber Optics
Fiber optic lines, which are the future lines of the Internet, are high in size and high in quality, and are not affected by any surrounding factors, are considered to be available because of the quality of the ores used, which do not need to change every period such as ADSL lines, and are suitable for large companies.
The cost is relatively close to ADSL lines, and the newer fibre-optic lines are not widely distributed globally, but are the next alternative to normal lines; This is due to the high speed of transmission of data currently in circulation of up to 100 megabits/s with the potential to increase in the near future to 2 gigabits/s, which is of course high speed.
The future is for fiber optics, which is a matter of time to fully spread to Europe and America, and as we know in our Arab region is relatively late in introducing this type of font to full operation, it is only limited in some Arab countries, and it has not been fully generalized.
The regular and professional user looks for speed in data transmission regardless of the type of font used and of course wants it the cheapest, and the UK has developed a plan to roll out fiber optic lines to reach every home by 2020, with a speed starting at 15 megabytes/s and at a very low price.
the difference between ADSL and Fiber
You can easily choose the best line for the Internet, which is, of course, fiber optics, which offers speeds of up to 2 gigabits, and is suitable for downloading games, watching high-quality video in a few seconds, watching movies automatically without cutting and with high-resolution display quality, and for network game professionals it is very suitable for fast and smooth continuous play.
On the other hand, the ADSL line is able to implement all of the above, but not with the same quality, speed, and time required, especially in downloading games, and also watching high-quality videos on YouTube, which will launch a video streaming service with as much as 8K.
ADSL lines are superior in terms of both manufacturing and service price, while Fiber lines are superior in terms of data transmission speed and quality, and despite the relatively high price, they remain the best future alternative to all normal lines.
As I mentioned earlier, many Arab States have introduced fibre optic lines such as Egypt, the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, but they have not been fully disseminated, nor have they been operated at a maximum speed of 2 gigabit, but this can be seen as a positive indicator of a promising future; Because the kernel already exists and the increased speed of data transmission is only a time, and despite the relatively high cost of these lines compared to the income of the Arab citizen, it will find very good reception by all given the increasing need for more speeds.