The Future Of Fiber Communications

By Author: Jennifer Quigley
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It was 1966 when Charles K. Kao calculated how to transmit light through optical glass fibers, over great distances, a discovery that led to breakthroughs in fiber optics. He discovered that a fiber of the purest glass could carry light signals more than 60 miles, although the fibers available to him at the time could only carry them some 50 feet. Kao was enthusiastic about his findings, and other researchers jumped on board his vision for a future of fiber optic communication. In 1970, the first of the ultrapure fibers were successfully developed. In 2009, he shared half of the Nobel Prize in Physics with the Chinese University of Hong Kong for "groundbreaking achievements [in] optical communication."

Before Kao's time, we had been using the same basic communications infrastructure since the telegraph. Many limitations are imposed by that kind of communications network, as well as even less-ancient ones like RF (Radio Frequency) and microwave communications. Neither of these can be deployed widely because of the limited spectrum available. In addition, the frequency has to be repeatedly amplified as it loses strength ...
... over distance, meaning additional cost to maintain signal integrity. In addition, scalability is greatly reduced by the increasing number of consumers using the medium. Current copper-cable methods are even less robust, with low transfer rate and considerable initial investment required for the cables and repeaters. Neither of these approaches meets the communications challenge of the present, much less the future.

Fiber optic to the rescue

Necessity being the mother of invention, fiber optic technology was born of the need to move larger and larger amounts of data between and among people, companies and nations. Leaving the copper wire model in the past, since it had reached its maximum efficiencies, the new technology uses optical fibers to send data in the form of light. The speed of light, of course, far surpasses that of electrical signals that meet resistance from physical materials, whatever their nature. With fiber optic technology, gigabits and terabits of data can be transmitted, and as the science progresses so will the speed and throughput.

Clearly, fiber optic communications is the future, and the future is already underway. With continuing improvement to DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing), greater and greater amounts of data can be sent at different frequencies, but simultaneously, over a single line. Some experts estimate that the available spectrum, or carrying capacity, per fiber might increase by up to ten-fold in the next decade. Due to the small size and big efficiency of fiber optics cables, laying more of them is a much less daunting task than laying more copper cable, so scalability is ensured. The process is currently rather costly, but as technologies mature, as we have seen in computing technology, costs tend to tumble. Remember, a single MB of RAM was about $400 in the late 1980s. You can get 1000 times as much today for about a tenth of that cost.

Continuing studies and tests

Exciting progress is being made now in research and development of the means to send different streams of data in the same wavelength, simultaneously, by varying the multiplexing technique. This will reduce the need for new optical fiber installation, as carrying capacity increases without adding more fiber cables. In addition, present technology still converts optical signals into electrical ones for processing, only to be converted back into optical for transmission. A lot of work is being done, right now, on producing all-optical networks, eliminating the need for signal conversion. At present, however, gathering headers and routing information from light waves traveling along optical fibers is difficult, but the work continues and may bear fruit sooner rather than later.

There remain many studies to do, and many tests to conduct, before we have eliminated the obstacles that optical fiber communications face. There is plenty of need, naturally, as the world runs on information, and faster methods means greater efficiencies in every area of business and life. High-speed data transfer, efficiently utilizing available bandwidth, is an absolute requirement as the world's appetite for data, video, music, voice transmission and everything else delivered by the Internet, mobile communications, satellites and cable systems is growing exponentially. There is little doubt at present about fiber optic communication ruling the future of communications, as new technologies, as well as cost-reducing tactics for maximizing existing ones, are already on the way.
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