Fiber Optic Technology

A decade ago, the internet was still in its infancy in many parts of the world, with data speeds at minimal. At that point the main medium of data transfer was coaxial cables, made out of copper. The maximum speed was indicated in kilobytes per second and even so, only a few houses could afford 24/7 internet connectivity.

In recent years, networks have seen impressive developments with things like Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), which gave users higher internet speeds over the same copper cables. It was called broadband internet and was a huge improvement in networks. This also helped reduce the cost of internet connectivity as a whole and therefore popularised the internet in many homes.

It wasn t long before wireless networks were introduced under the name of Wi-Fi. This further popularised the internet due to its convenience and ability to setup Local Area Networks (LAN), sharing a single internet connection.

Then came mobile networks that gave users even higher speeds and wireless connectivity with the advantage of mobility. Users could carry they re 3G modems anywhere and have broadband internet connectivity with speeds up to 7megabits per second. This, however, was costly and therefore was more popular with the corporate world. From recent, the focus has fallen on fiber optic technology where it was proven efficient in comparison to coaxial cables or 3G networks. Using the miniscule threads like wires made entirely of glass or plastic fiber optic technology performs miracles in every day life.It uses total internal reflection of light to transmit data in the form of pulses. Unlike copper cables , in the case of fiber optic technology, energy is not lost during the transmission, therefore making it more efficient. Optical fibers used in fiber optic technology has no interference with electromagnetic waves during transmission making the flow accurate.
Fiber optic technology offers higher bandwidths than ADSL or 3G connections making it the most efficient medium for data transfer. A single optical fiber can transmit mich more dta per second than any large copper cable thus, fiber optic technology comes as a cheaper alternative.

Data speeds that optical fiber offer currently are said to improve in the future and costs of the technology is to become cheaper, which means we re looking at a future where our internet connection at home will be using fiber optic systems technology giving us unexpected data speeds.