How Do Fiber Optic Connectors work? The history of fiber optic telecommunications deserves an entire book on its own because it took several generations to get the industry today.

Optical fiber is a long thin cylindrical fiber that is made of glass or plastic, that is as small as one tenth of human hair. A typical optical fiber for telecom is composed of three layers of cylindrical shape, arranged in the inside: fiber core (diameter 8x10um), the cladding (diameter 125um) as well as buffer layer (diameter 900um).

Fiber core and cladding are composed of silica or glass. The fiber core and the layers of cladding combine to contain the light within the core and prevent it from leaking. The fiber buffer coating is constructed of plastic or acrylic and offers handling flexibility as well as physical protection to the fiber.

Optical fibers utilize an optical phenomenon called total internal reflection. When light is in the fiber from the the end, it becomes kept inside the core not leaking out and losing its energy.

Then, light is digitally modified to represent 1 and 0 just as a computer. As such, information can be transferred from one place to another site which may be located from San Francisco all the way to New York.

What is a fiber optic connector and how do they function?

Now you know how optical fibers operate. So what is a fiber optic connector and what is its purpose in a fiber optic telecommunication network?

Simply put, a fiber optic connector’s purpose is just like an electric power source It relies on light to transmit from one segment that is optical to a different section that is optical.

Since optical fibers are tiny they require fiber optic connectors to be designed with extreme precision, with a size of 0.1um that is just one centimeter of the human hair.

Fiber optic connectors align two fibers end to end to ensure that light is able to be transferred from one fiber to another without being bounced off of the interface and loss its signal.

In addition the fact that fiber optic connectors offer cross-connect flexibility to the telecommunication network. So a complicated computer network can be modularized and manageable.

Similar to other connectors that are used in electronic industry, electric industry, or computer industry, many different kinds connected to fiber optic cables were invented in the course of development of the fiber optic communications. Some of them once were extremely popular in the field but they have since served their purpose and are becoming obsolete.

The most well-known fiber optic connectors in use today comprise SC, ST, LC, رقم الالياف البصرية stc FC, MTRJ, SMA and a few of others that are less well-known. You will surely see new connectors developed with the progress of this industry.

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