optical fiber is a thin cylindrical fiber that is made of glass or plasticthat is as tiny as one tenth of human hair. A typical optical fiber for telecom comprises three cylindrical layers, counted from the inside out the fiber core (diameter 8~10um) and cladding (diameter 125um) and buffer coating (diameter 90um).
Fiber core and cladding is made of glass or silica. Fiber Core and Cladding layers work together to confine the light inside the core, without losing. Fiber buffer coating is made from acrylic or plastic and offers handling flexibility as well as physical protection to the fiber.
Optic fibers make use of an optical phenomenon called total internal reflection. When light is in the fiber from the end face, it is kept inside the core not leaking out and wasting its energy.
Then light is digitally modulated to indicate 1 and 0 , just like a computer, and data can be transmitted from one place to another one, which could be from San Francisco all the way to New York.
What are fiber optic connectors ? And how do they work?
Now you understand the way optical fibers function. So what is a fiber optic connector and what’s its function in a fiber optic telecommunication network?
Simply put The fiber optic connector’s purpose is just like an electric power supply that is used to connect light in one segment of optical fiber with another section of optical fiber.
Since optical fibers are so small they require fiber optic connectors to be designed with extreme precision, with a scale of 0.1um that is just one centimeter of the human hair.
Fiber optic connectors align two fibers end to end in a way that light can travel from one fiber into another without bouncing off the interface , and thus losing its signal.
Besides, fiber optic connectors provide cross connect flexibility for the telecommunication network. Therefore, a computer network that is complex can be modularized and easy to manage.
Similar to other connectors that are used in electronic industry, electric industry, and the computer industry, a variety of types of fiber optic connectors were created in the course of development of the fiber optic communication industry. Some of them once were highly popular in the market but they have since served their purpose and are becoming obsolete.
The most popular fiber optic connectors that are used today include SC, ST, LC, FC, MTRJ, رقم الالياف البصرية stc SMA and a few others that are less well-known. There are certain to be new connectors being developed as a result of the development of the industry.