Optical fiber is a long thin cylindrical fiber made from plastic or glass, smaller than one tenth of a human hair. A standard telecom optical fiber comprises three cylindrical layers, counted in the inside as fiber core (diameter 8x10um), the cladding (diameter of 125um) as well as buffer layer (diameter 90um).
Fiber core and cladding are made of glass or silica. The fiber core and the cladding layers combine to contain the light inside the core, without leakage. The fiber buffer coating is constructed from acrylic or plastic and provides handling flexibility and physical protection for the fiber.
Optic fibers make use of an optical phenomenon known as total internal reflection. When light is introduced into the fiber from its end face, it is kept inside the core without leaking outside and Boojoo.mn/__media__/js/netsoltrademark.php?d=calcme.atwebpages.com%2Fdir%2Fsite-942.html losing its energy.
Then, light is digitally modulated to show the numbers 1 and 0 like a computer, so information can be carried from one place to another site which may be from San Francisco all the way to New York.
What are fiber optic connectors and what do they do?
Now you understand the way optical fibers function. So what exactly is a fiber optic connector and what’s its function in a fiber optic telecommunication network?
Simply put A fiber optic connector’s purpose is just like an electric power plug, it is used to connect light in one segment of optical fiber with another segment that is optical.
Since optical fibers are small, fiber optic connectors have to be constructed with high precision, at the scale of 0.1um that is just one centimeter of a human hair.
Fiber optic connectors connect two fibers from one end to the other to ensure that light is able to move from one fiber to another without bouncing off the interface and loss its signal.
Additionally, fiber optic connectors provide cross connect flexibility to the telecommunications network. Thus, a complex computer network can be modularized and manageable.
Similar to other connectors utilized in the electronic industry, the electric industry, or computer industry, many different types and types of connectors for fiber optics were created in the course of development of the fiber optic communication industry. Certain types were once extremely popular in the field and now have been used for a variety of purposes, but are now fading away.
The most well-known fiber optic connectors in use today comprise SC, ST, LC, FC, MTRJ, SMA and a few of other less popular ones. You will surely see new connectors invented with the advancement of technology.