Tuesday 5 March 2013

Understanding fiber optics and optical fiber testing equipment!

Optical fiber is one of the newest members of the IT revolution and is still a stream of constantly changing and evolving technology. In the real world, the applications of optical fiber are endless. Whether it is military, medical sciences, telecommunication or aviation field, the list goes on and on. In contemporary times, where information is almost everything, and it has blended so well with our day to day lives, there is an ever increasing requirement of secure bandwidth to transmit information. Traditional copper wires were not able to keep up with the increased data transfer rates and its vulnerability to keep the data secured, so it gave way to optical fibers.

Let us begin with knowing what an optical fiber is? In short it is a transparent and flexible tube made of glass or plastic, which may be slightly thicker than a human hair. It is used to transmit signals in the form of light, which is faster and consumes way less energy than required by copper wires. The numerous advantages it carries include almost unlimited bandwidth of the cable, low cost per unit length of cable, highly secure channels, no effect of external disturbance of any kind including crossover and EMF, high speed connectivity, etc. Today optical fiber has become the most critical backbone for any country as all the high speed networks consist of optical fibers.

When it comes to maintaining this critical high speed network of cables in their utmost conditions, it is necessary to do periodic fiber optic testing. There are primarily two reasons for the loss of efficiency of a fiber. First is the possible contamination of the cable due to dust particles or oils which might obstruct the proper transmission of signals. The second could be due to pits or cracks developed in the cable which lead to loss of signal. The latter usually happens due to extensive stress or extreme changes in temperature. To prevent disruption of communication, periodic testing is done which includes mechanical and environmental tests. Mechanical tests may include crush resistance, tensile strength and impact resistance while environmental tests may evaluate performance under repeated temperature changes, humidity, etc.

In order to make things easier and to save time there are highly sophisticated testing equipment available in the market at your disposal. Fiber optic testing equipment is used to check and ensure the optical fiber's quality. For example Autocollimator is a device used for measuring angles of light in the cable.

Interferometer is a precision device that is widely used to interfere waves. There are several other useful types of equipment readily available for maintaining and troubleshooting these cables. Also if you wanna more about the details for fiber equipments so just subscribe to our GOOGLE+


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