Optical fiber is a long thin cylindrical fiber made from glass or plasticthat is smaller than one tenth of human hair. The standard optical fiber in telecom is composed of three cylindrical layers, counted in the inside: fiber core (diameter 8~10um) and cladding (diameter 125um) and buffer coating (diameter 900um).
The fiber core and cladding are made of glass or silica. Fiber Core and Cladding layers are used to keep the light within the core without losing. Fiber buffer coating is created out of plastic or acrylic, and gives handling flexibility and physical protection to the fiber.
Optic fibers make use of an optical phenomenon known as internal reflection. When light is injected into the fiber from end face, it is contained within the core, not leaking out and losing its energy.
Then, light is digitally modulated to show 1 and 0 , just like a computer, so information can be transferred from one location to another site which may be from San Francisco all the way to New York.
What are fiber optic connectors ? And how do they function?
Now you know the way optical fibers function. So what exactly is a fiber optic connector and what’s the purpose of the fiber optic telecommunications network?
Put it simple The fiber optic connector’s job is just like an electric power plug, it relies on light to transmit from one part of optical fiber with another segment of optical fiber.
Because optical fibers are tiny they require fiber optic connectors to be made with high precision, at the size of 0.1um that is just one centimeter of a human hair.
Fiber optic connectors connect two fibers from one end to the other so precisely that light can be transferred from one fiber to another without bounce off the interface and loss its signal.
In addition fiber optic connectors, they provide cross-connect flexibility to the telecommunications network. Thus, a complex computer network could be made modular and easy to manage.
Like other connectors that are used in electronic industry, electric industry and computer industry, many different types connected to fiber optic cables were created during the evolution of the fiber optic communications. Some of them once were very popular in the industry but they have since served their purpose and are disappearing.
The most well-known fiber optic connectors used nowadays are SC, تركيب الياف stc ST, LC, FC, MTRJ, SMA and a few other less popular ones. There are certain to be new connectors being developed as a result of the advancement of technology.