From the course: Electrical Systems: Communications and Data

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Fiber-optic cable systems overview

Fiber-optic cable systems overview

- [Instructor] An alternative way of passing data and communication signals across copper-based cables and conductors, is the use of fiber optic strands and cables. Optical fibers are highly transparent strands of plastic or glass, that allow light signals to be transmitted very quickly over long distances, and with very low levels of lost signal strength. These light signals are converted from into bits of data information. Fiber-optic strands grouped together can make up a fiber optic cable, and they can carry extremely large amounts of signal, otherwise known as data, making them much more powerful and useful than copper based conductors, especially in the application of main trunk type lines known as backbones. Early generation fiber optic strands in cables were made out of glass. And although it had some flexibility, it was still very fragile, and had many limitations on how to be installed and terminated. Modern…

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