Thelanguageof
broadband and fiber optics
Media used by broadband
Systemsofmeasurementsusedinfiber
optics
Specialized fiber optic terms
Fiber Broadband Jargon
The key to understanding any technology is understanding the language of
the technology – the jargon. We’ve started this book with an overview
of fiber jargon to introduce you to the language of fiber
broadband and help you understand what you will be reading about
in the book.
What is Broadband?
Broadband today means networks that offer high-speed always-on Internet
access, provided by fiber to the home (FTTH), CATV cable modems or
wireless networks like 5G. The term broadband comes from the early
networks that used coax cable because of its higher bandwidth capability
and sent signals on frequency channels. Over time, it came to mean any
high-speed always-on Internet network.
Fiber Broadband means broadband delivered on fiber optics. Fiber
broadband offers much more bandwidth for broadband that other options.
But in fact, all communications are based on fiber optics; even the
wireless options use fiber optics for all connections except the final
short link to the user’s smartphone, tablet or other wireless device.
The first Internet connections were dial-up modems over copper telephone
lines, commonly called POTS lines for “plain old telephone service.”
POTS was an analog service and dial-up modems provided up to 56
kilobits/second connections.
In early 1997 CATV networks offered the first high-speed always-on
Internet connections using a cable modem over a hybrid fiber coax
network that offered speeds of 4 megabits/second, an amazing jump from
the slow dial-up modems.
Telephone companies developed digital services to replace POTS lines
over copper, but even with 20 different versions developed over a
decade, never approached cable modem speeds. Telcos became competitive
when fiber to the home (FTTH) began replacing copper wires around 2007.
Fiber broadband means broadband delivered on fiber optics directly to
every home with gigabit speeds. Fiber broadband offers much more
bandwidth for broadband than other options. Fiber to the home began in
the early 2000s and now dominates broadband connections worldwide.
Cellular and WiFi are similar wireless services that can deliver
relatively good broadband where sufficient wireless spectrum is
available. Cellular is mainly limited to mobile devices with some
service providers offering direct to home connections. WiFi is almost
everywhere for mobile users and widely used indoors. WiFi can also be
available as line-of-sight connections, mostly in rural areas.
Satellite Internet connections have been available for some time, but
new developments in low Earth orbit satellites has increased their
coverage and bandwidth. Satellites have been a popular solution for
rural areas where fixed networks are not considered economic.
What Is A Network?
A network is a communications system shared among many users. The phone
system and the telegraph system before that were networks. A CATV system
in a network. The Internet developed from the earliest attempts to
connect computers at many locations.
What Is The Internet?
That’s not easy to define in a short paragraph, but the Internet is the
communications system used today to allow voice, data and video
communications worldwide. It was called the Internet because it
connected smaller networks of computers into a worldwide network.
How Are Broadband Communications Transmitted?
Broadband uses three different media, copper wires, radio waves and
fiber optics. Communications started on copper wires, either pairs of
wires or coaxial cables where signals were transmitted by modulating
electrical voltages. Wireless communications used radio waves which
generally transmit by modulating the frequency of the signal. Fiber
optics uses light from lasers modulated in intensity and transmitted
over hair-thin strands of glass.
Copper wires are generally used to connect devices over short cables due
to their limited distance and bandwidth capability. Wireless is used to
connect a device to the nearest antenna which is then connected by a
short cable to a nearby interface or directly to fiber optics.
Satellites communicate to user devices or antennas transmitting signals
to ground stations connected to fiber optics. Fiber is used to connect
other devices to the communications backbone which is almost always on
fiber.
Each technology will be explained in this guide, but the major emphasis
will be on the fiber optics, the most popular technology that makes
worldwide broadband possible.
What Is A Network?
A network is a communications system shared among many users. The phone
system and the telegraph system before that were networks. A CATV system
in a network. The Internet developed from the earliest attempts to
connect computers at many locations.
What Is The Internet?
That’s not easy to define in a short paragraph, but the Internet is the
worldwide communications system used today to allow voice, data and
video communications.
What Is Fiber Optics?
Fiber optic communications means sending signals from one location to
another in the form of modulated light guided through hair-thin fibers
of glass or plastic. These signals can be either analog or digital and
transmit voice, data or video. Fiber can transport more information
longer distances in less time than any copper wire or wireless method.
It’s powerful and very fast - offering more bandwidth and distance
capability than any other form of communication! That also makes it the
most economical means of communication.
This photo from the late 1970s shows copper and fiber optic cables of
equal capacity at that time. It illustrates the advantage of fiber so
well. The bandwidth and distance capability of fiber means that fewer
cables, fewer repeaters, less power and less maintenance are needed.
Even when fiber was first being deployed, the cost of communications on
fiber optics was only a few percent of the cost on copper wires or
wireless.
This graph comparing the relative bandwidth available in various
communications media shows how fiber provides much higher bandwidth than
any other option. The bandwidth and distance capabilities of fiber
optics makes it the medium of choice for every communications network,
from connecting homes to spanning continents.
The Metric System
Telecommunications and fiber optics, as international technologies,
utilize the metric system as the standard form of measurement. Several
of the more common terms used are:
Meter: 3.28 feet, 39.37 inches. Fiber optic cable lengths are generally expressed in meters or kilometers.
Kilometer: 1000 meters / 3,281 feet / 0.62 miles.
Micron: 1 millionth (1/1,000,000th) of a meter. 25 microns equal 0.001
inch. This is the common term of measurement for fiber diameters, most
of which are 125 microns in outside diameter.
Nanometer: One billionth of one meter. This term is commonly used in the
fiber optics industry to express wavelength of transmitted light, e.g.
850 or 1300 nm.
For more information on fiber optics jargon in general, go to the FOA Guide section on Basic Fiber Optics.
How does broadband work? Without fiber optics it would not work; even wireless has a fiber backbone.
This book is not the typical FOA technical textbook - it is written for
anyone who wants to understand fiber broadband or fiber optics or the
Internet. It's also aimed at STEM teachers who want to include
communications technology in their classes. This book will try to
explain not only how fiber broadband works, but how
it was developed. It is intended to be an introduction to
communications technology
appropriate for a communications course at almost any level (junior
high, high school or
college,) for managers involved with broadband projects, or for anyone
who just wonders how all this stuff works.
The
Fiber Optic Association Fiber To The Home Handbook
For
Planners, Managers, Designers, Installers And Operators Of
FTTH - Fiber To The Home - Networks (also in Spanish)
This handbook is written to provide the technical information that can
help a service provider understand how to start a FTTH project or a
local organization decide if they want to create a do-it-yourself FTTH
project run by their local government, electrical coop or a
public-private partnership. The
Fiber Optic Association Fiber To The Home HandbookAvailable in paperback or as an eBook on the Amazon
Kindle Available
direct from Amazon.com,
local booksellers and other distributors.
