We explain what fiber optic is and how it works.

optical fiber is and how it works. In addition, what is it for, characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of optical fiber.

Certified fiber optic technician

The optical fiber is a physical means of transmission of information, usually in data networks and telecommunications, which consists of a thin filament of glass or plastic, through which pulses of laser or LED light travel, in which the data to be transmitted

Through the transmission of these light pulses, information can be sent and received at important speeds through a cable run, safe from electromagnetic interference and with speeds similar to those of the radio. This makes fiber optic the most advanced cable transmission medium that exists.

The implementation of optical fiber is heir to centuries of research and experimentation on light and its properties, since ancient times when the Greeks communicated through the reflection of sunlight in small mirrors, the optical experiments of the Scientific Revolution, until the invention of optical telegraphy in 1792 by Claude Chappe, and the subsequent work of French physicists Jean-Daniel Colladon and Jacques Babinet, and the Irishman John Tyndall, all at the end of the 19th century.

The optical fiber as such would not enjoy the interest of the engineers until 1950 and in 1970 the first piece would be manufactured, using impurities of titanium on silica, by the work of Robert Maurer, Donald Keck, Peter Schultz, and Frank Zimar. The first transmission of information through this medium was made on April 22, 1977 in Long Beach, California, and in the 1980s it was perfected and began to be implemented internationally.