HOW IS FIBRE OPTIC BROADBAND USHERING IN A NEW ERA OF COMMUNICATION?
Remember dial-up internet? Most of us do and it’s not so very long ago that speeds of 56K were considered fast when it came to accessing the delights of the world wide web. And while it may have been fine for checking GeoCities pages and bulletin boards, as our demands and uses of the internet became more complex so higher speeds became more necessary, can you imagine using iTunes or YouTube on a 56K modem? Neither could the service providers who now vie for our attention, trying to find the balance between faster connections and lower prices. Currently the fastest speed on offer in the UK and US and most of Europe lie somewhere between 2MB and 10MB while China, South Korea and Japan lead the way in ‘fibre-to-the-home’ broadband lines. However many western nations such as America, Sweden and Romania are following close behind. Over the next few pages we’ll be explaining fibre optics, the amazing technology behind the new generation of internet connections, so read on to find out just how it works, where you can find it and why some countries are faster than others.
In most countries, broadband is delivered down copper telephone wire, which suffers from speed, range and breadth restrictions. The wire, which is prevalent across most networks, often dates from the early 20th or even late 19th Century and carries information through electric pulses. This is problematic in terms of maintaining speed at long ranges as all electrical transmissions are subject to high electrical resistance, and information effectiveness is compromised. In addition, electrical transmission lines suffer when tightly packed from crosstalk – a phenomenon by which a signal transmitted on one circuit or channel of a transmission system creates an undesired in another circuit or channel. In short, the system is an ageing one, unable to meet today’s demands.
Remember dial-up internet? Most of us do and it’s not so very long ago that speeds of 56K were considered fast when it came to accessing the delights of the world wide web. And while it may have been fine for checking GeoCities pages and bulletin boards, as our demands and uses of the internet became more complex so higher speeds became more necessary, can you imagine using iTunes or YouTube on a 56K modem? Neither could the service providers who now vie for our attention, trying to find the balance between faster connections and lower prices. Currently the fastest speed on offer in the UK and US and most of Europe lie somewhere between 2MB and 10MB while China, South Korea and Japan lead the way in ‘fibre-to-the-home’ broadband lines. However many western nations such as America, Sweden and Romania are following close behind. Over the next few pages we’ll be explaining fibre optics, the amazing technology behind the new generation of internet connections, so read on to find out just how it works, where you can find it and why some countries are faster than others.
Broadband now
In most countries, broadband is delivered down copper telephone wire, which suffers from speed, range and breadth restrictions. The wire, which is prevalent across most networks, often dates from the early 20th or even late 19th Century and carries information through electric pulses. This is problematic in terms of maintaining speed at long ranges as all electrical transmissions are subject to high electrical resistance, and information effectiveness is compromised. In addition, electrical transmission lines suffer when tightly packed from crosstalk – a phenomenon by which a signal transmitted on one circuit or channel of a transmission system creates an undesired in another circuit or channel. In short, the system is an ageing one, unable to meet today’s demands.Superfast broadband explained
The brand new breed of superfast broadband connections is made possible by switching from copper telephone wires to new fibre optic cables. Fibre optic broadband essentially works by transmitting data as pulses of light from an exchange throughout an optical fibre – a cable consisting of a light-carrying glass core, light-reflecting cladding (to ensure total light retention) and protective buffer coating – before then receiving and decoding that information at the far end with a transceiver.
A fibre optic line is an excellent medium for communication purposes as it holds numerous advantageous properties over the existing copper-based wiring networks. Most notable is its long-distance data delivery speed, a factor made possible because light propagates through fibre with little attenuation and, obviously, at the speed of light. Further, each fibre optic cable can carry many independent channels of information, each using a different wavelength of light, so the sheer amount of data is increased also.
The last mile
The term ‘the last mile’ refers to the final leg of delivering broadband communications from a provider to a user. In reality, the last mile may in fact be considerably further than a mile, with many miles separating the two. This is because at this late stage any main cable must be fanned out and split to service numerous separate clients, often living far apart. This is time consuming and carries a large expense. However, if the ‘last mile’ is too great a distance, then the cable infrastructure is rendered useless as it cannot sustain information flow due to speed loss. To address these connectivity issues many operators share and splice networks to reach customers, with cabling varying in type and length depending on where the user is based. This has the obvious drawback that while initially a line from a provider may be fibre optic (carrying data faster and further with less speed loss), at the users’ end, in the ‘last mile’, it may be fanned out onto an old, pre-existing copper line, which, as we’ve mentioned, sustains high-speeds poorly, especially over large distances.
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