optical fiber is a thin cylindrical fiber made from glass or plastic, smaller than one tenth of a human hair. A standard telecom optical fiber is composed of three cylindrical layers, counted from the inside out as fiber core (diameter 810um), cladding (diameter of 125um) and Calcme.atwebpages.com/dir/site-942.html, neuropediatrics.com, buffer coating (diameter 9000um).
Fiber core and cladding is made of glass or silica. Fiber Core and cladding layers are used to keep the light within the core and prevent it from leakage. The fiber buffer coating is constructed from acrylic or plastic and gives handling flexibility and physical protection to the fiber.
Fiber optics employ an optical phenomenon known as total internal reflection. When light is in the fiber from the end face, it is contained within the core, without spilling 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, which could be from San Francisco all the way to New York.
What is a fiber optic connector and how do they function?
Now you understand how optical fibers operate. So what is a fiber optic connector and what’s its function in a fiber optic telecommunication network?
Simply put A fiber optic connector’s purpose is just like an electric power supply that is used to connect light in one part of optical fiber with another section of optical fiber.
Because optical fibers are tiny that fiber optic connectors need to be constructed with high precision, and at a size to 0.1um that is just one centimeter of the human hair.
Fiber optic connectors connect two fibers from one end to the other in a way that light can travel from one fiber into another without bouncing off the interface , and thus losing its signal.
In addition the fact that fiber optic connectors offer cross-connect flexibility to the telecommunication network. So a complicated computer network could be made modular and easy to manage.
Just like any other connectors utilized in the electronic industry, electric industry, and computer industry, numerous types and types of connectors for fiber optics were invented in the course of development of the fiber optic communication industry. Certain of them were very popular in the industry but have now served their purpose and are fading away.
The most popular fiber optic connectors that are used today comprise SC, ST, LC, FC, MTRJ, SMA as well as a few lesser-known ones. There are certain to be new connectors invented with the development of the industry.