The world of fiber optic technology seems to be new. While in actuality it dates back to the 1800’s. It was primitive but it was a form of fiber optic. In this paper I will be telling you what a fiber optic cable is made of, how a fiber optic system works and a history of fiber optics from the 1800’s to today. Lets take a look at the optical fibers, what these fiber do is carry the light which is transmitted to the destination. Now we will look at what a cable is made of. A cable is made up of five different sections. We will start in the middle and work our way out. At the middle of the cable is the core. The core is the light transmitting section of the fiber, and it is made of silica. The next layer of the fiber is the most important for the travel of light down the cable. It is the cladding. The cladding acts like a guide for the light waves. This is important because light moves in waves and will shoot out of the core. The cladding reflects the light back into the core. The cladding is made of pure silica. The middle layer of the cable is called the buffer. The buffer is a protective layer that is made of acrylic polymer and its only function is to protect the cladding and the core. As for the fourth layer, this layer is for installation purposes. It is called the strength member; its function is to add strength while the cable is being pulled. It needs this section because the core is very small and if it is broken the wire will be useless. The final section of the cable is the outer jacket typically consists of one or more layers of a polymer that protects against physical or environmental damage to the structure. There are also two different types of fiber optic cables. There are single-mode cables and multi-mode cables. A single-mode fiber has a smaller core than multimode fiber, allowing only one mode of light to propagate through the core. While a Multimode fiber has a much larger core th...
