ional security protection as well. There are no emissions to pick up and decode, and it is not feasible to "tap" into it for the purposes of "eavesdropping". This makes fiber optic cabling ideal for secure network installations. Another problem that is common when using copper cabling is other electrical noise getting into the desired electrical networking signal. This can be a problem in noisy manufacturing environments or other heavy industrial applications. The use of optical fiber provides a signal that will be completely unaffected by this noise. In some instances, fiber provides the advantage that it can withstand more tension during the cable pulling. It is also smaller in size then twisted pair cables and therefore takes up less room. Compared to Category 5 UTP, most duplex fiber optical cable can also endure a tighter bend radius while maintaining specified performance.Fiber Challenges Fiber optical cabling is not a cure-all however, there are some challenges to be resolved. The first (and probably the best known), is the cost of termination. Because of the need for "perfect" connections, splices and connections must be carefully cut and then polished to preserve the optical characteristics. The connectors must also maintain a very high level of precision to guarantee alignment of the fibers. The second problem that is encountered when installing fiber cabling is that legacy equipment does not support fiber connections. Very few desktop computers have a fiber network interface, and some critical network equipment does not offer a fiber interface. In Ethernet, the size of the collision domain can effect the use of fiber. In a half duplex (shared media) environment, no 2 devices can be separated by more then 512 bit times. While the transmission of a signal is faster through fiber than copper, only about 11% faster and not enough to make a significant difference. This limitation means that there are times when the...
