Why Fiber Optic Cable is More Popular than Copper Cable?

Today, fiber optic cables are used the world over for communications. The improvement in communication is brought by the development in fiber optic cables. Why fiber optic cable more popular than copper cable?

Fiber optic cable is a kind of cable which has more than one fiber optic. These kinds of cables are widely used and are also considered as one of the best options for a lot of people. There are a lot of advantages that one can be able to get when using this type of cable.

One of the advantages is that these cables are lighter, flexible and less bulky as compared to other kind of cables. They are widely used in urban areas where there is a shortage of space such as sewer lines, subways and power lines as well. Since this cable is lighter, it can easily fit in small and crowded placed. Optical cables are also easy to transport in various installation location. There is no doubt that flexibility is an advantage since it can be easily fitted in every corner.

Direct Buried Fiber Optical Cable

Moreover, fiber optic cable cost is low. You can be able to save a lot on your budget when you replace your old copper wirings with optical fiber cable. As compared to copper wires, it also has a higher carrying capacity. This means that you will be able to have transmissions of many signals at a time without experiencing a lot of intrusion.

There are four advantages of fiber optic cabling, these advantages explain why fiber is becoming the preferred network cabling medium for high bandwidth, long-distance applications:

1. Immunity to Electromagnetic Interference (EMI)

All copper cable network media sharing a common problem: they are susceptible to electromagnetic interference (EMI), fiber optic cabling is immune to crosstalk because optical fiber does not conduct electricity and uses light signals in a glass fiber, rather than electrical signals along a metallic conductor to transmit data. So it cannot produce a magnetic field and thus is immune to EMI.

2. Higher Possible Data Rates

Because light is immune to interference, can be modulated at very high frequencies, and travels almost instantaneously to its destination, much higher data rates are possible with fiber optic  cabling technologies than with traditional copper systems. Data rates far exceeding the gigabit per second (Gbps) range and higher are possible, and the latest IEEE standards body is working on 100Gbps fiber based applications over much longer distances than copper cabling.

Multimode is preferred fiber optic type for 100-550 meters seen in LAN network, and since single mode fiber optic cables are capable of transmitting at these multi-gigabit data rates over very long distances, they are the preferred media for transcontinental and oceanic applications.

3. Longer Maximum Distances

Typical copper media data transmission by the distance limits the maximum length of less than 100 meters. Because they do not suffer from the electromagnetic interference problems of traditional copper cabling and because they do not use electrical signals that can dramatically reduce the long distance, single-mode fiber optic cables can span 75 kilometers (about 46.6 miles) without using signal-boosting repeaters.

4. Better Security

The Copper cable transmission media is susceptible to eavesdropping through taps. A tap (short for wiretap) is a device that punctures through the outer jacket of a copper cable and touches the inner conductor. The tap intercepts signals sent on a LAN and sends them to another (unwanted) location. Electromagnetic (EM) taps are similar devices, but rather than puncturing the cable, they use the cable’s magnetic fields, which are similar to the pattern of electrical signals. Because fiber optic cabling uses light instead of electrical signals, it is immune to most types of eavesdropping. Traditional taps won’t work because any intrusion on the cable will cause the light to be blocked and the connection simply won’t function.

EM taps won’t work because no magnetic field is generated. Because of its immunity to traditional eavesdropping tactics, fiber optic cabling is used in networks that must remain secure, such as government and research networks.

If you are looking for high quality communication solution, Sopto's fiber optic cable is the best choice. Sopto provides a wide range of quality optical fiber cables, such as indoor and outdoor cable, loose tube cable, breakout cable fiber, Hybrid cable and so on. Our fiber optic cable specification is very detail and very convenient for you selecting.

The optical cable price on the website is per meter price. The more, the cheaper. Customers can also have the flexibility to custom the cable plant to best fit their needs. Only fiber cable that meets or exceeds industry standards is used to ensure quality products with best-in-class performance. For more info, Please contact a Sopto representative by calling 86-755-36946668, or by sending an email to info@sopto.com.