Integrators, consultants and manufacturers alike are not green to the idea of fiber optic cables and circuits, some toting the claim that fiber is the way of the future.
However, fiber networks carry a significant technological and financial cost. Data running through these cables needs to be both amplified and recreated at regular intervals in order to send them long distances, and this process is not only taxing to the system but also limits how much data they can carry at a time.
But a recent report suggests that a scientific advance could potentially “double the capacity of fiber optic circuits, opening the way for networks to carry more data over long distances while significantly reducing their cost,” according to an article in the New York Times by John Markoff.
Last week, the journal Science confirmed that electrical engineers at the University of California, San Diego have proposed a possible way to extend the rage of light beams in fiber optic glass wires.
“One way to understand the challenge of sending data through fiber optic circuits is to imagine a person shouting to someone else down a long corridor,” writes Markoff. “As the listener moves farther away, the words become fainter and more difficult to discern as they echo off the walls.”
The same challenge faces beams of light in fiber optic cables.
Engineers outlined a way to alter the transmitted data via laser beams so that it can be deciphered more easily over long distances. A device called a ‘frequency comb’ uses precise signals to encode the data pre-transmission. Testing the theory, researchers sent a message over 7,400 miles without having to regenerate the signal.
The research is supported by Google and Sumitomo Electric Industries, a maker of fiber optic cables. But what does it mean for the AV industry? Is this the first step toward an all-optical network?
