In 1970, Corning launched the construction of fiber-optic communication lines, recognized as the start of a new industry. Today, the development of fiber-optic technologies is ahead of other sectors of the world economy, increasing fiber output by 40% per year!
The main developer and licensor of these technologies - the USA - has produced 10 million kilometers of optical fiber in recent years, which is equivalent to 250 girths of the globe at the equator. Fiber optic communication lines are an ideal medium for information exchange. Their property - to share the signal with millions of consumers - is no alternative. They, like nerve endings, transmit signals between continents, countries, regions, inside the city, around the enterprise, forming fiber-optic communication lines (FOCL).
Their active elements transform, shape, amplify the transmitted light signal. We list them. The source of monochrome coherent radiation is a laser.
Modulators create a light wave that varies according to the structure of the input electrical signal. Multiplexers combine and disconnect signals. Regenerators restore the parameters of the optical pulse. The photodetector performs the inverse transformation: light - electricity. Fiber-optic communication lines have significant advantages: they are relatively easy to install by means of couplings, they are capable of transmitting a light signal with virtually no loss, and reliably protect information.
Among the global fiber-optic communication lines, the most numerous are transatlantic. They connect the countries of Europe with the United States and Canada.
The longest are the Trans-Pacific, which brought the United States closer to Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Hawaii. The laying of fiber-optic communication lines is carried out by specialized vessels. Russia also participates in similar projects. Last year, construction began on the line connecting Kamchatka, Sakhalin and Magadan. It should be noted that fiber-optic cables with core / cladding sizes of 1.3-1.55 microns are used for backbone fiber optic links.
Regional FOCLs between the center and regions and within cities are important to the state. They are composed of gradient fibers - 50/125 microns. Large enterprises use fiber-optic communication lines to improve management along the lines of the "electronic office", as well as to automate production.
It is characteristic that developed countries (among them Japan, England, Italy, France) use exclusively optical fiber during construction. The regional level corresponds to a faster, having a lower loss coefficient, single-mode cable. A cheaper and easier to install multimode cable is suitable for the enterprise. Optical fiber is used as a sensor of temperature, pressure, voltage. He is used in hydrophones, sonar, seismology, navigation. Used in security systems, alarms.
Summing up, we should make a logical emphasis on the fact that this technology has not yet exhausted itself, being at the midpoint of its development. Leading manufacturing companies CISCO, 3COM, D-LINK, DELL, ALLIED TELESYN are in every possible way modernizing optoelectronic products. A new multimode (cheaper technology) optical fiber with improved characteristics has been developed. Optical connectors are designed with simplified manufacturing standards (current ones assume micron accuracy). For more efficient transmission of the light signal, innovative planar laser diodes equipped with a vertical resonator have been developed. Research is being conducted on structured cabling systems.