Saturday 9 April 2011

What Is The Big Deal About Fiber Optical Cables?

By Areelitaha Joahlanski


Lately, there has been a lot of buzz about fiber optical cables. But what are they and what can they do for your business? Is the current cabling infrastructure of your business obsolete or at risk? Why should you be interested in fiber?

Many companies either have upgraded or are in the process of having their networks upgraded from copper wires to fiber optical cables. Why are they doing it?

To understand why an upgrade may be necessary, it is important to understand the basics of your current copper wire network. The industry standard for this network is based on Category-5 (Cat-5 or Ethernet) cable. Ethernet uses four copper wires that are twisted around each and is unshielded. It has RJ-45 jacks on either end and looks much like a thick phone line with larger jacks. Data is transmitted in the form of electrical signals at rates of up to 10 megabits per second to a distance up to 300 feet. Gigabit Ethernet (Cat-5e) is capable of up to 1000 megabits per second. These unshielded signals are easily degraded or exploited.

Fiber optical cables use light in enclosed cables to transmit data. The true maximum bandwidth capacity of fiber is unknown, but it exponentially higher than the 1000 megabits of gigabit Ethernet. Additionally, light can be transmitted over 1,500 miles with fiber.

Additionally, there are two substantial advantages to fiber in a business environment. First of all, fiber does not degrade and is not susceptible to interference like Cat-5. The result is that fiber does not waste bandwidth or lose quality. Cat-5 on the other hand can be easily interfered with when it is placed near other Cat-5 cables, phone lines, or power cords.

However, the most important aspect of fiber in the business perspective is security. Cat-5 can easily be exploited for vulnerabilities. An inside threat or corporate spy can easily implant devices on or near Cat-5 cables that will intercept the data as it travels through the lines. Because Cat-5 is copper wire, breaks in lines and these implanted devices cannot be detected without visually inspecting every line. Fiber on the other hand is completely secure. Any break in optical cables will completely cut the line. Spying devices cannot be used on or near fiber, so data traveling through the lines is completely secure during transit. Additionally, there are methods to locate where attempted intrusions (breaks in the lines) have occurred with simple software.

Overall, fiber optical cables offer better transmission and far superior security than their copper counterparts. If your business has fears of corporate espionage or inside threats, fiber is definitely an upgrade that you cannot afford to pass up.




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