What is Fiber Optics ?

Fiber Optics is a technology that uses light in the transmission of data. It uses fiber optic cables as a pathway or we may say the transmission media to deliver or send the light to the receiver. Fiber Optic technology are in great demand due to its high speed sending and receiving data from a transmitter. Since we all know that light is the faster than any other thing in this world, its the reason why in fiber optics, its the carrier of information or its basically the data.

How is it possible that light carries the data ?

The transmission of data using light has the same idea in transmitting electrical signals though a wire or a metallic cable. In electrical, the data is converted into binary which means that it uses "1" or "0". The "1" represents "ON" and the "0" represents "OFF". So the received electrical signal is a kinda off/on signal.
In using light, it copies the same concept as the electrical transmission. Only that the light will be the one that is "ON" or "OFF".

Fiber Optic Cable Physical Construction

Fiber Optic cables have 4 basic parts.
-The outermost is the jacket which is what we can actually see.
-Then we have the buffer which is used to protect the innermost part of the cable from physical damages.
-Then we have the cladding, the main purpose of the cladding is to prevent the light from escaping from the core and reflect it back.
-The Core. The core is the center of the cable. It is either a plastic or glass which light passes through.

Advantages of using Fiber Optic Cables

-It offers higher bandwidth
-It covers longer distances in transmission.
-It is immune to electromagnetic interference like lightning.
-Low security risk. No one steals a fiber optic :D

Disadvantage

-It is easy to break. Must be carefully installed.
-Signal attenuation. Means in the far end the signal slowly fades.
-Circuit Complexity
-Needs a high cost.

That's a brief information about fiber optic technology :)