Optical Cables

What Is An Optical Cable?

Cutting edge technology isn’t just used in the gadgets we used everyday, but the cables we use to connect them to other gadgets as well, like the space age optical cable. Typically used for audio connections, an optical cable is used for a variety of other applications, such as computer connections. The many uses of optical cable technology has helped to increase the quality of connection between devices in the years it has been implemented.

There can be many things to look out for when choosing a good optical cable, such as the quality of the cable itself to the quality of the connection the optical cable provides to your devices. Many people would often balk at the concept of spending more money for more expensive cables said to offer a higher quality connection than one you would find in your local Radio Shack, but this as well as other aspects of optical cables are often left up to debate.

The Definition of an Optical Cable

An optical cable is a cable consisting of optical fibers which have been coated with a strong layer of resin coating. This layer is encased in what is known as a jacket layer, which is typically made of plastic. This jacket layer also provides strength and durability to the optical cable in question, as well as to not affect the inherent qualities of the optical fibers nestled within the resin and plastic coatings.

These fibers contained within the optical cable are typically made of plastic or special glass, and is often transparent in appearance. This makes the optical fibers encased within the cable capable of transmitting light, and are capable of communicating large amounts of information through large amounts of electricity, or data through a bandwidth connection when an optical cable is used for data transferring purposes.

Optical cables are typically available in a wide variety of different kinds of coatings and sheathings depending on the application the optical cable will be used for. Besides electricity and data transferring capabilities, the places an optical cable may be used may be more rugged environments, such as being buried under dirt, placed under sea, or even attached aerially to power lines in remote areas or in large city settings.

Commercially available optical cables usually bought from audio / visual or hardware stores are typically encased in a lightweight plastic sheathing. Each end of these garden variety optical cables have optical fiber connectors at each end of the cable for use with everyday appliances like speakers or computers. Optical cables designed for outdoor use are also available in some stores, and utilize a looser tube kind of construction which also feels more rigid to the touch. The loose interior combined with the semi-rigid exterior ensures that the optical fibers inside the cable withstand outdoor use, temperature changes, and other kinds of outdoor abuse.

The sheathings of both outdoor and indoor cables, whether for home or industrial use, are typically made waterproof enough for their intended application. This is not just to prevent electrical failures, but to protect the ionizing nature of water from diffusing the sensitive optical fibers contained within the optical cable. The strength and stability of the optical fibers within will be reduced if in contact with water, so special jelly like substances and copper tubes are also contained within the optical cable sheathing to keep water from affecting the inner areas of the cable.

Applications for Optical Cables

Everybody from regular consumers to large industrial giants can use optical cables for a wide variety of purposes. As previously mentioned, optical cables are available in a wide variety of types depending on the application, and come in all sizes, form factors and lengths to sometimes literally circle the globe.

Optical cables utilized by large internet and communication companies use industrial grade optical cables that stretch across oceans. These large optical cables are specially armored to protect the optical fibers within from the many environmental hazards and risks present in being placed underwater, such as sea creatures that may bite the cable, boat anchors and salty sea water.

Plenty of TV cable services and internet service providers now utilize optical cables in their services nowadays because of their advanced technology and cost-effectiveness. These service providers now use optical cables in order to reduce service costs per month, making installation fees the only real financial burden when availing of TV cable or internet services.

These optical cables are bundled together within cable shielding more densely, allowing for a faster data transfer rate than typical copper based cables. These optical fibers also allow for more channels, increasing data transfer rates from internet service providers by a large margin. As these cables also utilize light in order to transfer data and electricity, there is a smaller risk of electrical interference and static electricity, enabling more clarity in signal.

The large volume of data traveling through an optical cable can also mean for better TV reception from cable providers. Data reception can also mean for a clearer picture on a TV screen, as data is received in larger volumes and more accurate when displayed on a screen. This can make the pricing of some cable packages and channel choices cheaper and more diverse, allowing for more customers to avail of their services.

Audio enthusiasts have been utilizing the power of an optical cable for a long time now, perhaps even longer than TV or internet providers have. An optical cable is capable of retaining greater fidelity than other methods of signal transferring, and are made in a variety of ways. They can be made of typical fiber optic cabling or made of quartz glass fibers in order to transmit audio signals in the form of light.

These audio-oriented optical cables are typically used to connect digital audio sources to home theater or hi-fi receivers. These receivers can also be linked up to HDTV’s and large speakers in order to complete a home theater setup, or simply from a digital audio source to a pair of high fidelity speakers in order to simply play music from a digital audio source much better than a pair of computer or laptop speakers are capable of.

Buying Optical Cables: Jacket Materials

The kind of jacket material used to shield an optical cable may vary depending on the application it will be used for. In addition to the kind of application, other things such as ultraviolet ray resistance as well as a halogen free optical cable can affect how an optical cable will perform, and can affect the safety of you, your loved ones and the cable’s immediate surroundings.

Typically, regular optical cables that you buy from a hardware store or specialty audio store are made of a special low smoke, zero halogen, or LSFH polymer. True to its namesake, LSFH polymers are halogen free, and offer great ultraviolet resistance in order to protect the sensitive optical fibers. This LSFH shielding is common with networking cables and other types of wiring, as it utilizes a thermoplastic compound very resistant to smoke and other forms of intense heat. This was a large improvement over the previously common polyvinyl chloride wire shielding, which contained harmful halogens.

Optical cables made for outdoor use may utilize a polyethylene coating in order to protect the inner optical fibers from damage or abuse. While not entirely ultraviolet resistant, this kind of shielding is also halogen free, and will not decompose when left underground for long periods of time. Many kinds of cables used variations of this cable, along with different compounds of Bakelite in order to create better cable shielding at the time.

Polyurethane has gained popularity as a shielding for optical cables for its flexibility and halogen free nature. As a kind of foam with highly resilient seating and rigid insulation, polyurethane has been used for not just optical cable shielding, but for bushings in car suspension systems and in industrial grade adhesives. The ultraviolet resistance of this kind of shielding may vary depending on the kind of optical cable you choose.

Polyamide is a less common kind of optical cable shielding, and is well suited for both indoor and outdoor use. Commonly used as an insulator for electronics, this flexible thermoplastic is resistant to solvents and does not shrink too much during the initial forming process, making it great for the loose nature of optical cable shielding. Some polyamide optical cable shielding can also be made flame retardant in order to add durability, especially cables made for outdoor use.

Kinds of Optical Cables

The application may dictate which kind of optical cable one may choose to buy. Optical cables are very diverse by nature, and can be used to transfer data to your gadgets to provide large industrial networking solutions across the oceans, all utilizing the power of optical fibers to complete data transferring tasks at wildly varying capacities. Depending on the application, an optical cable can be single mode or multi mode.

Differentiating a single mode from a multi mode optical cable is simple, in that the primary difference between the two is the amount of light being transmitted by the optical fibers inside the cable. A single mode optical cable will only have one beam or color of light emitting from the cable, while a multi mode cable will have several beams of light shining at once.

The design of both kinds of cables are very similar, but the way the light beams work in both variations vary greatly. A multi mode optical cable has many beams of light surging through the optical fibers at once, with each beam of light being sent at different angles so that the other beams of light do not interfere with one another. A multi mode optical cable may also only be used for short distance data transfers in order not to disrupt the sensitive nature of this multiple beam setup.

Single mode optical cables only send data through one solitary beam of light, but can be extended to long distances without much disruption or interference. Because of the simpler nature and construction of optical fibers inside the cable, a single mode optical cable is more widely available and can come in different lengths to meet all kinds of tasks it may be used for.

Other forms of optical cables exist, and can vary in the kinds of construction used to make the cable. These cables, however, do still share the same optical fiber system to transport data between sources, making them just as useful as regular single mode or multi mode optical cables available in all kinds of stores.

Loose tube cables are one of these alternative kinds of optical cables, and use little to no jacketing or protection to shield optical fibers. The optical fibers are still made safe, however, by a special insulation gel that blocks off water or other solubles and solutions from penetrating into the sensitive optical fibers. These kinds of cables are often used underground or for general outdoor purposes.

Tightpack cables use large batches of optical cables grouped up into different sets, and jacketed with typical optical cable shielding. Tightpack cables also require a special termination unit in order to terminate the connections to each of the optical fiber groupings, and there is no protection for each grouping of fibers. This kind of optical cable is used for shorter distances where the use of an optical cable is required.

Simplex cables are like tightpack cables, but only utilize one or two large optical fibers in order for simple operation and limiting energy use between sources. This kind of optical cable is good for simple patch cord connections as well as backplanes, and can also be coated with durable shieldings like Kevlar for outdoor or generally hard use.

Each of these different kinds of optical cables may find a use in your home in order to connect your valuable gadgets and computing devices together in order to create a more uniform and effective data transfer connection between distances both short and long.