Planning to Bring Fiber Optics into your Home? Here’s how to make it happen
Whenever we hear the words “fiber optics”, what quickly tickles our mind is Google Fiber. Fiber optics or optical fiber has been there for centuries, as early as the 19th century. The first companies to commercially distribute fiber optics are those in line with the telephone business one of which was the General Electric (GE) in 1981.
Going back to Google Fiber, why do you think fiber optics telecommunication suddenly becomes a business of interest by Google? Here’s my thought.
For one reason, Google wants a superfast internet be brought to our homes. Second, it wants to align its Google products with the technology, particularly Google Drive and Google TV. With 1Gbps internet connection speed for both download and upload, that’s 10 to 100 times faster than the internet speed offered by other DSL and cable service providers. With Google Fiber, Google is obviously attracting millions of customers for its record-breaking super fast internet.
But let’s also have a look on the vast application of this pure glass technology. Fiber optics is widely used in medical, industrial, commercial, broadcasting, networking, military and telecommunication industries.
In the medical industry, fiber optics is used as light guides, imaging tools and as lasers for surgeries. In manufacturing, fiber optics is used as sensory devices in measuring temperature, pressure and other measurements. Many automobiles today already have fiber optics cabling system. In broadcasting, fiber optic cables are used for wiring CATV, HDTV, internet, and video on-demand. NASA has been using fiber optics on many of its equipments, vehicles and rockets sent to the outer space. In transportation, fiber optics is used on automated toll booths, traffic signals, and message signage on highways. And believe or not, UAVs and drones now also benefits from the service of fiber optics networks. Are you aware of the massive undersea fiber optic cables that are connecting countries and continents?
From Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) to these almost unlimited applications of fiber optics, the future of technology – the Internet of Things – is going to be very exciting. Let’s dive in a little bit more. Let me ask you these.
What fiber optic products, in particular, are being used to implement fiber optics to our homes, vehicles, electronic devices, surveillance systems, and drones?
Aren’t you interested in buying pieces of cables, connectors, splitters, switches, routers, media converters, optical network terminal (ONT) and adapters to build your own Fiber-in-the-Home network?
If this FTTH technology sounds good to you, then you should start browsing the websites of known fiber optics OEMs like Huber+Suhner, TE Connectivity and Molex. They have thousands of products to offer, learning materials to share, and you can as well get in touch with their distributors nearest to your place.
But getting to know the products alone would be insufficient if you really want to build your home network with fiber optics. You also need to build your foundation on FTTH access topologies, technologies, and deployment models. Networking companies like Cisco and HP can provide you with training materials on that. Google will always do. And a good topic to begin with, if I may suggest, is the Passive Optical Network (PON) – the most commonly used FTTH network architecture.
You might have noticed that I no longer touch the basics of fiber optics. We already know those terms and principles of operation. HowStuffWorks taught that to us. But if there is one important topic on fiber optics that you have to refresh your mind about, that’s the fiber optic relay system – consisting of transmitter, optical fiber, optical regenerator, and optical receiver. If you know how this system works, you cannot be lost in the amazing world of fiber optics.
