1. Optical fiber is a thin and soft medium that transmits light beams. Most optical fibers must be coated with several layers of protective structures before use, and the coated cable is called a fiber optic cable. Therefore, the optical fiber is the core part of the optical cable, and the optical fiber constitutes the optical cable through the protection of some components and the auxiliary protective layer.
The protective structure of the outer layer of the optical fiber can prevent the surrounding environment from damaging the optical fiber. Optical cables include optical fibers, buffer layers and cladding. Fiber optic and coaxial cables are similar, just without the mesh shield. At the center is the glass core where light travels.
Optical fibers are usually bundled and protected by a casing. The fiber core is usually a double-layer concentric cylinder made of quartz glass with a small cross-sectional area, which is brittle and easy to break, so an external protective layer is required. So that's the difference between them.
2. Optical fiber cable: It is mainly composed of optical fiber (glass filament as thin as hair), plastic protective sleeve and plastic outer skin. There is no metal such as gold, silver, copper and aluminum in the optical cable, and generally has no recycling value. Optical cable is a kind of communication line in which a certain number of optical fibers form a cable core according to a certain method, which is covered with a sheath, and some are also covered with an outer sheath to realize optical signal transmission. That is, the optical cable is formed by the optical fiber (optical transmission carrier) through a certain process.
The advantages of optical cable Optical fiber cable is a new generation of transmission medium. Compared with copper medium, optical fiber has been greatly improved in terms of security, reliability and network performance. The bandwidth of optical fiber transmission greatly exceeds that of copper cable, and the maximum distance supported is more than two kilometers. Optical fiber cable has the advantages of good electromagnetic interference resistance, strong confidentiality, fast speed and large transmission capacity.
At present, there are two different types of optical fibers that are more common, namely single-mode optical fiber and multi-mode optical fiber. Multimode fiber is generally used for network connections in the same office building or in relatively close areas. Single-mode fiber, on the other hand, delivers higher quality data and longer distances, and is often used to connect networks between office buildings or more geographically dispersed networks. If the optical fiber cable is used as the network transmission medium, it is necessary to add equipment such as optical transceivers.
