What is a Optical Network?

In this general optical network tutorial you will find basic overview of the fiber optic technology, communication glossary, lan/wan cables, communication devices and the fiber optic industry trends.. Optical network is a network of the fiber optics cables in which data travels on the thin fibers at the speed of the light. Today, many ISPs, corporate offices, LANS and even home networks are connected through the fiber optics though it’s still very costly but it provides a high bandwidth and data transfer capacity. Fiber optic cables act as a backbone when they connect different ISPs with each other and in case of any breakdown or any kind of problem in the backbone results in a communication failure at very large scale. There are a large number of the fiber optic cables are involved in making the whole internet.

Fiber Optic Technology

Fiber optic technology is most popular in the telecommunication industries as well as Local Area networks. Fiber optic cable is a bundle of various cables which are thin and provides a large bandwidth. The cost of the fiber optic cables is much higher and same is the installation of the fiber optic cables. Today, a large number of the communication networks depend on the fiber optics. Fiber optics is less susceptible to the outer interference than the metal cables. CCTV network, long distance switches, central offices, subscriber’s loop careers and industrial networks use fiber optics for communication purposes. In the near future, fiber optical cables will repalce the conventional coaxial and ethernet cables for the LAN networking.

Enterprise Optical Network.

Fiber optics also provides solutions for the enterprise networking like NAS (network attached storage) and SAN (storage area network). A NAS is a server that is used to data sharing in a network. NAS allows more hard disk storage space to be added to a network. A NAS device does not require to be attached to the server directly and it can be placed anywhere in the network. A NAS can be made up of two or more NAS and being a part of a network, the network user can access it from anywhere in the LAN. NAS is an efficient way of storage and file sharing. Fiber optics provide more efficiency and reliability in the NAS performance by providing more bandwidth and data capacity. SAN is a subnet of the shared storage devices in a LAN or a WAN. Fiber optics provide more high speed connectivity and speed among the SAN in a LAN or WAN.

Optical Network Devices

Fiber optic devices are in use in a number of ways like Networking, storage, industrial, medical, defense, broadcasting, telecommunication systems.
Optical testers are designed for a variety of measurements and tests with a single meter.
Attenuators are designed for single mode applications, multimode applications and for attenuation settings.
Fiber Optic connectors are used to connect a fiber with another fiber or equipment. There are different types of connectors are being used today such as SMA, FC and SC connectors.

Optical Switch is a handheld device for calibration sets and measurements automation.

Optical Routers connects twisted pair LONWORK notes to the fiber optic backbones or subnets. They also re-routes the data automatically due to power failure of fiber break.

Major Optical Network Terms

Adaptor: It is a device for connecting two or connectors.
ADSL: Asymmetric Digital Subscriber lines is a most common form of the DSL
Amplifier: It is a device that is used to amplify the signals without destroying the original wave shapes.
ATM: An abbreviation for the asynchronous transfer mode.
Attenuation: The reduction of the optical power as it passes through the fiber optic.
Attenuation: A device that is used to reduce the signal power in a fiber optic.
Backbone: Backbone is a high speed telecommunication network.
Bandwidth: The capacity of the medium.
Base band: A simplest method of the transmission in the LANS.
Biconic Connector: A type of the fiber optic connector.
Bit: An electrical pulse that carry signals.
Bandwidth: Capability of dealing with high speed, high capacity data transmission.
Cable: One or more fibers enclosed in the protecting covering.
CATV: An abbreviation of the community Antenna television of cable TV.
Coax: An abbreviation of the coaxial cable.
COMSAT: Communication satellite.
Coupler: A device that is used to distribute the power between two or more ports.
CWDM: Course wavelength division multiplexing.
Detector: Converts fiber signals into the electrical signals.
Duplex: The simultaneous operations of a circuit in both directions in a communication network.
FDDN: Fiber data distribution network.
Fiber optic modems: Used for sending and receiving data.
Fiber Storage: High speed network technology used for storage.
MT Connector: Multi fiber connector used to hold 24 fibers.
ODS: Optical data storage.
PHY: Known as physical layer device.
POF: Plastic optical fiber.
Port: Connection point.
PTO: Public telecommunication operators.
RFI: Radio frequency interface.
SONET: Synchronous optical network.
TDM: Time division multiplexing.
Trunk: Circuit that connects two switching centers.
X Band: Frequency ranges between 8.0 to 8.4 GHz.