The difference between optical fiber and optical cable

Is an optical cable an optical fiber? Broadly speaking, optical fiber is an optical cable, which is a transmission medium. But strictly speaking, the two are different products, so what is the difference between the two?

The conceptual difference between optical cable and optical braze:

The full name of optical fiber is optical fiber, which is drawn from pure quartz with a special process into a glass tube thinner than a hair with several media in the middle. Its brittle texture necessitates an extra layer of protection.

The optical cable is mainly composed of optical fiber, plastic protective sleeve and plastic sheath. The outer protective structure can prevent the surrounding environment from harming the optical fiber.

A fiber optic cable contains optical fibers and is part of a fiber optic cable. Optical fiber is the glass fiber in the optical cable, but the abbreviation of the two is often not strictly distinguished in engineering applications.

Communication cable

The distinction between optical cable and optical fiber structure:

Optical fibers are mainly divided into two categories, one is graded optical fiber and the other is step optical fiber. The refractive index of the former is graded, while that of the latter is abrupt. In addition, it is also divided into single-mode fiber and multi-mode fiber. In recent years, new photonic crystal fibers have come out. The optical fiber is a double structure, the core part is high refractive index glass, the surface part is low refractive index glass or plastic, the light propagates in the core part, and continuously undergoes total reflection at the junction of the surface layers, and propagates forward along the zigzag. This kind of fiber is thinner than a hair, and it is a very amazing technology that such a thin fiber has a double structure distribution with a completely different refractive index.

Optical fiber cable is mainly composed of optical fiber (glass filament as thin as hair), plastic protective sleeve and plastic sheath. There is no metal such as gold, silver, copper and aluminum in the optical fiber cable, and generally has no recycling value. An optical cable is a communication line in which a certain number of optical fibers form a cable core in a certain way, and is covered with a sheath, and some are also covered with an outer sheath to realize optical signal transmission.

The difference between the propagation efficiency of optical cable and optical fiber:

For optical fiber, scientists have created ultra-high-purity quartz glass by creating "internal attachment method", "MCVD method" and "VAD method". Now better optical fiber, its light propagation loss is only 0.2 decibels per kilometer; that is to say, it only loses 4.5% after one kilometer. Although optical fiber lasers are not lethal, it is still dangerous to look directly at them.

Optical cable, communication optical cable is a communication line in which a certain number of optical fibers form a cable core in a certain way, and is covered with a sheath, and some are also covered with an outer sheath to realize optical signal transmission. Communication optical cable has larger transmission capacity than copper cable, long relay distance, small size, light weight, and no electromagnetic interference. Since 1976, it has developed into long-distance trunk lines, urban relays, offshore and transoceanic submarine communications. , as well as the backbone of wired transmission lines such as local area networks and private networks, and began to develop into the field of user loop distribution networks in the city, which is integrated with fiber-to-the-home and broadband.