Lighting Up Dark Fiber
Leave a CommentLast month, internet speeds in Jackson, Mississippi, jumped from 1 Gb to 100 Gb. This leap forward is part of the city’s work to light up “dark fiber” in the robust fiber optic network that it owns. The Origin of Dark Fiber The term “dark fiber” refers to unused or underused fiber optic infrastructure (optical fibers, […]
Fiber to the Home Growth Keeps Exploding
Leave a CommentThe growth in Fiber to the Home (FTTH) just keeps exploding. In fact, for the first time ever, optical fiber passed DSL in home usage during 2018. Fiber is now the second most-frequent connection for North American home Internet. And FTTH is also the second most-often-used, fixed broadband connection medium in North America. A […]
Tags: FTTH, Smart Home
The “Wet Net” World of Underwater Fiber Optic Cables
Leave a CommentYou panic when even a few drops of water fall on your laptop. Everyone knows that water and electronics don’t “mix.” That’s why it seems so ironic that most of the Internet’s “hard” infrastructure lies underwater on the ocean floor. Virtually all global data travels through millions of miles of submarine fiber optic cables beneath […]
Tags: fiber, fiber optic cable, submarine cables
5G: What’s All the Hoopla About?
Leave a CommentThere’s been lots of excitement and even some “hype” around the idea of 5G. But what is it really? Does it mean just faster internet? Will it really be that much better than 4G? Many people are asking these questions as the FCC begins to auction the first licenses for the airwaves that will carry […]
Tags: 5G, broadband, drones, faster internet, fiber optic cable, latency, network, optical connectivity, optical fiber, self-driving cars, technology trends, telemedicine, telesurgery, Virtual Reality, wireless, wireless networks
Can a Quantum Network “Hacker Proof” Fiber Optic Cables?
Leave a CommentIn 2013, Edward Snowden, a U.S. National Security Agency contractor, leaked documents showing that intelligence agencies were spying on the data of private citizens. One disturbing fact was that the spies tapped into optical fiber cables to access the huge amount of data moving through these cables. Snowden’s disclosures pushed researchers to use quantum science […]
Tags: cybersecurity, Edward Snowden, hackers, hacking, network security, NSA, quantum, quantum key distribution, quantum network, quantum teleportation, secure network
Smaller Endoscopes from New, Air-Filled Optical Fiber Bundles?
Leave a CommentA new, air-filled optical fiber bundle could dramatically improve medical endoscopes. This technology could also help create endoscopes that produce images using infrared wavelengths. If so, this breakthrough would allow diagnostic procedures that aren’t currently possible. In the Optical Society (OSA) journal Optics Letters, University of Bath (U.K.) researchers showed that these new fiber […]
Tags: air-clad fiber bundle, air-clad imaging fibers, endoscope, fiber optic bundles, medical diagnosis, medical imaging, MOFs, OFS Laboratories, OFS Labs, optical fiber, optical fiber bundle
Could “Twisted” Fiber Optics Create a 100 Times Faster Internet?
Leave a CommentResearchers at Australia’s RMIT University recently discovered a new fiber optic breakthrough that could lead to 100 times faster internet speeds. This new development detects light that has been twisted into a spiral. According to research in Nature Communications, developers could upgrade existing fiber optic networks and boost efficiency using this discovery. HOW […]
Tags: Australia, fast internet, fiber network, fiber optic cables, fiber optics, internet, light, NBN, optical fiber, RMIT, twisted light
Could Fiber Optic Sensors Help Prevent Power Theft?
Leave a CommentFiber optic sensors could one day catch thieves who steal electricity and materials from overhead power lines. The UK firm Bandweaver recently demonstrated a distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) system that detects invasion and interruption on power lines. The system does this by using back-scattering effects along an optical fiber. The Cost of Tampering A […]
Tags: distributed acoustic sensing, electricity, fiber optic cable, fiber optic sensors, optical fiber, photonics, power companies, power line, power line monitoring, power theft, theft prevention
New Fiber Optic Gyroscope: More Precise, Smaller than a Grain of Rice
Leave a CommentEngineers at the California Institute of Technology have created the world’s smallest fiber optic gyroscope. Five hundred times smaller than a regular gyroscope, this new gyro can fit on a grain of rice. This research breakthrough could lead to more accurate fiber optic gyros compared to mechanical units. WHAT OPTICAL GYROS DO Advanced fiber […]
Tags: aircraft, fiber optic gyroscope, ground vehicles, missiles, navigation systems, optical fiber, Sagnac effect, UAVs, unmanned aerial vehicles
Melting Arctic Ice Could Mean Faster Internet for Some
Leave a CommentHave you ever wondered how an e-mail reaches your inbox from a co-worker in Europe? Or how a Facebook message gets to you from a cousin in Africa? The answer lies beneath the ocean. More than 745,000 miles of submarine cables featuring optical fiber make up most of the actual physical internet. These cables […]
Tags: Arctic Ocean, bandwidth capacity, big data, data centers, global internet, internet, low latency networks, smart devices, submarine fiber optic cable
