Week 2 Posting - BSIT220 - Fiber Optic Technology and Future Projects

 I wanted to use this week’s blogpost to do research on fiber optics since I think the whole idea of using light and lasers to transfer information is fascinating. The world of IT is rapidly advancing and the need for the capability to transfer data in large amounts at great speeds is necessary to sustain it. It’s not a new technology by any means, going all the way back to Alexander Graham Bell, then first being demonstrated in 1965 by German physicist Manfred Borner, and then in 1975 when the computers in NORAD headquarters were linked together with fiber optic cable. But the need and want for faster transmissions in the modern world has made the demand for fiber optic cabling greatly increase in the commercial sector.

The city of San Francisco has a project to connect the entire city’s network together using fiber optics, which would enable the city to achieve high-speed data transfer and communications on a large scale. There’s also a project to run 8,000 miles of underwater fiber optics from Los Angeles to Hong Kong. That’s so insane to think about how much time and money will go into that, but that they think it will be more than worth it to accomplish such a feat, as a means to connect more of the world on the same network.

A new trend I read about is the All-Optical Networks which are supported by new devices such as optical switches and couplers. The author also brought up new developments such as Orbital Angular Momentum which forces light waves to twist in a spiral that increases the ability to transmit data in a scalable fashion; and Radio-over-Fiber which allows radio signal transmission to be unaffected by electromagnetic interference.

It’s crazy to me to think about the science and research that goes into making technology like this. I hope to fully understand how all this truly works, as reading and researching the science behind it all truly escapes me. I’m still interested to see how far the brains behind it all can take this kind of technology and to see the new developments they come up with.