How Does an Optical Fibre Work?

The optical fibre works on the principle of total internal reflection. Light rays can be used to transmit a huge amount of data, but there is a problem here – the light rays travel in straight lines. So unless we have a long straight wire without any bends at all, harnessing this advantage will be very tedious. Instead, the optical cables are designed such that they bend all the light rays inwards (using TIR). Light rays travel continuously, bouncing off the optical fibre walls and transmitting end to end data. Although light signals degrade over progressing distances, depending on the purity of the material used, the loss is much less than using metal cables. A Fibre Optic Relay System consists of the following components:

• The Transmitter – It produces the light signals and encodes them to fit to transmit.
• The Optical Fibre – The medium for transmitting the light pulse (signal).
• The Optical Receiver – It receives the transmitted light pulse (signal) and decodes them to be fit to use.
• The Optical Regenerator – Necessary for long-distance data transmission.