A primer on how fiber optics works

There are now six ways to deliver the Internet to homes and businesses: cell phones, dial-up modem, DSL, cable, wireless and fiber optics.Fiber-optic technology uses strands of optically pure glass to carry digital information from one point to another in the form of lightwaves. Oxford Networks and other telecommunications companies use this technology to transmit telephone and Internet data.

A fiber-optic system consists of a transmitting device, which produces the light signal, a fiber-optic cable consisting of a bundle of pure-glass strands that carry the light signal, and a receiver to accept the transmitted signal.

Virtually all businesses have a pipe of copper wires that provides telephone and Internet service and connects them to a communication network. The wire that connects the building to the network is most often where information “bottlenecks.”

In Oxford Networks’ FTTP, or fiber-to-the-premises, deployment, fiber-optic cable replaces the traditional copper pipe. Fiber removes the bandwidth bottleneck and opens up a building to a virtually unlimited supply of data transmission and services.

Fiber-optic technology is capable of high-speed uploading and downloading of information. DSL, or digital subscriber lines, carry data over standard copper telephone wires to individual towns and homes. DSL transmits data at a rate of 1.5 to 2 megabits per second, about 30 times faster than a standard dial-up modem. Oxford’s FTTP lines transmit data at up to 1 gigabit – or 1,000 megabits – per second.

Fiber-optic networks are reliable. Fiber optics’ glass properties are not affected by environmental conditions. Copper, on the other hand, is affected by cold and heat.

Fiber-optic cable’s capacity is also flexible. A building’s available bandwidth, or high-speed capacity, can be easily increased or decreased in minutes, if necessary. This is not true of copper networks, which most often require additional equipment that can take several weeks or months to get running.