Fiber-optic communication
OverviewBackgroundApplicationsHistoryTechnologyParametersComparison with electrical transmissionGoverning standards
First developed in the 1970s, fiber-optics have revolutionized the telecommunications industry and have played a major role in the advent of the Information Age. Because of its advantages over electrical transmission, optical fibers have largely replaced copper wire communications in backbone networks in the developed world. The process of communicating using fiber optics involves the following basic steps: