| Fiber Optic Technician's Manual, now in its second edition, continues to serve as a practical guide for the designer, installer, and troubleshooter of fiber optic cable plants and networks used in today's communications systems. Comprehensive in scope, this book addresses applications of fiber optics including telephone, CATV, and computer networks. Discussion centers on the basics of the technology, the components used, and their installation. Based on materials developed by trainers for their own training programs, including the successful "Fiber U" program, Fiber Optic Technician's Manual, 2nd Edition has been thoughtfully updated and now features new applications, plus new components and processes that have become widely used in the industry. Hints at the future of this rapidly evolving technology are also included.
Optical fiber is the medium in which communication signals are transmitted from one location to another in the form of light guided through thin fibers of glass or plastic. These signals are digital pulses or continuously modulated analog streams of light representing information. These can be voice information, data information, computer information, video information, or any other type of information.
These same types of information can be sent on metallic wires such as twisted pair and coax and through the air on microwave frequencies. The reason to use optical fiber is because it offers advantages not available in any metallic conductor or microwaves.
The main advantage of optical fiber is that it can transport more information longer distances in less time than any other communications medium. In addition, it is unaffected by the interference of electromagnetic radiation, making it possible to transmit information and data with less noise and less error. There are also many other applications for optical fiber that are simply not possible with metallic conductors. These include sensors/scientific applications, medical/surgical applications, industrial applications, subject illumination, and image transport.
About the Author
Jim Hayes is a founder and President of The Fiber Optic Association, the professional society for fiber optics. He is also a partner in VDV Works, a company that provides tech support to the voice-data-video industry in the form of marketing, training and technical content for websites, literature or newsletters and other technical assistance services. Originally educated as a physicist and astronomer at Vanderbilt University and The University of California at Santa Cruz, Jim has been involved with the electronics and test instrumentation industry since 1968. For the last 25 years, he has been involved with fiber optics and communications. Jim was founder and President of Fotec, Inc., the Boston-based fiber optic test equipment company which was sold to Fluke Networks in 2001. He started the Fiber U and Cable U training conferences. Jim is a frequent lecturer on communications, writes monthly columns for Electrical Contractor and TED (The Electrical Distributor) and is the author of two VDV books, The Fiber Optic Technicians Manual and Data, Voice and Video Cabling and numerous articles on fiber optics and cabling. |
