With a decreasing number of mainframes, and large computers, many companies are using computer networks to gain computing power. These networks are used to share a company’s data and computer resources. Networks must be stable and fast in order to meet the demands of the business world. How a network is connected is a primary source of concern for IST professionals. One way to connect computers is fiber optic cabling.

Fiber is increasing its popularity with network mangers due to its error free sending, high data rates, and ease of handling and installing. Once fiber optic cables are in place, there is no need to rewire a building if you increase the size, or change the format of your network. Even an increase in data transfer rate is easily accounted for with fiber cables.

Currently companies have used unshielded twisted pair cooper wires for networking jobs. But, as bandwidth has increased, so have the stands for copper wiring. When companies switched from Category 4 to Category 5, the old copper wire had to be removed, and new wire installed in the entire facility. With 62.5-micron glass multimode optical fiber, bandwidth is scalable. Glass Fiber Optic cable is the only medium with only medium with proven performance at data rates of 2.5 Gbps.

Other network mediums are limited in length. Extremely long cables face transmission degradation due to impedance mismatch, interference, and crosstalk. Optical fibers allow transmission to travel great distances without interruption and signal bleeding. New standards, from the Telecommunications Consortium, allows optical fiber to run up to 300 meters.

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