Why connectivity has become so important?
QUESTION:
Why has connectivity become so important?
ANSWER:
When looking at the bigger picture of our industry, it has become clear that cabling and connectivity go hand-in-hand as a SYSTEM. Connectivity is integral to helping our industry do more – and do it faster. We are continuing to pack more cargo (data) into smaller spaces. As bandwidth on any given medium increases, decisions on how to terminate the cable to the outside world and how to transfer that cargo become increasingly critical.
At one point in time, the transmission medium itself was the biggest loss contributor. Now the connector is the biggest loss device. This is just one of many challenges our industry is tackling:
As bandwidth increases, more and more areas will migrate to optical fiber to compete in the smart world. And, as bandwidth swells, the issues related to moving light from one platform to another multiply.
In copper high-frequency connectivity, electrical laws apply and over many years have become well understood. This is best exemplified in that we move mountains of data over twisted pair that 30 years ago were unthinkable. In optical connectivity, we are moving highly intense lightwaves at one end and extremely small amounts of light are detected at the other end. The physics of light manipulation involve several disciplines from physics to electro-optics to material science. We are still learning about how the sciences that govern optical connectivity can best be used with mass data movement.
Many of the difficulties related to higher bandwidth connectivity such as back reflection issues and index mismatches require significant research and experimentation to resolve on a commercial scale and meet acceptable costs.
Driven by the internet of things, optical communication technology will move into more and more traditional copper transmission media. In many cases, the use of wireless communications would seem to be the likely next generation after optical fiber. Rather than diminish the use of fiber, it will expand that use – every wireless point of presence will require a higher bandwidth connection to the web in order to transfer the last few meters of distance into the network.
READ THE FULL BLOG ARTICLE HERE: Looking at our industry from a systems perspective: The future of cable is inextricably tied to connectivity.
