Nothing has changed the world of communications as much as the development and implementation of fiber optics. Made from either glass or plastic, optical fibers are roughly the diameter of a human hair and can be many miles long. This presentation provides the basic principles needed to work with this one-of-a-kind technology. It explains why fiber-optic systems are superior to metallic conductors, transmitting signals with more information than even coaxial conductors, and looks at refraction, attenuation, dispersion, and bandwidth.
