With the advancement of technology, there have been numerous inventions and discoveries. The latest one has been that of Fiber optic cables, which have gained more prominence in the market than the copper cables. These cables are widely used in offices or residential areas. Read the write up ahead to know the differences between optical fiber and copper cable:
About Copper Cable and Optical Fiber
Copper cables transmit information through electrical signals. It has been used as a speaker system wire, telephone wire, computer cable wire etc for over years now. Optical fiber comprises of plastic or glass strands to transmit data or information digitally with the use of light rather than electricity. On the other hand, copper cable encompasses of a single thread of copper. The size of the cable varies depends upon its purpose. Sometimes, the cables are protected with the help of a covering known as braiding. The difference between copper cable and fiber optic lies here as the latter cannot transmit electricity but known for providing high theoretical performance.
Difference between Copper Cable and Optical Fiber
The significant difference between copper cable and optical fiber is their different resistance against interface. Copper cable is fairly weak against signal interface that comes from microwave or cell phones. With use of fiber optic cable, you are free from all these problems. Moreover, copper cables are inexpensive and suitable for all your home requirements. Fiber optic cables can transmit information to long distances and more swiftly than the copper cables. Moreover, this cable has less weight and a smaller diameter making it much better than its counterpart.
Furthermore, these fiber optic cables require less power and are inflammable. Copper cables can be electromagnetically tapped whereas optical fibers are not easy to be tapped without interruption in the signal. Optical fiber cables help in multi-channel transmission though the use of a single line. Therefore, this cable finds wide application in wiring of home theatre systems and is too expensive than copper cabling.
But the added benefit of using the fiber optical cables are that they offer higher bandwidth and are easy to be installed than copper cables. Fiber optical cables have the capacity to carry signals such as millions of megabits or terabits per second as compared to copper cables, which can carry 2.5 megabit per second. Also, fiber optic cables offers security and less attenuation rate but requires minimal maintenance. LANs( Local area network) also use fiber optics in the backbone and copper cables for the desktop.
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