How do fiber optic connectors work? The history of fiber optic telecommunications deserves an entire book on its own as...

Optical fiber is a long thin cylindrical fiber that is made of plastic or glass, smaller than one tenth of a human hair. A typical optical fiber for telecom is made up of three layers that are counted in the inside the fiber core (diameter 8~10um), the cladding (diameter of 125um) along with buffer coating (diameter 900um).

Fiber core and cladding is composed of silica or glass. The fiber core and the layers of cladding work together to confine the light inside the core and prevent it from leaking. Fiber buffer coating is created from acrylic or مندوب ألياف بصرية stc plastic and gives handling flexibility and physical protection for the fiber.

Optic fibers make use of an optical phenomenon called total internal reflection. When light is introduced into the fiber from its the end, it becomes kept inside the core without leaking outside and losing energy.

Then, light is digitally modified to show 1 and 0 just like a computer, so information can be transferred from one site to another site which may be located from San Francisco all the way to New York.

What is a fiber optic connector and what do they do?

Now you know how optical fibers operate. So what is the fiber optic connector? And what is its purpose in the fiber optic telecommunications network?

Put it simple The fiber optic connector’s function is similar to an electric power source, it relies on light to transmit from one part of optical fiber with another segment of optical fiber.

Since optical fibers are tiny, fiber optic connectors have to be constructed with high precision, at the size to 0.1um, which equals one hundredth the human hair.

Fiber optic connectors connect two fibers from end to end to ensure that light is able to move from one fiber to another without bouncing off the connector and losing its signal.

Additionally the fact that fiber optic connectors offer cross-connect flexibility to the telecommunication network. So a complicated computer network can be modularized and simple to manage.

Just like any other connectors used in electronic industry, electric industry, and the computer industry, a variety of kinds connected to fiber optic cables were developed during the evolution of the fiber optic communication industry. Certain types were once highly popular in the market but have now been used for a variety of purposes, but are now fading away.

The most well-known fiber optic connectors used nowadays include SC, ST, LC, FC, MTRJ, SMA and a few of lesser-known ones. You will surely see new connectors developed with the advancement of technology.