Optical cable and cable

Optical cable and cable are very common in our daily life, they undertake our communication.  Many people use it a lot, but often can't quite tell the difference.

In fact, a great number of person will treat these two kinds of cable the same, even if they look similar to each other in appearance, they are in essence very different.  

Optical cable is a communication cable assembly that uses one or more internal optical fibers as transmission medium and can be used individually or in groups.Optical cable used to transmit optical signals, its role is only as a physical media, the specific role depends on the two sides of the device to determine, can transmit data (such as Internet access), video, voice, etc.

What is the optic fiber cable made of ?  No matter what kind of structure of optical cable is, it is basically composed of cable core, strengthening element and protective layer.  

The cable core structure shall meet the following basic requirements:  

1 The optical fiber should be placed in the best position of the cable to ensure the normal operation of the optical fiber and its stable transmission performance. And we want to make sure that the fiber doesn't get pushed.

2.The reinforcing element in the cable core must play its role and withstand tension to some extent.

3 When making the cable core section, it should be noted that the core section should be as small as possible, so as to reduce the cost. The cable core can be filled with moisture-proof paste to prevent moisture from spreading in the cable core.

4.The cable protective layer is mainly to protect the optical fiber structure, avoiding the influence of the outside world, so that the optical fiber can adapt to various occasions, under various circumstances,it can play the performance, so the cable protective layer has the characteristics of pressure resistance, moisture resistance, temperature resistance, chemical corrosion resistance and flame retardant.

We usually call the products with fewer cores, small product diameter and simple structure as wires. The products without insulation are called bare wires, and the others are called cables.  The cable generally has more than 2 layers of insulation, most of which are multi-core structure, wound on the cable tray, the length is generally more than 100 meters.  

Therefore,we can make a conclusion of the differences between cable and optical cable :

1. Materials.  Cable will have metal material as the conductor,nevertheless, Optical cable is designed to use glass fiber as the conductor.  

2. Transmission signals.  Cables can be used in different devices in our daily life to transmit electrical signals. However, the main function of optical cables is to transmit optical signals.  

3. Scope of application.  Cables are now designed for the transfer of energy and low-level information (such as telephone calls). Fiber optic cables will be installed on different instruments or equipment for data transmission.