Fiber Optic Cables

Discussions revolve around the advantages of fiber optic cables over alternatives like copper, including speed, bandwidth, reliability, scalability, and suitability for high-speed networking links.

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Keywords

AFAIK e.g HDMI MPO ELI5 HN POTS DSL ML newsoffice.mit fiber fibre cable copper optics signal ethernet cables wire light

Sample Comments

6nf Mar 11, 2019 View on HN

Fiber is about 0.6c and the cables are much longer than direct line of sight.

always2slow Sep 15, 2022 View on HN

Is there anything like this but for fiber optic?

dogma1138 Feb 1, 2016 View on HN

That's true for copper cables not so much for fiber optics ;)

Gravityloss Apr 7, 2014 View on HN

Why don't they just put more light fibers in there while they're at it, as they're small and cheap?

mjevans Jul 30, 2016 View on HN

Why aren't they building a fiber optic link? Is it that the shipping channel makes it too likely for disruption of the link?

yuvadam Oct 30, 2022 View on HN

Any reason you can't use pre-terminated fiber?

fvv Dec 22, 2020 View on HN

Yeah also fiber are smaller and can help sometimes.. and have no length issues like copper

cycomanic Sep 24, 2021 View on HN

Yes operating a non fibre cable is too expensive and does not make sense. Fibre cables on the other hand have remained operational over a long time. AFAIK there are no fibre cables using electro optic repeaters operational anymore. But the earliest fibres which used optical amplification are still operational. This is the beauty about fibre communication. You largely only need to upgrade the endpoints to increase your throughput.

radicaldreamer Apr 9, 2024 View on HN

The amount of power that will use up is massive, they should've gone for some fiber instead

Havoc Nov 7, 2024 View on HN

It says over fiber. I assume that has to be a straight shot point to point non-routed? Or could this deal with repeaters and routers etc