Skip to main content

Optical Media / The electromagnetic spectrum


The electromagnetic spectrum
3.2.1 This page introduces the electromagnetic spectrum.


The light used in optical fiber networks is one type of electromagnetic energy. When an electric charge moves back and forth, or accelerates, a type of energy called electromagnetic energy is produced. This energy in the form of waves can travel through a vacuum, the air, and through some materials like glass. An important property of any energy wave is the wavelength.

Radio, microwaves, radar, visible light, x-rays, and gamma rays seem to be very different things. However, they are all types of electromagnetic energy. If all the types of electromagnetic waves are arranged in order from the longest wavelength down to the shortest wavelength, a continuum called the electromagnetic spectrum is created.

The wavelength of an electromagnetic wave is determined by how frequently the electric charge that generates the wave moves back and forth. If the charge moves back and forth slowly, the wavelength it generates is a long wavelength. Visualize the movement of the electric charge as like that of a stick in a pool of water. If the stick is moved back and forth slowly, it will generate ripples in the water with a long wavelength between the tops of the ripples. If the stick is moved back and forth more rapidly, the ripples will have a shorter wavelength.

Because electromagnetic waves are all generated in the same way, they share many of the same properties. The waves all travel at the same rate of speed though a vacuum. The rate is approximately 300,000 kilometers per second or 186,283 miles per second. This is also the speed of light.

Human eyes were designed to only sense electromagnetic energy with wavelengths between 700 nanometers and 400 nanometers (nm). A nanometer is one billionth of a meter (0.000000001 meter) in length. Electromagnetic energy with wavelengths between 700 and 400 nm is called visible light. The longer wavelengths of light that are around 700 nm are seen as the color red. The shortest wavelengths that are around 400 nm appear as the color violet. This part of the electromagnetic spectrum is seen as the colors in a rainbow.

Wavelengths that are not visible to the human eye are used to transmit data over optical fiber. These wavelengths are slightly longer than red light and are called infrared light. Infrared light is used in TV remote controls. The wavelength of the light in optical fiber is either 850 nm, 1310 nm, or 1550 nm. These wavelengths were selected because they travel through optical fiber better than other wavelengths.

The next page will discuss the ray model of light.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

OSI layers / Peer-to-peer communications / TCP/IP model

OSI layers 2.3.4 This page discusses the seven layers of the OSI model. The OSI reference model is a framework that is used to understand how information travels throughout a network. The OSI reference model explains how packets travel through the various layers to another device on a network, even if the sender and destination have different types of network media. In the OSI reference model, there are seven numbered layers, each of which illustrates a particular network function. - Dividing the network into seven layers provides the following advantages: • It breaks network communication into smaller, more manageable parts. • It standardizes network components to allow multiple vendor development and support. • It allows different types of network hardware and software to communicate with each other. • It prevents changes in one layer from affecting other layers. • It divides network communication into smaller parts to make learning it easier to understand. In the foll...
Post a Comment
Read more

PC Basic...

• Backplane – A backplane is an electronic circuit board containing circuitry and sockets into which additional electronic devices on other circuit boards or cards can be plugged; in a computer, generally synonymous with or part of the motherboard. • Network interface card (NIC) – An expansion board inserted into a computer so that the computer can be connected to a network. • Video card – A board that plugs into a PC to give it display capabilities. • Audio card – An expansion board that enables a computer to manipulate and output sounds. • Parallel port – An interface capable of transferring more than one bit simultaneously that is used to connect external devices such as printers. • Serial port – An interface that can be used for serial communication in which only one bit is transmitted at a time. • Mouse port – A port used to connect a mouse to a PC. • USB port – A Universal Serial Bus connector. A USB port connects devices such as a mouse or printer to the computer ...
Post a Comment
Read more

1.2.2 RIP V2 Features

 1.2.2 RIP V2 Features This page will discuss RIP v2, which is an improved version of RIP v1. Both versions of RIP share the following features: It is a distance vector protocol that uses a hop count metric. It uses hold down timers to prevent routing loops – default is 180 seconds. It uses split horizon to prevent routing loops. It uses 16 hops as a metric for infinite distance. RIP v2 provides prefix routing, which allows it to send out subnet mask information with the route update. Therefore, RIP v2 supports the use of classless routing in which different subnets within the same network can use different subnet masks, as in VLSM. RIP v2 provides for authentication in its updates. A set of keys can be used on an interface as an authentication check. RIP v2 allows for a choice of the type of authentication to be used in RIP v2 packets. The choice can be either clear text or Message-Digest 5 (MD5) encryption. Clear text is the default. MD5 can be used t...
Post a Comment
Read more