What Is a Fiber-Optic Router?

A fiber-optic router is a router that uses fiber-optic cable to transport a data signal. It is much faster than any other type of router, but is more expensive. These routers are most often used in larger offices or institutions, as well as across the Internet.

Routers transport computer network activity to other computers. It can divide the traffic into networks and send it where it needs to go, much like the post office can separate mail and deliver it to specific addresses. Routers are used to guide computer traffic in large and small networks. The majority of home and small network routers are either category-5 (cat-5) or category-6 (cat-6) cable routers, which move data up to speeds of 1000 megabits per second. Fiber-optic routers can handle speeds up to 10,000 megabits per second.

Unlike cat-5 and cat-6 cables, which are made of metal and plastic, a fiber-optic cable is a bundle of glass threads, each of which can transmit data over the cable by a laser transmitter that turns frequency signals into pulses of light. The light is then turned back into data that the computer can read on the receiving end. A fiber-optic cable has much more bandwidth than cat-5 or cat-6 cables so it can transport more data, much like an eight lane highway can move more cars than a two lane highway. Fiber-optic cables also have less susceptibility to interference than metal cables, and they can carry the signal longer without a boost.

December 10, 2011

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