Fundamentals of Plastic Optical Fibers

1Introduction: Faster, Further, More Information

The realization of these three features has motivated the development of communication systems since the dawn of history. Optical communication systems in the broad sense date back to ancient times. One of the earliest optical communication systems was fire and smoke. Although atmospheric conditions, such as rain, snow, fog, and dust, strongly affect the transmission reliability, this type of optical communication was used for a long time worldwide. In addition to the sensitivity to the environmental conditions, the signal receiver was the human eye; thus, the transmission system had poor reliability. More stable and dependable communication systems were developed; for instance, a courier or pigeon carried messages and letters.

The era of electrical communication started in 1837 with the invention of the telegraph by Samuel F. B. Morse. The telegraph system used the Morse code, which represents letters and numbers by a coded combination of dots and dashes. The encoded symbols were conveyed by sending short and long pulses of electricity over a copper wire at a rate of tens of pulses per second. The telegraph and Morse code dramatically improved the speed, quality, and information capacity of transmission, although well-trained and skilled operators were required.

Another giant leap in the history of communication systems was brought about by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. Bell developed a fundamentally different and user-friendly ...