With Every Telephone Call you join a 32,256-Member Party
During a cellular or
traditional phone call your voice is mixed in with 32,256
conversations, and then transported around the world at the
speed of light through optical fibers that are about
the size of a human hair. However, since your
voices don't actually use the fiber at exactly the same
moment in time, you never hear the other 32,255 callers.
But how is this possible?
Suppose you mark a
large X on
the ground at the foot of Mount Rushmore, allowing
32,256 people to line up and take turns standing on the spot to view
a bird as it glides slowly across the face of the mountain.
Your only rule is that, since only one person at a time can
occupy the space over the X spot, they must move quickly
enough so that each of the 32,256 people can view the mountain
second so as they scroll through the line, they never
miss a foot of the birds flight. Sounds impossible, doesn't it? Yet that's
how your voice gets transmitted over the optical fiber! In
fact, newer transmission methods have bumped
that number to 129,024 simultaneous calls in a fiber optic
system; every second of every day. That would be like
building a four-story deck at Mount Rushmore, allowing four
lines of 32,256 people to each pass 8,000 times per second!
Our FREE Fiber Facts
Telecommunications Technology Tutorial will discuss how optical fibers
and employed for worldwide
communications of voice, video and data connections; how
your voice is able to mix in the fiber with many others, yet
not interfere with them; replay an actual event
recorded where two optical fiber ends are joined by fusion splicing;
reveal how to obtain a sample strand of optical fiber just
like telephone and cable companies use in modern networks.
These and more
questions answered in this tutorial, including experiments that can be performed with household items to
help students grasp complex issues.
all, this tutorial is FREE and appropriate (safe) for all
Facts Telecommunications Technology Tutorial