What is Single Mode Fiber?

 

In optical fiber technology, single mode fiber is optical fiber that is designed for the transmission of a single ray or mode of light as a carrier and is used for long-distance signal transmission, which designed to carry light only directly down the fiber—the transverse mode. These modes define the way the wave travels through space, i.e. how the wave is distributed in space. Waves can have the same mode but have different frequencies. This is the case in single-mode fibers, where we can have waves with different frequencies, but of the same mode, which means that they are distributed in space in the same way, and that gives us a single ray of light. Although the ray travels parallel to the length of the fiber, it is often called transverse mode since its electromagnetic vibrations occur perpendicular (transverse) to the length of the fiber.

Types of Single Mode Fibers

In order to get one step closer to understanding the Single mode fiber, common Single mode fiber must be explained before. Standard single mode fiber, dispersion shifted fiber , Non-Zero Dispersion Shifted Fiber are the most popular Single mode fiber in the industrial application. Each type provides unique benefits for device communication. Low water peak fiber is the most common single mode fiber used in our country. Non-Zero dispersion shifted fiber is a kinds of DSF. Its 1550nm dispersion is close to zero, but not zero. It is an improved dispersion-shifted fiber to suppress four-wave mixing. For your easy reference, a quick comparison chart listed below demonstrates the key differences of these three commonly used serial interfaces for industrial Applications.

Description	IEC SMF Type	ITU Spec.	TIA Spec
Standard Single mode Fiber	B1.1	G.652	TIA 492CAAA / OS1
Cutoff Shifted Fiber	B1.2	G.654
Low Water Peak Fiber	B1.3	G.652	TIA 492CAAB / OS2
Dispersion Shifted Fiber	B2	G.653
Non-Zero Dispersion Shifted Fiber	B4	G.655	TIA-492E000 / TIA-492EA00
Bend-Insensitive Fiber		G .657

Connectors of Single Mode Fiber

There are many different types of connectors of single mode fiber. LC Connector, FC Connector, SC Connector, ST Connector, MTRJ Connector, MU Connector, E2000 Connector, SMA Connector are the most popular connectors in the market. Connectors are used to join optical fibers where a connect/disconnect capability is required. The basic connector unit is a connector assembly. A connector assembly consists of an adapter and two connector plugs. Due to the sophisticated polishing and tuning procedures that may be incorporated into optical connector manufacturing, connectors are generally assembled onto optical fiber in a supplier’s manufacturing facility.

Application

Single mode fiber with a relatively narrow diameter, through which only one mode will propagate typically 1310 or 1550nm, which is used in many applications where data is sent at multi frequency (WDM Wave-Division-Multiplexing). Today’s telephone companies use single mode fiber throughout their system as the backbone architecture and as the long-distance connection between city phone systems. Local Area Networks (LAN) is a collective group of computers, or computer systems, connected to each other allowing for shared program software or data bases. Colleges, universities, office buildings, and industrial plants, just to name a few, all make use of single mode fiber within their LAN systems. Power companies are an emerging group that have begun to utilize fiber optics in their communication systems. Most power utilities already have single fiber optic communication systems in use for monitoring their power grid systems. At last, I hope this passage might be useful for the readers to have a brief understanding of SMF.

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