Overview
In 1970, Corning scientists Drs. Robert D. Maurer, Donald B. Keck, and Peter C. Schultz invented the first low-loss optical fiber, a hair-thin strand of highly transparent glass able to transmit information by reflecting light through the length of its core. Unlike traditional cable or copper wire, optical fiber offered telecommunications service providers nearly limitless bandwidth that could support the world's growing demand for voice, data, and video communications.
Later development and commercialization of optical fiber revolutionized the telecommunications industry and information technology on a global a scale. Today Corning remains the worldwide market leader in the fiber optics industry, offering a full line of single-mode and multimode optical fiber products for all network applications.
Watch At the Speed of Light
to learn more about optical fiber.
Fiber 101
Optical fiber is a highly transparent strand of glass that transmits light signals with low attenuation (loss of signal power) over long distances, providing nearly limitless bandwidth. This technology enables telecommunications service providers to send voice, data, and video at ever-increasing rates.
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Companion Technologies
Our communications networks have been likened to a global nervous system; they are dense, interdependent, and constantly sending countless signals to relay critical data and information. Optical fiber serves as the backbone of these networks, with companion technologies such as wireless, coaxial cable, and copper, with hardware and equipment providing the connections that ensure signals are delivered to the world around us.
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Lesson in a Box
Corning is committed to providing educational tools for teachers and students looking to learn more about the basics of optical fiber, its composition, and its capabilities.
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Optical Fiber Myths
Whether we’re filling a glass of water or washing our windshield, we take glass for granted as a functional yet fragile part of our every day lives. Our assumptions about its properties have been shaped by a mix of life-long warnings and direct experience.
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Basic Applications
When our lights go out, we return to more primitive sources of illumination such as candles to find our way through the darkness. But with fiber optics, the revolutionary communications technology of light and glass, there is no going back. Like the electricity we assume will always be there, we now take for granted the optical fiber that seamlessly connects us to people and information anywhere, anytime, through almost any device of our choosing.
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