Article,
Optical fibres in communications and measurement
(1984)
Abstract
Optical fibres are thin wires of glass
which act as waveguides for light. Their
action can be used to provide optical
communications links which have enormous
information-carrying capacity over large
distances and which are also con<pletely
immune from all kinds of electro-magnetic
interference. Prospects for use in the CEGB
are good and the possibili(v of a wholly
CEGB-owned National Communications
Network, using optical fibres, is being
studied.
The way in which light propagates within
an optical fibre can be infiuenced by various
kinds of external agencies and this fact can be
used to devise a variety of measurement
sensors based on optical fibres. Such sensors
have the advantages of use of a dielectric
insulating medium which is intrinsically safe
and easy to install. They also interface easily
to interference-free optical-fibre telemetry
links.
Prospects for the future include the use of
non-linear optics to provide distributed
optical-fibre measurement systems and the
use of integrated opto-electronics in the
development of fast processors for use in
communications and measurement applications,
and in the next generation of
computers.
