FIBER OPTICS

FIBER OPTICS. Fiber optics (optical fibers) are long, thin strands of very pure glass about the diameter of a human hair. They are arranged in bundles called optical cables and used to transmit light signals over long distances. A single optical fiber has the following parts:

   Core - Thin glass center of the fiber where the 
          light travels
   Cladding - Outer optical material surrounding 
          the core that reflects the light back 
          into the core
   Buffer coating - Plastic coating that protects 
          the fiber from damage and moisture

Hundreds or thousands of optical fibers are arranged in bundles in optical cables. The bundles are protected by the cable's outer covering, called a jacket. Optical fibers come in two types: Single-mode fibers and multi-mode fibers. Single-mode fibers have small cores (about 3.5 x 10-4 inches or 9 microns in diameter) and transmit infrared laser light (wavelength = 1,300 to 1,550 nanometers). Multi-mode fibers have larger cores (about 2.5 x 10-3 inches or 62.5 microns in diameter) and transmit infrared light (wavelength = 850 to 1,300 nm) from light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

Some optical fibers can be made from plastic. These fibers have a large core (0.04 inches or 1 mm diameter) and transmit visible red light (wavelength = 650 nm) from LEDs.

The light in a fiber-optic cable travels through the core by constantly bouncing from the cladding (mirror-lined walls), a principle called total internal reflection. Because the cladding does not absorb any light from the core, the light wave can travel great distances. However, some of the light signal degrades within the fiber, mostly due to impurities in the glass. The extent that the signal degrades depends on the purity of the glass and the wavelength of the transmitted light. One or more optical regenerators is spliced along the cable to boost the degraded light signals.

Understanding how messages are transmitted can be compared with two ships in a fleet needing to communicate with each other. One ship sends a message translated into Morse code through a signal light to the other ship. The Morse code message is decoded into English.

A fiber-optic relay system consists of the following:

   Transmitter - Produces and encodes the light signals
   Optical fiber - Conducts the light signals over a distance
   Optical regenerator - May be necessary to boost the light signal (for long distances)
   Optical receiver - Receives and decodes the light signals

Fiber-optic systems are revolutionizing telecommunications. Several miles of optical cable can be made cheaper than equivalent lengths of copper wire. Optical fibers can be drawn to smaller diameters than copper wire. Because optical fibers are thinner than copper wires, more fibers can be bundled into a given-diameter cable than copper wires. This allows more phone lines to go over the same cable or more channels to come through the cable into your cable TV box. The loss of signal in optical fiber is less than in copper wire. Unlike electrical signals in copper wires, light signals from one fiber do not interfere with those of other fibers in the same cable. This means clearer phone conversations or TV reception. Because signals in optical fibers degrade less, lower-power transmitters can be used instead of the high-voltage electrical transmitters needed for copper wires. Optical fibers are ideally suited for carrying digital information, which is especially useful in computer networks. Because no electricity is passed through optical fibers, there is no fire hazard. An optical cable weighs less than a comparable copper wire cable. Fiber-optic cables take up less space in the ground.

Fiber optics offer promise in many industries such as telecommunications and computer networks. A telephone call to Europe from the United States is bounced off a communications satellite with the result that an echo is often heard on the line. With transatlantic fiber-optic cables there is a direct connection with no echoes. (1)

Photo courtesy: Telegraph Herald

Having missed the opportunity to be on an interstate highway, Dubuque's business leaders in 1986 had no intention of being overlooked for fiber optics. Teleconnect had recently skipped Dubuque leaving the community without a link. The largest fiber optics network being constructed by Williams Telecommunication Company and marketed by Teleconnect ran east-west from Davenport through Des Moines and into Omaha. It also ran from Des Moines north toward Minneapolis and south toward Kansas City. Teleconnect announced plans for its own line from Waterloo to Sioux City. Recognizing fiber optics were essential to development of the city, the GREATER DUBUQUE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION formed a task force to attract at least one digital communication operation to Dubuque. In its attempt to lure Greyhound Corporation's telephone information to Dubuque, however, Dubuque officials were told Greyhound could not consider the city due to its lack of high-volume and competitive telecommunication service. CYCARE SYSTEMS, INC., a current Dubuque business, was concerned by the limitations of current long distance service. The only long distance carrier, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), carried telephone and computer data but was obsolete in terms of digital transmission. Digital transmission compared to traditional analog transmission, eliminated background noise and mistakes from computer data. Digital transmission allowed quicker communication and could accommodate picture phones and teleconferencing. (2)

AT&T suggested it could provide satellite and microwave services capable of handling digital telecommunications. A consultant suggested local industries might have to become partners with firms that could supply fiber optic or digital lines. (3) Disappointing news came later in 1986 when Teleconnect announced it was not going to extend its fiber optic line from Waterloo to Dubuque. (4)

Where there had been an absence of digital communication, 1987 began the new year with Teleconnect Co. of Cedar Rapids and NorLight of Madison, Wisconsin expressing interest in installing fiber optics in Dubuque. On July 21, 1987 work began by Northwestern Bell on installing Dubuque's first fiber optic telephone lines. (5)

Photo courtesy: Telegraph Herald

The installation was intricate. The glass filaments, said to look like brightly colored fishline, were dipped in acetone to remove impurities and then cut with a microscopic-precision cutter. The cut made to splice two pieces of filament together had to be clean with no rounded edges. As filaments were spliced, technicians in the Northwestern Bell office downtown viewed their computer to see the circuit was clear. While claims that a person could hear a pin drop at the other end of a call were true, the principal advantage was the increased capacity. The announcement that "all circuits are busy" would be heard less often and the increasing load of computer-to-computer telephone communication could be handled. Completed fiber optic cables would be one-half inch in diameter compared to three inches for copper cables. (6)

Dubuque's first fiber optics began operations at 1:00 a.m. on January 31, 1989. The fiber optics facility was located on the top floor of CYCARE PLAZA. The Teleconnect fiber line to Cedar Raids had five pairs of fiber optics cable capable of handling 30,000 simultaneous telephone calls. At the time, officials said the most calls going out of Dubuque at one time was 200. The facility converted an electromagnetic signal from a conventional telephone into a laser beam. Producing the light source were semiconductors so larger than a grain of salt. The laser beams were then transmitted through the fibers to Cedar Rapids where the telephone calls were stitched. The error rate for fiber optics was "one bit in a billion." the comparable rate of error in 100 telephone calls running around the clock for two years--losing only one syllable. Teleconnect employed nineteen people in its Dubuque long-distance, phone systems, and directory offices. (7)

In the fall of 1993 the Iowa Communications Network came to northeast Iowa. The Calmar campus of Northeast Iowa Community College was linked to the Peosta campus. In its first month of operation, the network received eighty hours of use. In May the system was generating 750 hours of use for classes, meetings between campuses, and state-wide events. (8) The potential may have been realized, but to many the question of how seemed threatening. As Diana LAM, superintendent of the DUBUQUE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT and a person not often caught without an answer said, "There is tremendous potential, but we have to do something with it." (9)

The Iowa Communications Network (ICN), a $114 million fiber optics system, in 1994 allowed hospitals, medical centers, and clinics in each of Iowa's 99 counties to communicate. Consultations between doctors, transfer of medical records, images, and other information immediately reduced patient travel, avoided duplicate exams and procedures and reduced costs. (10) The network, however, came under intense criticism. The bond debt of the state was $182.4 million. At the beginning of 1994, $12.5 million had been spent on Phase I and II with finishing the project estimated to cost $35 million annually for 15 years. By December of 1993 the state had laid an estimated 3,000 miles of fiber-optic cable reaching every county.

In 1994 the ICN became a state agency and the Iowa Telecommunications Technology Committee was established by the Legislature as the ICN's governing body. The Governor signed a plan in 1995 establishing Part III of the Network, which consisted of adding full-motion video sites to public and private school districts, area education agencies, and public libraries throughout Iowa. New technology was continuously added to the ICN as new inventions and technologies were perfected. (11)

In 1995 Dubuque was the largest city in Iowa not connected to the state's fiber optics communications network. The nearest connections to the systems were in Peosta and Maquoketa. In an agreement TCI Cablevision of Dubuque, the company would bring the Iowa Communications Network to nineteen Dubuque schools, hospitals, colleges and government agencies by June 30, 1996. TCI's estimated cost to upgrade its system and make the connections was estimated at $3 million. In exchange TCI was granted some waivers in its franchise agreement with the city. The city also agreed to construct a $24,000 building for state fiber optics network equipment. City, county, schools and hospitals would have to pay for the equipment to hold interactive conferences or classes. The city expected the cost for one equipped conference room at $50,000. Installations to the ARMORY were expected within thirty days. Phase III of the statewide construction plan authorized all three local colleges for connection. (12) When the new building for the Keystone Area Education Agency was constructed in Dubuque next to the school district offices, it allowed both agencies to share a link to the network. (13)

In February, 2002 the Dubuque City Council accepted a no-interest loan of about $36,000 from the county to complete a looped fiber optics system to the Dubuque County/City Law Enforcement Center two years ahead of schedule. The county would then move a misplaced telecommunications line blocking construction of the jail expansion. (14)

Traffic along Dodge Street was improved by fiber optics in January, 2004. Over 38,000 cars travel Dubuque's busiest road daily. The renovation project would affect nine intersections so that traffic synchronization would be accomplished allowing drivers to move through two or three lights before needing to stop. (15)

As part of the 15-year cable franchise the city signed with Mediacom in 2005, the company agreed to build a state-of-the-art fiber optic Institutional Net or I-Net. The system would link 77 government buildings, schools, police firefighters, hospitals, and nonprofit agencies. The company would lay sixty miles of fiber optic cable with each site using the network would pay for the needed equipment. The cost per site was estimated at between $6,000 and $20,000. It was expected that a significant savings would come fro the city and schools using the system for telephone service without the need to lease T1 lines. These cost between $600 to $1,000 per month (16)

The Dubuque City Council in 2010 announced it would use a $500,000 grant from the Iowa Office of Energy Independence to fund half the cost of upgrading traffic signals from the NORTHWEST ARTERIAL to Ninth Street. New signals with fiber optic technology would allow the control of traffic. Fiber optic technology had already been replacing 1970s-era signals in other locations. Drivers were expected to save an estimated 207,247 gallons of fuel annually or about $526,000 not idling at stoplights. In 2008 during heavy flooding, the state directed traffic through Dubuque when I-80 was closed. Adjusting the lights along Dodge allowed traffic to move smoothly. (17)

The formation of CenturyLink though the merger of Qwest Communications and CenturyTel Inc. was announced in April, 2010. The merger expanded the company's service territory from 14 to 37 states and led to more than $4.5 million in the Dubuque operation. The goals included "pushing" more fiber optics into the network with less landline service and more Internet use. (18)

In late 2019 a new fiber optic provider, ComElec, was burying plastic tubing into which fiber optic cable was inserted on the west side of Dubuque. ComElect's residential customers by just three years from becoming customers of IMON, a Cedar Rapids based company with a branch in Dubuque.

A plan to install high-speed Internet fiber along HERITAGE TRAIL was revived in August, 2023. Originally proposed by Nathan Gilmore, county-owned conduit would be buried along the popular hiking and biking trail off of which the county and paying providers could branch fiber to properties in more rural areas. The new plan duplicated the idea with little or no county money. Providers would pay for the laying of the "middle mile" along the trail. They would be in competition with each other for the last mile to the customers' homes. The new plan would also eliminate the county's need to pay utility companies to use their fiber each month. A line of county-owned conduit, and eventually fiber, would connect county assets across the county 'in perpetuity." The Dubuque County Conservation Board voted to notify partners and the federal government of its general support for a project. (19)

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Sources:

1. Freudenrich, Craig, "How Fiber Optics Work," Howstuffworks. Online: https://computer.howstuffworks.com/fiber-optic.htm

2. Kirchen, Rich, "Leaders Seek Fiber Optics," Telegraph Herald, June 8, 1986, p. 1

3. Ibid.

4. Kirchen, Rich, "Still Looking to Connect," Telegraph Herald, November 12, 1986, p. 3

5. Chanaud, Timothy, "Second Firm May Bring Fiber Optics," Telegraph Herald, January 1, 1987, p. 3

6. Hanson, Lyn, "Plain as Day: Fiber Optics Arrive," Telegraph Herald, July 23, 1987, p. 1

7. Pritchard, Ken, "Fiber Optic Link Takes Dubuque a Step Forward," Telegraph Herald, March 19, 1989, p. 11

8. Krapfl, Mike, "County Getting Wired," Telegraph Herald, July 13, 1994, p. 16

9. Krapfl, Mike, "Colleges Try Fiber Optics Link," Telegraph Herald, November 4, 1993, p. 1

10. "2 TVs Talking," Telegraph Herald, July 15, 1994, p. 26, p. 26

11. "History of the ICN," Iowa Communications Network, Online: https://icn.iowa.gov/about-icn/agency-information-icns-story/history-icn

12. Webber, Steve, "City to Link Up With Fiber Optics," Telegraph Herald, April 8, 1995, p. 3

13. Krapfl, Mike, "Keystone Construction Work About to Begin," Telegraph Herald, July 3, 1995, p. 3

14. Coyle, Erin, "Some Budget Requests Sporting Leaner Looks," Telegraph Herald, February 15, 2002, p. 3

15. Hogstrom, Erik, "Changes in Works to Ease Traffic on Dodge," Telegraph Herald, January 2, 2004, p. 1

16. Kundert, Rob, "City Making Tech Leap," Telegraph Herald, May 22, 2006, p. 1

17. Piper, Andy, "Council Looking at Better Traffic Flow," Telegraph Herald, April 4, 2010, p. 11

18. Schmidt, Eileen Mozinski, "New Name Not Only Change at Qwest," Telegraph Herald, July 28, 2011, p. 3

19. Fisher, Benjamin, "Businesses Eye Heritage Trail for High-Speed Fiber," Telegraph Herald, August 20, 2023, p. 1