Plastic Fiber Could Make Optical Networking a DIY Project

An anonymous reader writes "A new European project using plastic fiber and off-the-shelf components could make optical networking so cheap and simple that installation could be a DIY job for even a non-technical person. The object of EU-funded POF-ALL project is to find a technical solution to the rising cost of taking optical fiber right into the home." A mere "few hundred metres" of 100mbps (since plastic is thus far dimmer than glass) would suffice to wire any home I'm likely to occupy.

Comments

Re:So...

[FrankSchwab]

At the very least, electrical isolation.

Lightning hit my house (or very close to it) last year, and took out at least the ethernet port on every computer I had that was Cat5 connected at the time. Took out a few USB ports, and sent my router to the great network in the sky also.

Plastic fiber wouldn't have that problem (until someone marries the plastic fiber with the Power over Ethernet spec).

/frank

We've been using plastic fiber optics for data ...

[the_rajah]

since about 1985. I designed a system back then, using plastic fiber and off-the-shelf HP transmitter and receiver modules, to pass data between elevator controllers where they are in a coordinated group. Isolation was the main reason, but it's also very convenient. We're still producing the same system today. It's convenient that it uses visible light and termination is very easy since the fibers are relative large. We're using relatively low data rates and the maximum distance I've got to handle is less than 100 feet.

MOD Parent up please

[WindBourne]

The simple fact is that Copper is about to become VERY expensive. China is buying it as well as working with all countries that have copper mines to aquire full access to the copper. The simple fact is that there is a limited amount of copper and China is about to use 1000x more than what it currently does. In addition, most societies are about to move to electrical cars which will require a lot of copper.

Finally, copper does not go the long distances that Fiber does. I suspect that we will see a lot of uses for these in running from the green box to the home. In fact, I think that the delivery companies will have multiple cables to the home. Basically, dark fiber. It will enable some interesting services.