Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!munnari.oz.au!uhccux!ames!sgi!rpw3@rigden.wpd.sgi.com
From: rpw3@rigden.wpd.sgi.com (Rob Warnock)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: tapping into a fiber optic cable
Message-ID: <61338@sgi.sgi.com>
Date: 1 Jun 90 00:47:15 GMT
References: <46249@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> <151@coplex.UUCP>
Sender: rpw3@rigden.wpd.sgi.com
Reply-To: rpw3@sgi.com (Rob Warnock)
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 30

In article <151@coplex.UUCP> dannie@coplex.UUCP (Dannie Gregoire) writes:
+---------------
| >Can a fiber optic cable be "tapped" into without disturbing the data...
| I remeber reading an article in Info World about a year ago about just such
| a method.  It seems that if you bend a FO cable at more than  90 degrees
| that about 20% of the signal will "bleed" out of the cable at the bend. 
| An opto-receiver can be installed there with an amplifier to read the signal
| without disturbing any data.
+---------------

In fact, there are companies [not mine] out there working on using this
phenomenon to build practical fiber-optic "quick-connects". The idea is
that instead of the current labor-intensive cut, epoxy, cure, polish,
examine, polish, examine... sequence to terminate fibers to "ST" connectors,
one would simply strip off the outer jacket, stick the bare fiber into a hole,
and twist down on a knob which would bend the fiber up against the receiver
or LED (yes, you can *send* this way, too).

Look for such commercial products in a year or so.

Look for it to eventually make fiber installation a *lot* cheaper than RS-232.


-Rob

-----
Rob Warnock, MS-9U/510		rpw3@sgi.com		rpw3@pei.com
Silicon Graphics, Inc.		(415)335-1673		Protocol Engines, Inc.
2011 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA  94039-7311