Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Mon, 17 Jun 91 05:24:04 GMT From: Barry Margolin Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: What The Heck is "Fiber Optic Quality" Anyway? Reply-To: think!barmar@bloom-beacon.mit.edu Message-ID: Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 464, Message 1 of 9 Lines: 22 In article miller@dg-rtp.dg.com (Mark Miller) writes: > OK, this one has been bugging me for some time, but what is the highly > touted "Fiber Optic Quality"?? > Now as I understand it, virtually all long distance calls are sent in > a digital format. Last time I checked, digital data didn't really > care whether it was sent by copper, microwave or fiber. Of course it does. Digital data can be corrupted by static or crosstalk on the line, just as analog data can. Computer communication generally uses error detection and retransmission on top of the digital medium in order to produce error-free transmission. Audio telephone communication is generally more concerned with transmission speed than fidelity, because listeners are able to deal with minor errors. Higher fidelity lines mean fewer such errors. Barry Margolin, Thinking Machines Corp. barmar@think.com {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar