Optical cable, as an important infrastructure in the field of modern communication, its development process not only witnessed the brilliant chapter of human scientific and technological progress, but also indicates the infinite possibility of future information transmission. From the initial laboratory exploration to today's global popularity, optical cable has played a pivotal role in promoting economic and social development with its unique advantages. This paper will review the historical development of optical cable and look forward to its future development trend.

Optical cable, as an important infrastructure in the field of modern communication, its development process not only witnessed the brilliant chapter of human scientific and technological progress, but also indicates the infinite possibility of future information transmission. From the initial laboratory exploration to today's global popularity, optical cable has played a pivotal role in promoting economic and social development with its unique advantages. This paper will review the historical development of optical cable and look forward to its future development trend.

 

Historical Development of Optical Cable

The history of fiber optic cable can be traced back to the 1960 s. In 1960, the invention of lasers and optical fibers laid the foundation for the birth of fiber optic cables. However, it was not until 1966 that Dr. Kao Kun, a British Chinese, published a landmark paper, which first proposed the possibility of using optical fiber as a transmission medium to realize optical communication, which attracted wide attention. In 1970, Corning and Bell Research Laboratory successfully developed low-loss quartz fiber and the first aluminum gallium arsenide semiconductor laser that worked continuously at room temperature, marking the initial maturity of optical cable technology.

 

Early growth (1970-1990)

 

In the 1970 s, with the continuous progress of technology, the loss of optical fiber gradually decreased, falling to 0.2dB/km in 1979 and 0.1dB/km close to the theoretical limit in 1990. During this period, the commercialization of optical fiber communication systems accelerated. In 1977, the first optical fiber communication system was put into commercial use in Chicago, marking the official opening of the era of optical fiber communication. Subsequently, China also independently developed practical optical fibers in 1979, and gradually promoted the commercial application of optical fiber communication technology. In the 1980 s, multi-mode optical fiber communication systems were commercialized, and single-mode optical fiber communication systems also began to enter the experimental stage, laying a solid foundation for subsequent extensive applications.

 

Acceleration and Maturation (1990-present)

 

In the 1990 s, optical fiber communication technology ushered in a period of rapid development. With the breakthrough of wavelength division multiplexing and other technologies, the transmission capacity and transmission distance of optical fibers have been greatly improved, and optical cables have been commercialized on a large scale worldwide. The degree of optical fiber access is continuously upgraded, from optical fiber to switching box, optical fiber to roadside, and then to optical fiber to the building, and finally realized optical fiber to the home. China is particularly prominent in this area, with fiber-to-the-home penetration rate among the highest in the world. At the same time, the optical cable industry has gradually formed a complete industrial chain system, from raw material supply to equipment manufacturing, to system integration, all links have achieved independent control.

 

Future Trends of Optical Cable

 

Technological innovation leads development

 

In the future, the development of optical cable technology will continue to be led by technological innovation. Low-loss fiber, multi-mode and single-mode fiber integration applications and distributed intelligent fiber technology will become the key driving force for the development of the industry. Low loss optical fiber will further reduce the energy loss in the transmission process and improve the transmission efficiency; the fusion application of multi-mode and single-mode optical fiber will meet the transmission requirements in different scenarios; distributed intelligent optical fiber will be widely used in data center and smart city projects by virtue of its application advantages in monitoring, security protection and environmental monitoring.

 

Market demand continues to grow

 

With the in-depth implementation of the global digital economy and smart city strategy, the demand for fiber optic cable market will continue to grow. In particular, driven by the rapid expansion of 5G network construction, data center construction and intelligent infrastructure, the demand for high-quality optical cables will continue to increase. It is predicted that in the next six years, the size of China's optical cable market will grow steadily at a compound growth rate of 7% per year, and the market size will exceed 20 billion yuan by 2030, making it one of the largest optical cable markets in the world.

 

Green environmental protection and energy saving and emission reduction

 

In the face of global attention to environmental sustainability, the fiber optic cable industry will also pay more attention to green environmental protection and energy conservation and emission reduction. In the selection of raw materials, production processes and product design, more attention will be paid to environmental protection factors to promote the wide application of green communication solutions. This will not only help reduce operating costs and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises, but also contribute to the cause of global environmental protection.

 

Policy Support and Industrial Layout

 

Policy support is an important guarantee to promote the development of optical cable industry. In the future, governments will continue to increase support for the construction of information and communication infrastructure, optimize the industrial layout, and enhance the independent and controllable ability of the industrial chain. At the same time, enterprises are encouraged to increase investment in research and development to promote technological innovation and industrial upgrading. This will provide a good development environment and stable investment expectations for the optical cable industry, and promote its sustainable and healthy development.