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Why aren't they building a fiber optic link? Is it that the shipping channel makes it too likely for disruption of the link?
by mjevans 10y ago
Why aren't they building a fiber optic link? Is it that the shipping channel makes it too likely for disruption of the link?
- dahdum 10y agoFiber optics are slower than microwave, and the routes aren't as straight.
- tormeh 10y agoI'm being pedantic but microwave just has lower latency. Bandwidth is definitely down compared to fiber.
- dahdum 10y agoI wondered about that, but since microwaves in air are 50% faster moving than the light through fiber it seemed correct. Probably should have said "Light through fiber optics is slower than microwaves in air".
- walrus01 10y agoLight in fiber moves at about 0.66c due to bouncing off the walls of the fiber trillions of times in a short distance.
- eck 10y agoIt moves at that speed because the index of refraction of glass is about 1.5. In single-mode fiber the light doesn't really bounce off the walls.
- sgt101 10y agoAlso significant latency is imposed by the network architecture vs the choice of bearer, and by shared vs single user. My guess is that the main driver is actually to get a private channel with qos guarantees and as few retransmission hops and security bumps as possible.