Single-mode fiber is a type of fiber optic cable through which only one light signal can travel at a time.
Because single-mode fiber is more resistant to attenuation than multi-mode fiber, it can be used in significantly longer cable runs.
The core of a single-mode fiber is normally 9 microns wide. A micron is one millionth of a meter.
The single-mode cables are the most important cables for long-haul use (carrier and Internet core). The cable has a small core (7 to 10 microns) that forces the light to follow a more linear single path down the cable, as opposed to the multipath reflections of multimode cable. However, another form of dispersion, called
chromatic dispersion,
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