What Makes Optical Fibre Immune To EMI?

Jan 23, 2017

In this article, I explain how optical fiber is immune to EMI (electromagnetic interference) and how this impacts installations and networks located in areas of high electromagnetic interference and Radio Frequency Interference (RFI).


Optical Fibre Is Immune To EMI

Fibre optic cables are non-metallic... they transmit signals using pulses of light in glass threads! As a result, they are immune to Electro-Magnetic Interference and Radio Frequency Interference. In other terms, the integrity of signals is not affected by electrical noise in the environment.

Optical fibre cables are made of glass threads

In copper cables, the integrity of signals can be affected by electrical noise. This can also reduce speed of transmission as larger numbers of lost and/or corrupted data packets can lead to excessive levels of retransmission.

Attenuation loss can be as low as 0.2 dB/km in optical fibre cables, allowing transmission over long distances without the need for repeaters (than you will have with copper systems to ensure satisfactory performance over long distances with higher data rate).

electromagnetic interference waves

Fibre connections isolate data from dangerous increases in ground potential, ground loops, and electrical EMI/RFI (radio-frequency interference). It also removes a potential security vulnerability, as data cannot be read from the magnetic field around the cable.

Fibre Optic Eliminates The Spark Hazard

As they don’t carry current, fibre cables can’t generate even the smallest spark. This is a considerable advantage in explosive environments such as chemical plant or oil refineries as it increases the safety of your installation. We will recommend this specific Fanless Intel Mini PC as it integrates 2 fibre optic GbE LAN ports, which will enable you to get a direct connexion to a fibre backbone.


At TinyGreenPC, we help customers with their project, from the evaluation to the deployment. If you have questions about fibre optic installations, contact our team.

Read More:
Is Fibre Optic Good For Network Speed Only?

fibre optic cables