First, installing a fiber requires special equipment that polishes the ends to allow light to pass through. Third, repairing a broken fiber is difficult because special equipment is needed to join two fibers so that light can pass through the joint. The class of graphics and visualization applications is both data and computer intensive. In order to extend the capabilities of these applications to a distributed mode both small latency and gigabit rates will be required. This capability is critical in order to realize full telemedicine support, especially to remote rural sites where specialists may not be otherwise available.
Video typically requires high bandwidth, low latency and reasonable loss rates.
When the number of such connections is large, the aggregate bandwidth is high and guaranteeing the desired QoS levels for each virtual meting connection becomes challenging. Conventionally, a pulse of light indicates one bit and the absence of light indicates a zero bit. The transmission medium is an ultra thin glass fiber. The detector generates an electrical pulse when light falls on it. When the path between the source and the destination remains entirely optical from end to end, such paths are called light paths.