光学纤维材料既可用无机玻璃也可用塑料来制造。玻璃纤维有最低的光损耗(每公里小于5分贝)和最宽的频带(400兆赫以上),但是价格昂贵。塑料纤维虽然价格低廉,但其光损耗大,每公里约为100分贝到200分贝,带宽几十兆赫。用来传递光信息的通讯光缆有多束纤维,也有单束纤维,近年来有朝着单束纤维方向发展的趋势。多束 Optical fiber materials can be made of inorganic glass or plastic. Fiberglass has the lowest light loss (less than 5 dB per kilometer) and the widest frequency band (over 400 MHz), but it is expensive. Although plastic fiber is inexpensive, its optical loss is high, about 100 decibels to 200 decibels per kilometer, with tens of megahertz of bandwidth. The communication cables used to transmit optical information have many bundles of fibers and also have a single bundle of fibers. In recent years, there has been a tendency toward single bundles of fibers. Multi-beam