Tag: Transmitter

How does fiber optic help oil production companies?

Optical fiber sensor technology has been used in oil and gas companies since 1990 for monitoring temperature and pressure in order to improve safety and raise production. Also, for many years companies have been collecting big quantities of data in order to know what lies behind the surface and how to bring it out.
But what has been the role of optical fiber during the current oil crisis?
During the past months, oil prices have dropped more than 70% since June 2014, from over 100$ per barrel to under 30$ in the last week. The plunge in the oil prices is caused by the rise in the barrels production, USA has doubled its domestic production, Saudi oil is competing in Asian markets and Canada and Iraq exports are also rising, even Russians keep pumping despite the country economic crisis.
The main reason for the rise in production has been the increase in fracking operations, which have been the most affected from the plunge in oil prices, since they have dropped below production prices. At least 250,000 oil workers have lost their job and it is estimated half of the industry could disappear.
Oil companies deal with large quantities of data in order to make technical decisions, using sensors that collect and transmit data, along with new analytic tools and advanced storage capabilities that allows producers to gather detailed data in real time, at lower costs and from areas that were inaccessible in the past, which makes it possible to improve plant’s work.
And as those big quantities of data need to be transmitted in real time, they require high-quality networks that can just be deployed with optical fiber.
As engineer Glenn R. McColpin wrote in the American Oil and Gas Reporter, using fiber optic distributing sensing provides operators the ability to see and hear what’s happening below the surface, making it possible to track fluid and proppant in real time as they move through the well.
According to the paper Big Data analytics in oil and gas fiber optic improves the way companies manage the process of drilling and connecting a well because it allows to transmit microseismic 3D imaging with reduced lag time, which improves delivery performance and production from 6% to 8%.
According the 2015 Photonic Sensor Consortium Market Survey Report published by Information Gatekeepers and Light Wave Ventures, fiber optic sensor market has grown for less than $200 million in 2006 to $600 million nowadays and it is expected that the industry grows to $1.5 billion in 2018, with 70% of that entry coming from oil and gas companies.

Difference bewteen Transceiver and Transmitter

A transmitter can either be a separate piece of electronic equipment or an integrated circuit (IC) within another electronic device. A transmitter generates a radio frequency current applied to the antenna, which in turn radiates radio waves for communication, radar and navigational purposes. The information that is provided to the transmitter is in the form of an electronic signal. This includes audio from a microphone, video from a TV camera, or a digital signal for wireless networking devices. The electronics for a transmitter are simple. They convert an incoming pulse (voltage) into a precise current pulse to drive the source. Different transmitter has different functions. Take the optical transmitter as an example, it consists of the following components: optical source, electrical pulse generator and optical modulator. And the role of it is to convert the electrical signal into optical form, and launch the resulting optical signal into the optical fiber.
A transceiver is a device made up of both a receiver and transmitter (the name “transceiver” is actually short for transmitter-receiver) and these two gadgets are in a single module. When no circuitry is common between transmit and receive functions, the device is a transmitter-receiver.
Transceivers can be found in radio technology, telephony as well as Ethernet in which transceivers are called Medium Attachment Units (MAUs) in IEEE 802.3 documents and were widely used in 10BASE2 and 10BASE5 Ethernet networks. Fiber-optic gigabit, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, 40 Gigabit Ethernet, and 100 Gigabit Ethernet utilize transceivers known as GBIC, SFP, SFP+, QSFP, XFP, XAUI, CXP, and CFP, among which Cisco SFP is the most popular one. In addition, 1000BASE-T SFP, 10GBASE-T SFP+ and 1000BASE-T copper SFP we mentioned before are all transceivers.
Transceiver vs Transmitter
From the above information, we can know that the transmitter can only be used to transmit signals, while the transceiver can both transmit and receive signals. However, many view transceivers as a compromise in terms of performance, functionality, portability and flexibility and if they had any practical value it would be in mobile and portable applications. Transceivers sacrificed some features and performance to gain the smaller size/weight and cost.
As for the portability, a transceiver just needs the space of one module, but functions as two different modules. It is easy to be taken on the go. Separate transmitter is not as convenient in some circumstances as it is probably heavier, and takes up more room. But they are advantageous because each could benefit from its own design, without compromising in areas such as I-F frequency choice, conversion frequencies, and audio stages and they are easier to build and work on.
As far as the price is concerned, in most cases, a separate transmitter consumes more power. And the price of a single transceiver is much lower than that of a transmitter plus a receiver.Using a common frequency generation/tuning scheme, power supply and other components, it costs less to manufacture a transceiver than a separate transmitter and receiver.As to how to choose from them, the answer depends on your application.
Conclusion
You may find many transmitters in you life, like the TV remote control. Although transceiver is not commonly noticed around you, it is actually commonly applied to many places. We can say that it is invisible but versatile. I sincerely hope that this article will help you understand the difference: transceiver vs transmitter, only then, can you use them in the right way.