Eli5: how can a single data cable supply so many homes with different data at once, like for internet connections? Isn’t everything basically just 0s and 1s? If that’s the case how is it being organized and sent to the right place?

Question

Thanks for the answers! My biggest takeaway is about how bits work using different frequencies, and how fiber optics can use different colors to help organize data

In: Technology

Answer 1

Think about how a single freeway supports many travelers, all traveling in parallel lines of cars. A one-lane offramp also supports many travelers, just not as many, in a single line of cars. Each car has its own destination, even if they share a freeway or off-ramp.

There are many ways that internet is distributed to homes, but all of them use a mix of parallel lanes and single lanes. They are usually fast enough that an individual user doesn’t notice that they are sharing the road with lots of other drivers.