Category: Fiber Optic Cables

All kinds of fiber optic cables or fiber jumpers, such as FTTH drop cable, MTP/MPO fiber cabling, Ultra HD fiber cabling, fiber pigtails, etc.

Whether OM5 fiber optics is the Next Multimode Standard?

OM5 Multimode fiber optic has arrived, but, what is OM5 Fiber? OM5, previously known as wide band multimode fiber or WB MMF.
The IEC/ISO standards bodies have recently agreed that WBMMF (Wide Band Multimode Fiber) is the nomenclature of OM5. This specifically relates to 50/125 laser-optimized multimode fiber or LOMFF that has been developed for use within the 850nm to 950nm range for either single or multi-wavelength transmission.
The effective modal bandwidth for OM5 fiber has been specified at the lower and upper wavelengths of 4700 MHz.km at 850nm and 2470 MHz.km at 953nm respectively.
This decision was made in October 2016 by the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC 1) Subcommittee 25 (SC 25) Interconnection of Information Technology Equipment.
The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) adopted the term OM5 in certain standards it produces. In June 2016, TIA’s TR-42.12 Optical Fibers and Cables Subcommittee approved the ANSI/TIA-492AAAE standard, which specifically relates to WBMMF.
IMPORTANT ASPECTS ABOUT OM5 FIBER OPTICS STANDARD:
1. OM5 is designed to support at least four low-cost wavelengths in the 850-950 nm range, enabling optimal support of emerging Shortwave Wavelength Division Multiplexing (SWDM) applications that reduce parallel fiber count by at least a factor of four to allow continued use of just two fibers (rather than eight) for transmitting 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s and reduced fiber counts for higher speeds.
2. OM5 cabling supports all legacy applications at least as well as OM4, and is fully compatible with OM3 and OM4 cabling.
3. The OM5 optical and mechanical attributes are compliant with OM4 50/125 μm specifications and include the additional specifications of effective modal bandwidth and attenuation at 953 nm. WB MMF is intended for operation using vertical-cavity-surface-emitting-laser (VCSEL) transceivers across the 846 to 953 nm wavelength range.
4. TIA has specified lime green as the official cable jacket color for OM5.
5. OM5 EMB values are specified at both 850 and 953 nm.
6. There are no transmission standards that specify OM5. Transmission standards typically include only one multimode fiber variant that is selected based on economic, commercial, and technical criteria. Parallel transmission is the default multimode fiber variant for data rates ≥ 40G.
Wideband uses wavelengths to increase each fiber’s capacity by at least a factor of four, which allows at least a fourfold data-rate increase Instead of using four separate fibers to transmit four optical signals, the signals can be sent down one fiber over four separate operating windows.
In a OM5 multimode fiber link, data rate and maximum reach are limited by:
– Fiber cable attenuation (reduced signal strength) and connection loss.
– Chromatic dispersion in the fiber (spreading out of light pulses over time due to different wavelengths traveling at different speeds).
– Modal bandwidth of the fiber.
OM5 is especially life-changing for data centers where space is extremely important. Imagine being able to send the same data that would usually take 32 fiber cores – down just 8 cores.
The signals are spaced 30nm apart effectively making each transmission signal individual. Importantly, Signals can get from A to B with relatively low cross-talk. This means that you will be able to send 4 signals down 1 core at the wavelengths 850nm, 880nm, 910nm and 940nm.
The fiber is also 50 micron, which means all existing OM4 installations can stay in place and you can through patch directly to the new OM5 cable. However, the entire fiber length will have the characteristics of OM4.
It is expected that all new multimode installations will now be OM5. This wideband backbone cable will ensure all future network demands will be easier to meet!

differences between Loose tube fiber and tight buffered

Tight buffered and loose tube fiber are the two styles of constructions Fiber optic cables offered. Between them, there are several common denominators, like the fact that both have in their interior a strengthening member of sorts that can be made of stainless steel in the form of wire strands, aramid yarn or gel-filled sleeves.
Even though they might have similarities of construction between them, they are each designed for specific environments.
Loose Tube Fiber
This type of cable is designed for the outdoors. Cables that are on the outside are continuously stressed by a plurality of environmental conditions that could affect their integrity and performance.
Temperature changes, ice and wind loading, thermal shock, moisture, and humidity are some of the environmental conditions to which a cable can be subject. It’s no wonder it must be resistant to the very core,  in order to preserve and protect the optical properties of the fibers within.
The fiber core, coating, and cladding are all very well protected by being enclosed in semi-flexible tubes that function as protective sleeves.
These cables tend to hold several optical fibers at a time, loosely bundling them up in an outer jacket that encompasses everything inside.
Notice the following:
Loose tube cables con also be found filled with a water-resistant gel that surrounds every fiber it contains.
This gel’s main purpose is to protect the fibers from moisture which makes them the ideal choice if you happen to live in a harsh environment with high humidity where H2O and water condensation can be a major problem.
If drastic temperature changes also affect your environment, loose tube, gel-filled cables will do the trick since they also have the ability to expand and contract when the temperature fluctuates.
If the cable will have to be submerged in water or cover a plurality of bends, then perhaps you might want to consider other options. The strain and pressure from water or recurrent bending just might impel the fibers to protrude from within the get and be left exposed which definitely isn´t good.
These cables differ from loose tube ones in several aspects. For starters, the fiber core isn´t protected by a gel layer nor any sort of sleeve.
Instead,
the core is protected by a two-layer or double coating, consisting the first of plastic and the second of waterproof acrylate.
Moisture is barred from entering the cable and affecting the core thanks to the acrylate coating much like the gel that fills the sleeve of loose-tube cables protects the core from humidity and moisture.
The difference lies in that the acrylate coating never allows the core to be exposed when it’s bent or compressed underwater since it tightly wraps the plastic fiber layer that covers it.
Tight-buffered cables are mostly used for indoor applications and their sturdiness makes them the ideal choice for LAN/WAN connections of moderate length, long indoor runs or even ones that need to be directly buried as well as applications that are under water.
Look,
These cables are a lot easier to install than their loose-tube counterparts since they don’t need any sort of gel (which can be quite messy and a nuisance to clean up) for their installment.
Another perk is that there’s no need for a fan-out kit for splicing or termination. The connectors can be crimped directly to each fiber. Yeah!
Fiber cable termination
Adding a connector to each and every optical fiber in a cable is of what fiber cable termination consists. Without it, the fibers wouldn’t be able to be attached to any other equipment thus defeating their purpose of transmitting data and information.
The most popular solutions in terms of fiber cable termination are breakout kits, pigtails, and splicing.
Fiber optic terminations (where cables end) are made two ways:
Using connectors that marry two fibers creating a temporary joint and/or connect the fiber to a piece of network gear.
Splicing which creates a permanent joint between two fibers.
Whether connecting or splicing a fiber optic cable, either one must have both of the following:
High mechanical strength.
Great optical performance which entails low data loss and minimal reflectance.
Bear in mind that all terminations must be compatible with the equipment to which they will be connected and must also be protected against environmental issues or hazards that are present at the place of installment.
The most common connectors for fiber optic cables are male connectors (also known as plugs) that have a protruding ferrule which holds the fibers and aligns two cables for mating.
A mating adapter is used to concatenate the two connectors that must fit the securing mechanism they use (bayonet, screw-on or snap-in.) If you want to connect the cable directly to active devices like LEDs, VCSELs, and detectors,  the ferrule design is your best bet.
Single-mode and multi-mode fibers each use different connectors and termination procedures.
The easiest to terminate are multimode fibers which are usually done by installing connectors directly on it whereas single-mode terminations are most likely made by splicing a pigtail onto the installed cable instead of terminating the fiber directly as you would usually find on multimode fiber.
Terminations used on single-mode cables demand extreme care while assembling in order to ensure the best performance possible. That’s why they are usually done in an industrial facility with an epoxy that has been heat-cured along with some machine polishing.
When faced with the task of choosing a connector type, take into consideration the following aspects:
Make sure the connector is compatible with the systems that are being used.
Do some research about the entire installation process if you are not familiar with it.
Be sure to investigate the pros and cons of each possible connector type before committing to a specific one.
Breakout Kits
A breakout kit is basically a set of empty jackets that have been designed to offer protection to  tight-buffered strands of fiber from a cable that is fragile. This method of termination requires no splicing nor does it demand the use of a splicebox which is basically a protective enclosure for the cable ends.
When using fiber distribution cable, loose-buffer and/or ribbon cable, this is the most common termination choice because these types of cable contain multiple strands that are designed for it to be permanent.
Pigtails
This is a single, short, usually tight-buffered, optical fiber that boasts having an optical connector previously installed on one end and a length of exposed fiber at the other, which basically means it only has one connector on one end of the cable.
The end of the pigtail is stripped and then fusion spliced to a single fiber of a multi-fiber trunk. The pigtails are then spliced to each fiber in the trunk  which ultimately “breaks out” the multi-fiber cable into the fibers that compose it for connection to the end equipment.
Pigtails can have either male or female connectors. Male connectors can be directly plugged into an optical transceiver whilst female connectors can be mounted bay two and two in a patch panel. If in pairs doesn’t work for you, they can also be mounted in single-fiber solutions that offer the possibility of connecting them to endpoints or fiber runs that use patch fibers.
Splicing
Splicing two fiber optic cables together offers a permanent or semi-permanent connection between them. There does exist fiber optic splicing solutions that can be disconnected but this connecting method was not intended for connecting/disconnecting on a regular basis.
Fiber optic splicing is used when a more permanent solution is needed to fix a connection problem.  For example, if you need to run a 10km length cable. Most fiber optic cables are made in maximum lengths of 5km so you´ll probably need to splice to cables together in order to achieve the desired run. In such cases, connectors are not an option.
There are two ways fiber optic splicing can be done:
Mechanical splices: this kind of splicing is normally used when a quick solution is needed.
You just need to strip back the protective layer that surrounds the fiber optic cable, clean it making sure there are no pieces of plastic or dust and the cut the fiber with precision and a firm hand, making sure that the angle of the cut has the same angle regarding the axis of the fiber. Something to bear in mind: this type of slicing can cause up to a 10% light loss.

Difference between singlemode and multimode fiber

Optic fiber bases its velocity on the speed at which these beams of light travel from one point to another. There are two types of fiber cables that are commonly used it, singlemode and multimode. Both have a conduit in the center called its core through which the light travels in a straight line or by bouncing off the walls made of cladding, an optical material that helps bounce the light.
Speed is the premise of optical fiber and it has revolutionized the market and changed the way that we connect because of it. Reaching up to 100 Gbps, data transmission is near instantaneous thanks to the beams of light that travel throughout the fiber.
Singlemode patch cords: It has the peculiarity that inside of its core, data travels without bouncing off of its walls which allows and maintains higher transfer speeds. The data transfers linearly which means that not too many beams of light can travel at once through the tiny proportions of this conduit. This type of fiber is used to cover great distances and it’s constructed with cores that can measure 9 microns with a cladding of 125 microns.
There are two types of singlemode cables:
OS1 Singlemode cable can be use in indoors situations, where the distance it can be deploy is maximum 2,000 meters. This allows up to 1 to 10 gibabit in Ethernet.
OS2 Singlemode are designed for all uses, making it more than suitable to outdoor purposes. The distance it can be deploy variate between 5,000 metres to 10,000 metres. This allows up to 1 to 10 gibabit in Ethernet. OS1 and OS2 are large distance cables due it the poor capacity to bend.
Singlemode is very useful to transmit data over long distances, thus making it perfect for college campus and cable television networks, singlemode fiber is a vital part for broadband networks
Multimode patch cords: This is the “domestic” fiber and in contrast with singlemode fiber, it allows the beams of light to bounce off of the cladding walls resulting in a greater quantity of light beams traveling at once through the core. In contrast with the singlemode, the multimode’s core measures 50 to 62.5 microns, granting more space for data to travel through. The cladding of 125 microns grants the light to bounce and travel through the fiber. Multimode fiber is used for local-area network, build-to-build data centers and to be used it FTTH. Multimode also may reach up to 100Gbps Ethernet.
Checking which cable is most suitable for your projects or needs is very important, and may even signify a better investment. When you are building your network backbone you need to be prepare for a variety of situations, considering factors such as attenuation. For any FTTx structure you will probably need singlemode and multimode, but the selections of the exact type will make the job a “plug-and-play” situation.

How will fiber optics save the world?

Technology is often created to improve our life, making it easier and better, but sometimes the progresses affect our world, which is why telecom department is getting greener and greener replacing old school copper wires with fiber optic technologies.
Fiber optic offers a lot of advantages over copper cables, from faster Internet connection to the fact that fiber networks don’t need to be changed once installed because companies upgrade them by changing the technology that creates the electronic light pulses and not by replacing the fiber cables.
Furthermore, glass fiber optics are being used in so many fields besides telecommunication, because they offer lighting possibilities to medicine, light therapies and the automotive industry.
Now, did you know that fiber optic cables have some environmental benefits?
First of all, fiber optic cable systems waste less energy than coaxial cable systems. Investigations show that coaxial cables consume 3.5 watts to transmit data over 100 meters, while fiber optic systems just use even less than 1 watt to conduct light pulses over 300 meters.
 Less energy means less generated heat, therefore fiber optic cables don’t need cooling systems to spend excess of energy to cool down the data and keep it at an appropriate temperature. This means that less air conditioning tools are needed, saving equipment and floor space.
Saving energy helps reducing CO2 emissions, fiber optic cables release just 7g of carbon dioxide for every Gigabits of data. According to a study made by Ecobilan in 2008, by installing fiber optic technology, in 30 years telecommunications businesses could reduce carbon dioxide emissions in 30 million tons just in Europe and that’s Fibre to the Home Council Europe’s plan.
Another benefit is that fiber-optic communication cables can be installed under oceans, needing fewer resources than underground terrestrial cable systems.
Since 2003, the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) has taken care that electrical and electronic equipment don’t contain more than agreed levels of heavy metals such as Lead, Mercury, Cadmium and Hexavalent Chromium, known for causing several diseases such as anemia or kidney damage and contaminating the environment.
RoSH also looks that the use of Polybrominated Biphenyls (PBB) and Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDE), both Brominated Flame Retardants.
Fiber optic developing companies understand RoSH health and environmental concerns and they work to make fiber-optic systems more and more eco-friendly.
Less copper, more safety
But, how exactly will fiber optic save the world?
Coaxial cables are made of copper. And it is no secret for anybody that this metal’s extraction is highly contaminating and even dangerous.
According to University of Virginia Faculty Web copper mining affects the vegetation, water and biological life near the mining zones, due to the acid mine drainage caused by the oxidation of metal sulfides. Badly affected areas aren’t even able to sustain life. And not to talk about the damage suffered by humans, long exposure to this reddish-orange metal can cause lung cancer and heart diseases.
Also, let’s not forget the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped for more than two months in a gold and copper mine in Copiapó, Chile after the mine caved in. Rescue cost was of 20 million dollars and some of them suffered diseases like Silicosis, pneumonia and dental infections.
Nevertheless, fiber optic is made of a very pure glass and this glass is basically made from Silicon Dioxide, the second most abundant element on Earth after Oxygen. Silicon Dioxide (SiO2) is the principal component of sand and it also can be found in rocks, clay and even water, so planet is no running out of it anytime soon.
The process of extracting Silicon from silica sand consists in removing oxygen from it, by heating a mix of silica and carbon in a temperature higher than 2.000ºC.
Companies taking green action
In July TELUS, a Canadian national telecom company, announced it had installed a 150km fiber optic network in Northern Vancouver Island, allowing schools, hospitals and businesses to have access to faster Internet. They even brought high speed internet to Kwakwaka’wakw communities that didn’t have Internet at all.
After four years of preliminary engineering and environmental reviews, TELUS decided to use specialized equipment that allowed to open narrow but deep trenches where the fiber optics was deployed, avoiding road-side logging saving thousands of trees.
The globally operating telecommunication company Telefonica announced they are planning to completely change the 6.600 copper networks they have in Spain to fiber-optic networks by 2020. They pretend to install super fast broadband in every Spanish city with more than 1000 habitants.
President Obama understood that Internet access is a necessity, so ConnectHome was created, a program that along with communities, private companies like Google and federal government will provide broadband Internet to 275.000 low-income households.
Programs like Fiber To The Home, Building or Neighborhood are being implemented by governments and telecommunications companies in several countries because high-speed Internet is the future and they know the future needs to be eco-friendly.

Faster and Longer Fiber Optics for the future

Electrical engineers have broken key barriers that limit the distance information that can travel in fiber optic cables and still be accurately deciphered by a receiver. Obtained by UC San Diego Web Site.
Photonics researchers at the University of California, San Diego have increased the maximum power — and therefore distance — at which optical signals can be sent through optical fibers. This advance has the potential to increase the data transmission rates for the fiber optic cables that serve as the backbone of the internet, cable, wireless and landline networks. The research is published in the June 26 issue of the journal Science
The new study presents a solution to a long-standing roadblock to increasing data transmission rates in optical fiber: beyond a threshold power level, additional power increases irreparably distort the information travelling in the fiber optic cable.
“Today’s fiber optic systems are a little like quicksand.  With quicksand, the more you struggle, the faster you sink. With fiber optics, after a certain point, the more power you add to the signal, the more distortion you get, in effect preventing a longer reach. Our approach removes this power limit, which in turn extends how far signals can travel in optical fiber without needing a repeater,” said Nikola Alic, a research scientist from the Qualcomm Institute, the corresponding author on the Science paper and a principal of the experimental effort.
In lab experiments, the researchers at UC San Diego successfully deciphered information after it travelled a WOOPING! 12,000 kilometers through fiber optic cables with standard amplifiers and no repeaters, which are electronic regenerators.
The new findings effectively eliminate the need for electronic regenerators placed periodically along the fiber link. These regenerators are effectively supercomputers and must be applied to each channel in the transmission. The electronic regeneration in modern lightwave transmission that carries between 80 to 200 channels also dictates the cost and, more importantly, prevents the construction of a transparent optical network. As a result, eliminating periodic electronic regeneration will drastically change the economy of the network infrastructure, ultimately leading to cheaper and more efficient transmission of information.
The breakthrough in this study relies on wideband “frequency combs” that the researchers developed. The frequency comb described in this paper ensures that the signal distortions — called the “crosstalk” — that arises between bundled streams of information travelling long distances through the optical fiber are predictable, and therefore, reversible at the receiving end of the fiber.
“Crosstalk between communication channels within a fiber optic cable obeys fixed physical laws. It’s not random. We now have a better understanding of the physics of the crosstalk. In this study, we present a method for leveraging the crosstalk to remove the power barrier for optical fiber,” explained Stojan Radic, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC San Diego and the senior author on the Science paper. “Our approach conditions the information before it is even sent, so the receiver is free of crosstalk caused by the Kerr effect.”
The photonics experiments were performed at UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute by researchers from the Photonics Systems Group led by Radic.
Pitch Perfect Data Transmission
The UC San Diego researchers’ approach is akin to a concert master who tunes multiple instruments in an orchestra to the same pitch at the beginning of a concert. In an optical fiber, information is transmitted through multiple communication channels that operate at different frequencies. The electrical engineers used their frequency comb to synchronize the frequency variations of the different streams of optical information, called the “optical carriers” propagating through an optical fiber. This approach compensates in advance for the crosstalk that occurs between the multiple communication channels within the same optical fiber. The frequency comb also ensures that the crosstalk between the communication channels is reversible.
“After increasing the power of the optical signals we sent by 20 fold, we could still restore the original information when we used frequency combs at the outset,” said UC San Diego electrical engineering Ph.D. student Eduardo Temprana, the first author on the paper. The frequency comb ensured that the system did not accumulate the random distortions that make it impossible to reassemble the original content at the receiver.
The laboratory experiments involved setups with both three and five optical channels, which interact with each other within the silica fiber optic cables.  The researchers note that this approach could be used in systems with far more communication channels. Most of today’s fiber optic cables include more than 32 of these channels, which all interact with one another.
In the Science paper, the researchers describe their frequency referencing approach to pre-compensate for nonlinear effects that occur between communication channels within the fiber optic cable. The information is initially pre-distorted in a predictable and reversible way when it is sent through the optical fiber. With the frequency comb, the information can be unscrambled and fully restored at the receiving end of the optical fiber.
“We are pre-empting the distortion effects that will happen in the optical fiber,” said Bill Kuo, a research scientist at the Qualcomm Institute, who was responsible for the comb development in the group.
The same research group published a theoretical paper last year outlining the fact that the experimental results they are now publishing were theoretically possible.

Advantages of optical fiber over copper cables

Since its introduction, optical fiber cables have been known to be the best transmission medium and an innovation that promised to significantly push broadband speeds. And it actually did it.
But there is still a competition between copper and fiber. Both markets are increasing their products and potentially growing. Nevertheless fiber offers a lot of advantages over copper and is quickly replacing it, even in desktop applications.
Greater bandwidth and speed:
Optical fiber provides more bandwidth than copper, reaching speeds from 100 Mbps up to 10 Gbps and beyond. This means fiber can carry more information than copper and with better fidelity. Optical fiber speeds depends on the type of cable, which can be single-mode or multimode.
Longer distances:
When traveling over long distances, optical fiber cables experiences less signal loss than copper cables. Copper cables performance decreases after 9,328ft, while optical fiber installations can go from 984.2 ft to 24.8 miles and have an outstanding performance.
Better security:
It is possible to hack optical fiber, but it is significantly harder than hacking copper networkis. And it is really easy to monitor when a fiber cable is tapped, so you will know if someone tries to break your network security.
Immunity and reliability:
Copper, if not properly installed, produces electromagnetic currents that can cause problems on the network. While optical fiber is immune to electromagnetic interferences, thus they provide reliable data transmission. Fiber is less susceptible to temperature and can be installed underwater, too.
Lighter design:
To reach higher speeds with copper, you need to get a higher grade of cable, which usually are larger and weight more. Optical fiber cables are thin and light, which makes it easier to install because they take up little space.
Costs:
Optical fiber is more expensive than copper in the short run, but its maintaining costs are significantly lower. Fiber requires less hardware installation and lasts longer, which makes it less expensive in the long run.