Fiber Transceivers – Page 100

Ruggedized Fiber Optic Cables for Harsh Environment

As a perfect choice for today’s telecommunication which requires a larger bandwidth, fiber optic cables have been widely put into use and get more popularity. However, when optical cables are increasingly used in different applications with diverse environments, for example, from indoor to tough environments, new and demanding requirements also have been put forward for them. Before deployment, several considerations may occur. For instance, can they resist the erosion of oil or chemicals? Can they still work normally in changeable weather? Do they have rodent-resistant ability? The answer of all the questions is yes. Today’s fiber optic cables possess various abilities to meet different requirements. Here is a brief introduction several ruggedized fiber optic cables that can work in different harsh environments, providing more conveniences and extra protection for network systems.

Armored Fiber Optic Cable
Armored fiber optic cable is one of the most commonly used cables to offer protection for fibers. Generally, armored fiber optic cable contains a helical stainless steel tap over a buffered fiber surrounded by a layer of aramid and stainless steel mesh with an outer jacket. With this unique construction, it can withstand the toughest environments—high temperatures, high pressures, and harsh vibrations as well as animals rodent and moisture. In a word, with the protection of flexible and durable steel tube, armored fiber patch cable will ensure the excellent operation of networks.

IP67 Waterproof Fiber Optic Cable
IP67 waterproof fiber optic cable is another kind of ruggedized cables used for outdoor applications. They are with strong PU jacket and stainless steel armor inside for future protection. “IP” in this term is a type of protection rating defined by International Standard IEC 60529. The number “6” and “7” mean this kind of cable possesses a good ability to resist dust and water. According to the connector types, the IP67 waterproof fiber optic cables have several types including IP67 MTP/MPO fiber cables, IP67 LC waterproof fiber cable and so on. IP67 waterproof fiber optic cables will not get damage even stepped, and are anti-rodents and suitable for use in harsh environment like communication towers and CATV (Community Antenna Television), providing protection for your networks. Here is a picture of IP67 LC component details.

Military Grade Fiber Optic Cable
Military grade fiber optic cable is the last type of ruggedized fiber cable to be introduced. They are manufactured with specialized military tactical fiber cable that has excellent impact and crush resistance characteristics, which comply with military requirements. Generally, they have an outdoor-rated polyurethane jacket that resists UV radiation, cuts, abrasions and chemicals, which is an ideal choice for military vehicles and field deployed communications equipment.

Guide To Fiber Optic Polishing

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Optical fibers require end-surface treatment for proper light propagation and that includes polishing their ends. Polishing is essential for almost all glass-based fibers with cladding diameters larger than 200 microns. Furthermore, all fiber connectors require polishing. The process of fiber optic polishing can occur in the field or in a technical lab, it employs a range of tools and products used to create precision fits and finishes in the delicate glass ends.

There is typical fiber polishing machine for fiber optic polishing. Fiber Optic Polishing Machines are used to polish the end faces of fiber optic products (cables, connectors, adapters, etc.) in order to minimize signal losses due to scattering. Polishing machines can increase productivity by providing rapid polishing of many different connector styles.

When selecting a fiber polishing machine, there are several features to consider, including adjustable pressure, changeable holders, a timer, and the ability to request custom specifications. Most polishing machines do not offer the flexibility of speed adjustment. This is partially due to the fact that most users only need to handle one type of ferrule material such as zirconia. A slight speed variation does not have significant impact on connector polish result. However, a versatile polisher should have the capability to change speed according the ferrule and polishing film material.

The polishing job typically involves fiber optic fusion splicer, among other cable crimping tools and connectors are needed. It also requires 99% isopropyl alcohol, polishing (lapping) film and pad, a polishing puck, and epoxy or adhesive. Some technicians also find needle, syringe, and piano wire useful.

Several Different Polish Options On Fiber Connectors

The different polish of the fiber optic connector ferrules result in different performance of them, mainly on the back reflection (return loss). Generally, PC type is required at least 40dB return loss or higher, UPC is 50dB or higher, APC is 60dB or higher. (As we know, the higher the return loss, the better the performance). Insertion loss of them all should be less than at least 0.3dB, the lower the insertion loss the better the performance.

Things You Need To Mind During Fiber Optic Polishing

It is important not to dwell on any polishing film longer than necessary. Too much polishing can result in undesirable ferrule length, unnecessary polish film wear, and degraded polish finish due to particle accumulation. Make proper adjustments to the recommended polishing time in each step in case they are less than ideal.

Eye protection is always necessary to protect against powerful industrial lasers used in long-distance single-mode networks. Supporting tools may include a visual fault locater to troubleshoot fiber faults and breaks. A fiber-optic inspection microscope permits precision analysis of hair-fine fibers. Additionally, technicians rely upon jacket strippers, cutters, cable slitters, and fusion splicers.

Things You Should Know about Fiber Optic Connector Polishing

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Optical fiber is utilized for high-speed and error-free data transmission across connector assemblies. So the connector end faces need to be polished to optimize performance. And also the connectors must follow acceptance criteria related to insertion and back reflection loss as well as end-face geometry specifications. This article will talk about the fiber optic connectors polishing.

Polishing Process
Early physical contact connectors required spherical forming of their flat end faces as part of the polishing procedure. It involved a four-step process: epoxy removal, ferrule forming, and preliminary and final polishing. These steps utilized aggressive materials for epoxy removal and ferrule forming, generally accomplished with diamond polishing films. Now the polishing process has developed into a sequence of epoxy removal, followed by rough, intermediate and final polishing cycles because almost all connectors are manufactured with a pre-radiused end face. One goal is to avoid excessive disruption of the spherical surface,

while still producing a good mating surface.

Polishing Specifications
Polishing specifications for fiber connectors fall into two categories related to performance and end-face geometry. Back reflection and insertion loss specifications are the most critical measures of polished end functionality. The insertion loss is the amount of optical power lost at the interface between the connectors caused by fiber misalignment, separation between connections (the air gap) and the finish quality of each connector end. The current standard loss specification is less than 0.5 dB, but less than 0.3 dB is increasingly specified. Back reflection is the light reflected back through the fiber toward the source. High back reflection can translate to signal distortion and, therefore, bit errors in systems with high data transfer rates.

Polishing Material
Today several types of connectorized fibers are available, the most common of which are 2.5 mm, 1.25 mm and multifiber. Connector end faces must first be air-polished to ensure a proper mating surface. This will be followed by a sequence of polishing steps depending on the type of connector, the back reflection and the insertion loss specifications. Regardless of the connector type, most polishing sequences begin with aggressive materials, including silicon carbide to remove epoxy and diamond lapping films for beginning and intermediate polishing. These remove both surrounding material and fiber at the same rate. But the last polishing step needs a less aggressive material to attack only the fiber, such as silicon dioxide. Using a material for final polishing that is too aggressive could result in excessive undercut. The wrong final-polish material can cause excessive protrusion, leading to fiber chipping and cracking during the connector mating process.

Impact Factor
Issues to be examined include the polishing films used, the type of epoxy and lubrication. Films are the most significant impact because the gradations and quality vary from supplier to supplier. End users should pay attention on selecting film type. Excessively aggressive films can destroy a 125-μm fiber and the end-face radius. Epoxy removal is also essential to contamination-free polishing. Some types of epoxies can be removed more easily with specific grades of silicon-carbide polishing films. The films to use in this step depend on the size of the epoxy bead mounted on the connector end face and the epoxy type. Epoxies have different varieties. Some will be tacky, some firm. In all, a contamination-free environment is essential to optimizing connector polishing.

Polishing may be an old art form, but for the immediate future, it’s here to stay. Undoubtedly inspection criteria will increase. Polishing procedures will be driven to change, and new connector style will also make us continuously strive to reinvent our approach to polishing. Fiberstore has various products about fiber optic polishing. For more details, please visit fiber-mart.COM.

Four Questions You May Ask About Fiber Optic Connector Cleaning

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Fiber optic connectors, as one of important linking components, can be found everywhere in fiber optic networks. With fiber optic connectors, you can easily add, drop, move and change the networks. And it’s also well known that a clean and reliable optical connector can provide high performance fiber infrastructure and extend the life of network. Then how much do you know about fiber optic connectors cleaning? Today, these questions may help you know more about it.

Why Fiber Optic Connector Should Be Cleaned?
Cleaning consideration is a crucial issue in fiber optic cable technology today. If not cleaned properly, the ferrule in connectors is easy to be damaged when connecting, which can result in high costs. What’s more, it’s known to us that the fiber ferrules in the connectors make physical contact with another within the connectors alignment sleeve. Any contamination or dirt on one of the ferrules can easily be transferred to the mating ferrule, which can cause physical damage to the fiber’s end-face and further lead to information transmission failures. Hence, fiber optic connectors should be cleaned carefully.

How to Clean Fiber Optic Connectors?

Generally, there are two ways to clean fiber optic connectors. One is dry cleaning, and another is wet cleaning. Following is a brief introduction.

Usually, dry cleaning is to use a reel-based cassette cleaner to wipe the connector end-face against a dry cleaning cloth in one direction. For APC (angled physical contact) polished connectors, it’s essential to ensure the end-face surface mates with the cleaning cloth. Generally, dry cleaning can remove airborne contamination.

As for wet cleaning, first wipe the end-face against the wet area and then onto a dry area to clean potential residue from the end-face. Wet cleaning is more aggressive than dry cleaning, and can remove both airborne contamination and light oil residue.

What Types of Fiber Optic Cleaners Are There?
With more and more fiber optic components widely used, fiber optic cleaning is required for an optimum connection between both active fiber equipment and passive fiber equipment. Without cleaning, your network performance and reliability can be influenced. Here recommends two common types of fiber optic cleaners.

One-Push Cleaner
One-push cleaner is designed to clean male connectors, female bulkhead adapters, fiber patch cables and test equipment. It cleans the ferrule end-face by removing dust, oil and other contamination without scratching the end-face. FS provides several kinds of this cleaners such as one-push cleaner for LC/MU 1.25mm ferrules, one-push cleaner for SC/ST/FC/LSH 2.5mm ferrules, one-push cleaner for MTP/MPO connector and so on.

How to Clean Fiber Optic Connectors?
Generally, there are two ways to clean fiber optic connectors. One is dry cleaning, and another is wet cleaning. Following is a brief introduction.

What Types of Fiber Optic Cleaners Are There?

With more and more fiber optic components widely used, fiber optic cleaning is required for an optimum connection between both active fiber equipment and passive fiber equipment. Without cleaning, your network performance and reliability can be influenced. Here recommends two common types of fiber optic cleaners.

What Should Be Noticed When Cleaning Fiber Optic Connectors?
There are various ways to clean fiber optic connectors. But we still should be careful when cleaning fiber optic connectors because they are easily damaged. Following are some helpful notes that should be given attention to when cleaning connectors.

Do not forget to inspect the fiber optic connector, component, or bulkhead before starting cleaning.

Do not allow the end of the fiber optic connectors to contact with any surface including fingers.

Do not use alcohol or wet cleaning if no residue left on the end-face. It can do harm to the equipment.

Do not push it with heavy pressure. Use the fiber optic cleaner correctly by inserting it at the correct angle and clean connectors carefully.
Do not forget to reinspect the connectors when cleaning has been finished.

How to Realize Single Fiber Connection in WDM System?

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As we all know, fiber optical networking has two transmission ways: dual fiber transmission and single fiber transmission. The difference between them is that the former one requires two fibers—one is for transmitting and the other is for receiving, while the latter only uses one fiber for both transmitting and receiving. Single fiber transmission emergence reduces network deployment cost, especially in WDM systems. This blog intends to introduce how to achieve single fiber connections in CWDM and DWDM networks.

Understanding Single Fiber Transmission
Single fiber transmission, also called bidirectional (BiDi) transmission, sends data in both directions with one strand fiber. For enterprise networks or telecom networks providers who are with limited budgets and fiber capacity, the single fiber transmission is no doubt an ideal choice.

In addition, single fiber transmission is popular in many places.

Point to Point, Ring or linear Add and Drop, where installing new fiber is difficult or expensive
Enable segmentation of the enterprise traffic over 2 different fibers rather than using the same fiber for both segments
Increase reliability to an existing dual fiber solution by using one fiber for working and one for protecting.

Single Fiber Solution in CWDM Systems
CWDM technology enables multiple channels (wavelengths) to be transmitted over the same fiber cabling and is able to provide a capacity boost in metro and access networks. Each channel carries data independently from each other, which allows network providers to transport different data rates and protocols (T1, T3, Ethernet, Serial, etc) for different customers or applications. Then how to achieve single fiber transmission in CWDM networks?

Here is an example of single fiber solution in CWDM system.

8-ch-single-fiber-cwdm-mux-demux

The above picture shows how different CWDM wavelengths are transmitted in a single fiber CWDM link. In this link, two 8CH CWDM Mux/Demuxs are required to transmit sixteen different wavelengths. At site A, there is a single fiber 8CH CWDM Mux/Demux using eight wavelengths for transmitting and the other different eight wavelengths for receiving. At site B, another 8CH single fiber CWDM Mux/Demux is deployed. But the wavelengths for TX and RX are reversed. And one single fiber connects the two CWDM Mux/Demux.

Notes: the use of transceivers connected with the CWDM Mux/Demux should be based on the wavelength of the TX side.

Single Fiber Solution in DWDM Systems
DWDM is an optical multiplexing technology to increase bandwidth over existing fiber optic networks, especially in long haul transmissions. And it can support more channels and higher traffic services such as 40G, 100G of LAN/WAN. Since the cost of DWDM components is high, the single fiber transmission is necessary.

DWDM single fiber transmission can be achieved with the use of single fiber DWDM Mux/Demux. As the following picture shows.

DWDM single fiber solution

The picture shows a single fiber 8CH DWDM Mux/Demux with expansion port used for single fiber transmission. Similar to the single fiber CWDM Mux/Demux above, this DWDM Mux/Demux also uses eight wavelengths for transmitting and another eight wavelengths for receiving. In general, the DWDM Mux/Demux should be used in pairs in single fiber bi-directional transmission, and the Mux/Demux port for specific channel must be reversed. Besides, more channels can be added into the links with the expansion port.

This 8CH DWDM Mux/Demux single fiber solution allows extremely high utilizing of a single fiber strand to pass up to 16 wavelengths, optimizing the use of fiber optic cables. And in long distance transmission, optical amplifier also can be utilized.

Understanding WDM MUX/DEMUX Ports and Its Application

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Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is a commonly used technology in optical communications. It combines multiple wavelengths to transmit signals on a single fiber. To realize this process, CWDM and DWDM mux/demux are the essential part. As we all know, there are several different ports on the WDM mux and demux. This article will give a clear explanation to these ports and their applications in WDM network.

Overview of Different Ports on WDM MUX/DEMUX
Line Port
Line port, sometimes also called as common port, is the one of the must-have ports on CWDM and DWDM Mux/Demux. The outside fibers are connected to the Mux/Demux unit through this port, and they are often marked as Tx and Rx. All the WDM channels are multiplexed and demultiplexed over this port.

Channel Port
Like the line port, channel ports are another must-have ports. They transmit and receive signals on specific WDM wavelengths. CWDM Mux/Demux supports up to 18 channels from 1270nm to 1610nm with a channel space of 20nm. While DWDM Mux/Demux uses wavelengths from 1470nm to 1625nm usually with channel space of 0.8nm (100GHz) or 0.4nm (50GHz). Services or circuits can be added in any order to the Mux/Demux unit.

40ch dwdm mux demux

Monitor Port
Monitor port on CWDM and DWDM Mux/Demux offers a way to test the dB level of the signal without service interruption, which enable users the ability to monitor and troubleshoot networks. If the Mux/Demux is a sing-fiber unit, the monitor port also should be a simplex one, and vice verse.

Expansion Port
Expansion port on WDM Mux/Demux is used to add or expand more wavelengths or channels to the network. By using this port, network managers can increase the network capacity easily by connecting the expansion port with the line port of another Mux/Demux supporting different wavelengths. However, not every WDM Mux/Demux has an expansion port.

dwdm mux demux

1310nm and 1550nm Port
1310nm and 1550nm are one of WDM wavelengths. Many optical transceivers, especially the CWDM and DWDM SFP/SFP+ transceiver, support long runs transmission over these two wavelengths. By connecting with the same wavelength optical transceivers, these two ports can be used to add 1310nm or 1550nm wavelengths into existing WDM networks.

Application Cases of Different Ports on WDM MUX/DEMUX
Although there are several different ports on WDM Mux/Demux, not all of them are used at the same time. Here are some examples of these functioning ports in different connections.

Example One: Using 8 Channels CWDM Mux/Demux with Monitor Port
cwdm mux demux with monitor port

This example is a typical point-to-point network where two switches/routers are connected over CWDM wavelength 1511nm. The CWDM Mux/Demux used has a monitor port and 1310nm port, but the 1310nm does not put into use. In addition, an optical power meter is used to monitor the power on fibers connecting the site A and B.

Example Two: Achieve 500Gbps at Existing Fiber Network with 1310nm Port

dwdm mux with 1310nm port

In this example, two 40 channels DWDM Mux/Demux with monitor port and 1310nm port are used to achieve total 500Gbps services. How to achieve this? First, plug a 1310nm 40G or 100G fiber optical transceiver into the terminal equipment, then use the patch cable to connect it to the existing DWDM network via the 1310nm port on the DWDM Mux/Demux. Since the 1310nm port is combined into a 40 channels DWDM Mux, then this set-up allows the transport of up to 40x10Gbps plus 100Gbpx over one fiber pair, which is total 500Gbps. If use 1550nm port, then the transceiver should be available on the wavelength of 1550nm.

cwdm mux with expansion port

The connection in this example is similar to the last one. The difference is that this connection is achieved with expansion port not 1310nm port. On the left side in the cases, a 8 channels CWDM Mux/Demux and a 4 channels CWDM Mux/Demux are stacked via the expansion port on the latter Mux/Demux. And the two 4 channels CWDM Mux/Demux are combined with the line port. If there is a need, more Mux/Demux modules can be added to increase the wavelengths and expand network capacity.

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