Senko Advanced Components has acquired CudoForm, a company that designs and manufactures high-precision micro-optic components with applications in data communications, consumer photonics, and biosafety. CudoForm’s CEO says the combined organization will ‘provide novel solutions that meet the demanding requirements of this tight-spaced packaging and difficult-to-integrate photonics ecosystem.
The newly released Passive Optical Network (PON) Reference Guide from AFL contains: A PON glossary Splitter specifications Information PON standards Applications and solutions information for FTTx fiber installation, verification, activation and troubleshooting.
Upon completion of a short form, the handy reference poster is now available for download in a complimentary 24 x 36 inch hard copy, sized to hang on any wall.
The Ethernet Alliance (EA) has announced the election of its 2022 officers slate and board of directors. Cisco’s Peter Jones and Amphenol’s Chris Lyon return to their respective seats as board chair and president.
Schneider Electric is updating its vendor-agnostic and CPD-accredited digital education platform, Schneider Electric University. Previously known as the APC Data Center University, the CPD-accredited platform has evolved to deliver more than one million courses to over 650,000 users globally. Available in 14 languages and accessible globally for free online, the company contends its dedicated professional development platform directly addresses the data center sector skills gap, helping industry stakeholders to advance their skills and stay up to date with the latest technology, as well as sustainability and energy efficiency initiatives affecting the sector.
AFL, an international manufacturer of fiber optic cable, equipment and accessories, was awarded six new patents over the past quarter for technology and developments in optical connectivity, conductor accessories, specialty cables and test equipment.
The first patent is for “Multiple Cable Size Fiber Optic Transition Assemblies.” The design allows the ability to create furcated AFL TRIDENT® drops, from one to four fibers. Additionally, a patent was received for a “Rack Routing Guide.” This invention allows installers to route fibers exiting the front of panels into a system that takes up the slack when any tray inside the panel is opening.
Two patents were received in AFL’s conductor accessories division. The first patent is for “Cable Support Devices and Assemblies.” This design supports AFL’s FTTx solution, notably the end user’s focus on minimizing pole penetrations when attaching hardware. The multi-drop thimble eye allows up to four drops to be dead ended at a pole using a single bolt as an attachment.
The second patent for conductor accessories is “Galloping Motion Disruptors and Methods for Reducing Conductor Galloping.” The Galloping Motion Disruptor (GMD) changes the cross-sectional profile of a transmission conductor, reducing the wind energy effect that causes large movement of the conductor, which could lead to damage. This patented design allows easier installation and less shipping costs.
The next patent is for “Downhole Strain Sensing Cables.” This cable is designed for installation in oil and gas downhole applications that detect ground movement or strain within the well to assist in efficient well utilization and management.
Lastly, the Test & Inspection division received a patent for “Optical Testing Devices and Related Methods.” The patent allows an OTDR to automatically initiate a test when the OTDR test jumper is connected to a network. After the test jumper has been disconnected from the network, from sensing the unloaded signal, the OTDR will automatically start another test when the test jumper is reconnected to a network.
The end of June 2022 marks Valerie Maguire’s retirement from the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, and the commencement of a time when individuals in other fields, with other interests, will benefit from her talents and commitment to a job well done. ICT industry professionals worldwide have benefited from Valerie’s talents and commitment for decades—either through her work directly with customers of The Siemon Company or through her individual expert contributions to the development of cabling and networking industry standards.
As gas prices soar and climate change concerns become more urgent, Americans are increasingly considering electric vehicles. Much of the focus has been directed at electric grid capacity to accommodate future EV charging on a large scale, said Kevin Morgan, chairman of the Fiber Broadband Association and chief marketing officer of Clearfield, who has been looking beyond that short-term worry to the bigger picture of connectivity. His solution, discussed in a new thought piece from Clearfield, is simple: fiber. “Fiber optic line is being laid now,” as part of the deployment of broadband infrastructure funded by the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act, Morgan said. “Why not make a path [for fiber] to connect EV charging stations?”
What if you could double the bandwidth of your outside plant fiber optic network easily, or even multiply the bandwidth by 10, 20 or more? In high-speed links, it’s a common practice and accomplished using wavelength division multiplexing (WDM).
Nokia’s research arm, Nokia Bell Labs, presented what the company billed as the first 100Gb/second broadband technology in the U.S. at last month’s Fiber Connect 2022 (June 12-15) conference in Nashville, Tenn.
The technology prototype presented delivers 100Gb/s downstream speeds on a single PON wavelength, avoiding the need to combine multiple wavelengths carrying lower speeds, noted the company.
Overall compensation for ICT professionals was down this past year, in no small part because the most-experienced workers are leaving the workforce. Three factors that depressed compensation in 2021: 1) inflation was considered transitory until late 2021 and did not show up in last year’s paychecks; 2) overtime and bonus pay reduced sharply from 2020; and 3) more-experienced and higher-paid workers left the workforce, driving down the mean compensation among the workforce as a whole. On the bright side, women represented 9% of participants, which is the highest percentage in the survey’s four years and up from 4% a year ago.
