Author Archives

Liz Goldsmith

FIBER OPTICS IN INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENTS

Industrial environments can be extremely harsh settings when it comes to cabling infrastructure. Operators need to meet the high-speed transmission needs of the latest industrial devices without losing any connectivity through interference from temperature, moisture, dust, and increasing distances between endpoints.
Most chemical plants, oil and gas rigs, and power facilities have installed fiber optic cabling to meet those demands, but many of those cabling choices have now become antiquated and can no longer provide the speed and bandwidth requirements placed upon them by the industrial Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled devices.

Company opens fiber-optics factory in Aurora

Capitalizing on growth in 5G technology and with support from state and local officials, a startup company called viaPhoton has opened a fiber-optics factory in Aurora, where it is hiring 30 people and hopes to add another 200 employees in three to five years.
CEO Baber Abbas said the company will supply data centers and mobile communications companies throughout the Midwest. Its presence here will help Illinois expand access to 5G services statewide.

Programmable Photonics

Researchers from the University of Southampton developed a method for making programmable  integrated switching units on a silicon photonics chip. By using a generic optical circuit that can be fabricated in bulk then later programmed for specific applications, the team hopes to reduce production costs.

Leviton acquiring Berk-Tek for US$202M

Nexans has agreed to sell U.S.-based cable manufacturer Berk-Tek to Leviton for U.S.$202 million.Together with Leviton, the Berk-Tek team will focus on developing innovative local area network solutions that are critically important in managing the demand of today’s emerging technologies. Leviton and Berk-Tek formed a marketing alliance in 2013.

Anritsu Launches Portable 400G Network Tester MT1040A

Anritsu has introduced its Network Master Pro MT1040A for 400G networks. The new, battery-powered tester supports 400G Ethernet and has a simultaneously installable 10M-to-100G interface for access, metro, mobile fronthaul/backhaul, and data-center transmission quality tests (BER, throughput, frame loss, and latency measurements), while the easy-to-use GUI, remote-control-over-network option, and auto-test functions add-up to a tester with unparalleled measurement efficiency.

YouTube Live OTDR Basics

Join Viavi’s YouTube LIVE OTDR Basics session to learn  OTDR basics including, understanding the mystical launch cable length — how long does it need to be? How to analyze OTDR Traces using Smart Link Mapper; how to identify a fault, and locate the exact distance to the fault along with tips and tricks for novices, as well as expert OTDR users to take you to the next level.