Category: Fiber

Fiber Connect 2023 seeks Proof of Concept demos on disruptive fiber trends

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The Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) has announced a call for Proof of Concept (PoC) demonstrations that will be hosted at the association’s Fiber Connect 2023 conference in Orlando from August 20-23. Focused on “what fiber disrupts next,” as solicited by FBA, the PoCs will “focus on how fiber broadband enables markets and communities to create innovation and disruption, change market dynamics, and push the boundaries of what is possible.” Each PoC must demonstrate the benefits fiber brings to markets, industries, and/or communities as a fundamental enabler of disruption, growth, and potential. To submit a PoC, download the complete PoC Showcase instructions here and the PoC Submission Form & Agreement here. PoC submissions are due April 30, 2023.

Fiber everywhere requires PON components to handle everything

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Over the next five years, an unprecedented era of building fiber networks will take place around the world, with passive optical networks (PON) making up a large portion of that construction. As networks are deployed in more places, and in more diverse and sometimes difficult-to-reach environments, the need to make sure the highest-quality optical components are within that network only increases. As operators look to lower operational costs to deploy, manage, and maintain network builds, PON components will be pushed out further into the fiber network.

Inching toward a greener, future-proof cabling infrastructure

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This year saw noteworthy milestones in the development of cabling infrastructure standards for smart buildings. In March, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) released the ANSI/TIA-568.5 Single Pair Ethernet (SPE) cabling standard. Four months later, TIA released the ANSI/TIA-862-C Intelligent Building standard with technical updates and topologies that facilitate connecting and powering IoT devices, including the addition of SPE standards (in alignment with 568.5). Recently, the National Fire Protection Association Standards Council voted to issue the 2023 National Electrical Code (NEC) with Class 4 fault-managed power that will expand the use of energy-saving direct current (DC) power over low-voltage cabling, which is incentivized by the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED version 4 pilot credit Direct Current Power Systems.
These milestones encourage cabling infrastructure design and implementation practices that improve connectivity and sustainability in smart buildings—but the market remains in its infancy. The lack of actual products available on the commercial market complicates new-project design. But technology providers can adopt strategies today to help future-proof infrastructure for tomorrow.

What’s the deal with Industry 4.0 (and how do we deal with it)?

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Whereas the third Industrial Revolution was defined by widespread digitalization (the rise of computers, process logic controllers, etc.), the fourth Industrial Revolution is all about fusing digital, physical and virtual resources to create intelligent processes that think, do and respond faster and more accurately than humans alone can. The fourth Industrial Revolution is a way of describing the blurring of boundaries between the physical, digital, and biological worlds. It’s a fusion of advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, IoT, 3D printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing, and other technologies.

OFS joins Terabit BiDi MSA group

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OFS announced that it has joined the Terabit BiDi Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) group.
OFS is a global designer, manufacturer, and supplier of fiber-optic network products. The Terabit BiDi MSA specification addresses short-reach applications including the critical high-volume interconnects between switches in modern data centers.
The MSA’s specifications utilize the widely adopted dual wavelength bidirectional (BiDi) transmission technology. This provides an upgrade path to the large-scale deployed parallel MMF cabling infrastructure.
The Terabit BiDi MSA specifications are built upon the 100 Gb/s Ethernet MMF specifications. Terabit BiDi MSA participants are responding to an industry need for lower cost and lower power consumption solutions in the 800 Gb/s and 1.6 Tb/s form factors that bidirectional MMF technology can provide

From Glass Fiber to Coherent Transmission and Pluggable Optics: The Evolution and Future of Optical Networks

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During the last decade, a new technology called coherent transmission made enormous scaling in optical network transmission possible. Combining the technology of digital signal processors (DSPs) with the application of phase modulation techniques (also common in mobile networks) to optical signals, coherent transmission technology enabled a further 100-fold increase in wavelength speed over what was possible with OOK technology since it was first introduced a decade ago.