Category: Fiber

Data center planning

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Data centers are the control hubs of businesses and organizations. Complex architectures and operating workflows, as well as a range of different applications, all pose a challenge for the network infrastructure. The quality requirements that are placed on structured, application-neutral cabling are correspondingly high. Individualized planning and a high level of automatic cable management play an important role. Transmission paths and attenuation budgets must be considered right from the start in the design of a modern data center. This is because efficient cabling forms the basis for the trouble-free operation of all the processes and this factor must therefore be taken into account during the data center planning phase.

Cabling Mistakes #9: Rely on Duplex Tester for MPO Cable Certification

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Let’s take a look at the #9 Dumb Thing that smart people do when testing network cabling systems—relying on a duplex tester for certifying MPO trunks. Field testing is the only way to ensure that MPO links meet the application performance requirements. Despite the fact that pre-terminated MPO fiber cables are manufactured and tested by vendors to comply with ANSI/TIA and international standards, there are many factors that can potentially impact performance. First of all, MPO connectors are harder to clean than duplex connectors. The 12-fiber MPO interface features an array with a much larger surface area, which unfortunately makes it easier to move contaminants from one fiber to another within the same array during the cleaning process. 40 and 100 Gbps MPO fiber applications also have much lower loss budgets so it’s important to ensure the highest testing accuracy as possible.

100G Ethernet switch ports to peak in 2020 as 400G ramps

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A new report from the Dell’Oro Group says demand for 100-Gbps Ethernet switch ports will peak next year. While demand for such ports will continue to be strong, composing more than 30% of the market over the next five years, the same timeframe will see the rise of 400-Gbps ports. Shipments of 400G switch ports will exceed 15 million, the market research firm predicts in its most recent “Ethernet Switch – Data Center Five Year Forecast Report.”

Smartoptics offers 32G Fibre Channel DWDM optical transceivers for SANs

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Smartoptics’ new line of optical transceivers and open line system for use in 32G Fibre Channel storage area networks complement the company’s existing line of 8G and 16G Fibre Channel products.The 32G Fibre Channel optical transceivers are available in the SFP28 form factor for use in the platforms of a variety of switch vendors. The optical modules can be used with passive filters as well as Smartoptics’ active open line systems to support reaches up to 80 km between data centers.

How IoT is revolutionizing facilities data management

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IoT is finally entering its rightful place as a fully fledged enterprise technology that is revolutionizing many different industries and business functions. Just Google the terms “IoT” and “revolutionizing” and you’ll pull up a myriad of examples of just how widespread this impact is. Research predicts that global spending on IoT will reach almost $750 billion this year, an uptick of 15 percent from 2018 levels. Another report predicts that by 2025 businesses and consumers will have deployed more than 41 billion IoT connected devices at a growth rate of nearly 30 percent between now and then.

Tomorrow’s 5G Killer Apps And The Network That Will Empower Them

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What kinds of use cases will ultimately become killer apps on the 5G network? Without question, 5G will improve existing services and support expanded capabilities for the future. With reliable always-on connectivity, low latency, and substantial increases in bandwidth, tomorrow’s 5G networks will fundamentally transform the way that businesses and consumers interact with technology. Arguably the most important feature of 5G will be seamless connectivity across multiple device types and settings. The internet of things (IoT), along with other technologies at the edge of the network, will leverage this capability to enhance traditional markets and create entirely new ones. In fact, in a 2018 Gartner survey, 66% of companies surveyed plan to deploy 5G-based IoT applications by 2020.

Subtleties of bend-insensitive multimode fiber

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While the industry has justifiably regarded the development of bend-insensitive OM3 fibers as an advancement, there has been at least one unexpected consequence. We have observed unusual, high multimode OTDR attenuation rates (hereafter “rates”), in both bend-insensitive fibers and bend-insensitive cables.These high rates can result in rejection of properly installed cables due to excessive attenuation rates, misinterpretation of rate values, and improper interpretation of such rates during troubleshooting activities. These high rates can result in misinterpretation of OTDR data from data centers, as data centers have relatively short fiber lengths, in which these increased rates occur.