Fiber-optic technology has revolutionized communication technology, transferring large amounts of data much faster than copper cables. However, the practical application of these optical fibers requires the use of cables containing multiple optical fibers. There are two ways to do this: loose tube and ribbon. Ribbon fibers, primarily intermittent link ribbon fibers, have become a current industry trend due to their ability to form high-density cable connections. These use G652D compatible A1 fibers with a small bend radius.

Intermittent Link Ribbon Fiber

Optical fibers have traditionally been glued together using acrylate materials to form optical fiber ribbons. These ribbon fibers improve the packaging and splicing efficiency of non-ribbon fibers, enabling higher packing densities and faster connection speeds of ribbon fibers. For example, in a 12-fiber ribbon, 12 fibers can be spliced ​​simultaneously. But a single ribbon must be spliced ​​for standard non-ribbon fibers.

Ribbon fibers offer higher packaging efficiencies than traditional non-ribbon fibers. However, the stacked ribbons form a cubic structure inside the cylindrical tube, which wastes a lot of space.

Intermittent link fiber solves this problem by making the ribbon crimpable. These strips have bonded and non-bonded areas. In the bonded area, adjacent fibers are glued together. In the non-bonded region, adjacent fibers can move independently. Since the fiber near the unbounded region can move, the ribbon can be rolled without tension.

These ribbon fibers look like spider webs when stretched laterally, hence the name spider web fibers.

Advantages of Intermittent Link Ribbon Fiber

These concatenated ribbons offer all the benefits of regular ribbons, including:

Easier to handle: Ribbon fiber is easier to handle because it weighs less than the same amount of traditional fiber, so packaging is more efficient. Less jacket material is also required.

High Density: Ribbon fiber packaging is highly efficient; ten times as many fibers can be accommodated in a tube with only twice the radius.

Splicing Efficiency: The entire ribbon can be spliced ​​at the same time, making the splicing process faster.

Cost Efficiency: Ribbon fiber is cost-effective for higher fiber counts because the higher cost of purchasing fiber can be offset by lower installation costs.

Intermittent link ribbon fiber offers all of the above advantages plus a few others:

Higher fiber count: After the fibers are intermittently bundled, they are rolled into a bundle and placed in a cylindrical tube. These bundled structures allow for higher packing efficiency in these tubes compared to stacked standard ribbons, providing more fiber in the same volume.

Less Bonding Material: Just intermittently bond the fibers in the ribbon. Therefore, less bonding material is required to bond these types of optical fibers.

High Strength: A center material is required to transmit these ribbon fiber types in a loose tube configuration; this makes the cable very strong.

Midspan Access Protection: These fibers provide an additional layer of protection when only a few fibers of the fiber need to be spliced ​​(midspan access). During this operation, only one loose tube in the fiber is used. This can be seen in FTTH networks, where a fiber optic cable leads to the customer premises.

Intermittent Link Ribbon Fiber Use Cases

High Fiber and High Access Needs Data Centers

With the increasing popularity of cloud computing, the pressure on high performance of data centers is also increasing. Furthermore, these data centers are located in densely populated cities with high data consumption. Ribbon fibers with intermittent links will provide high fiber counts in tight spaces.

tighter bend

The intermittently linked ribbon fiber is inherently flexible, and the fiber used is a bend-resistant G.652.A1 fiber. This means that these fibers can be installed in tight spaces where tall fibers are required.

Intermittent Link Ribbon Fiber Market

The fiber optic market size could grow from $4.9 billion in 2022 to $8.2 billion by 2027. The increase in demand for high bandwidth is mainly due to the increase in high-capacity data centers, 5G and FTTX deployments, and the rollout of new fiber optic networks. Products requiring higher bandwidth.

During the growth period, the telecom industry will see the highest application volume. Increasing user base and decreasing prices are the major factors driving the growth of the market. These applications include video streaming, gaming and infotainment.

Personal demand for increased bandwidth has also increased due to the pandemic. Covid-19 has increased the popularity of working from home. Post-COVID-19, popularity has stayed the same. These points of view have clarified the necessity of high-density optical fiber cables, such as ribbon optical fibers with intermittent links.

Additionally, a challenge in the current market is deploying fiber in unusual terrain, including slopes and underwater. These places require easy-to-handle fiber optics. Intermittent link fiber can solve this problem because of its high packing efficiency. Therefore, for the same number of fibers, smaller fiber diameters can be used. This means that smaller diameter tubes can be used and less material can be used, reducing the overall weight of the cable.

Summarize

Intermittent link ribbon cables have more optical fibers than corresponding conventional ribbon cables of similar size. High-density fiber optic cables are necessary because of the increasing demand for high-capacity data transmission. Reasons include 5G deployments and a general increase in demand for high-speed internet, and new digital products often have high data requirements. Thus, intermittent link ribbon fiber has revolutionized the communications industry by enabling high data speeds.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What does splicing mean?

Fiber splicing means connecting it. The two splicing methods are mechanical splicing and fusion splicing. In mechanical splicing, two optical fibers are secured together so that an optical signal can pass from one optical fiber to the other; whereas a fusion splicer permanently joins two optical fibers.

Q: Why can intermittent link ribbon fiber be crimped?

Ribbon fibers that are intermittently bonded are crimpable because the fibers in the unbonded sections can move independently of their neighbors. Therefore, unlike traditional fiber optic ribbons, it does not experience stress when rolled up.

Q: Why is the stacking efficiency of intermittently connected ribbon fibers high?

Intermittently spliced ​​optical fibers have high packaging efficiency because the tubes containing the optical fibers are cylindrical. These fibers fill the cylindrical structure almost completely in the coiled or bundled state. In contrast, conventional ribbons have a stacked structure and cannot fill cylindrical tubes.

Q: What is the relationship between A1 fiber optics and intermittent link ribbon cables?

A1 fiber refers to the ITU-T fiber specification G.657. A1 is a bending-resistant fiber. Their very short bend radius means that these fibers can be used in tight spaces and made into short coils. Therefore, these fibers are more suitable for making high-quality intermittent link ribbon fibers.