OFS offers Fiber Solutions for America's Broadband Buildout

In support of the Build America, Buy America Act, OFC is kicking off  Fiber Solutions for America's Broadband Buildout emphasizing its well-established U.S. manufacturing capabilities. The program supports fiber broadband and middle-mile infrastructure builds under the Biden administrations BEAD initiative.

For nearly five decades, OFS with its AT&T Bell Labs heritage has been at the forefront of optical fiber, fiber optic cable, and optical connectivity development and production in the United States. The company notes that part of its heritage includes being an inventor of original fiber optic technologies.

OFS currently operates manufacturing facilities in Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.

OFS expanded its domestic production of optical fiber and fiber optic cable with a $139M investment in Georgia completed in 2020 and employs over 1000 people in Georgia alone.

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OFS show fiber cabling for aircraft

OFS announced a fiber cable optimized for inflight entertainment, internet access, networking and display systems used in commercial aircraft.

OFS FlightLinx PLUS Fiber Optic Cable is a 1.8 mm ruggedized single jacket cable designed to meet or exceed ARINC 802 performance requirements without the need for a double jacket. 

The company says the cable's construction consists of a tight buffered fiber within a loose structure cable which allows for reliable pull-proof termination and helps prevent kinking, epoxy wicking and fiber breakage during and after deployment. The buffer tube provides additional crush and impact protection for harsh installations in aircraft. 

OFS is showcasing the cable at the Paris Airshow.

https://www.ofsoptics.com/flightlinx-plus-fiber-optic-cable/

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OFS intros 4X Multicore Fibers (MCF) for SDM subsea cables

OFS introduced its TeraWave SCUBA 4X Multicore Ocean Fiber, promising four times the bandwidth in ocean applications using a four-core space division multiplexing (SDM) technology.

OFS said its SCUBA 4X multicore fiber will form the foundation of a new generation of transmission applications based on SDM.

The new fiber offers excellent transmission properties in C- and L-bands, with a demonstrated attenuation below 0.165 dB/km at 1550 nm and industry-leading adjacent core crosstalk of – 70 dB/km at 1550 nm. Other properties will be consistent with G.654.B/C compliant submarine fibers (9.7 mm mode field at 1550 nm, cutoff wavelength below 1520 nm, and standard cladding and coating dimensions).

 "OFS and FEC are committed to be industry leaders in SDM-based communication technology, with a comprehensive product portfolio encompassing fiber, connectivity and fusion splicing," said David DiGiovanni, Chief Technology Officer of OFS and President of OFS Labs. "We are working with several key customers as they adopt this ground-breaking increase in bandwidth density."

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OFS launches 150 W Raman fiber laser module

OFS is introducing a 150 W Raman Fiber Laser Module at the upcoming Photonics West Exposition in San Francisco from January 31 through February 2, 2023.

Phil Familletti, OFS Product Manager, states "OFS has designed the Raman Fiber Laser Module to serve as an ideal high-brightness pump source for other fiber and solid-state lasers. The new 150 W, 1480 nm Raman Fiber Laser Module significantly pushes the performance of Raman lasers designed for pumping EDFA's.  The combination of the OFS Raman Fiber Laser Module and the OFS VLMA-Er Amplifier Module targets emerging applications such as next-generation LIDAR and free-space optical communications.  Other applications include high brightness fiber laser pumping, pumping solid-state lasers, medical applications, and test and measurement." Technical details will be reported at Photonics West by Andrew Grimes in presentation 12400-49 "Long-term, stable, 115W output from an Erbium fiber amplifier pumped by a Raman fiber laser".

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OFS integrates Go!Foton's midspan shell for FTTH

OFS is reselling Go!Foton's Midspan Clamshell Hardened Terminal (MCHT) for network projects supporting OFS customers worldwide. 

The Midspan Clamshell Hardened Terminal offers hardened connectivity without the need for hardened connectors. The clamshell design provides IP68 protection for each individual connection while enabling fast, easy, and secure optical drop cable deployment.

The MCHT's IP68-rated water-sealed mid-span enclosure, including splice tray, optical splitter, or other passive components, is designed to enable effortless add-drops, including fiber cable splicing as well as post-splicing drops with pre-terminated MCHT pigtails. The F2 drops port can be accessed without opening the main splicing chamber, supporting faster and thereby potentially safer customer additions than traditional closures. The MCHT deployment also translates into significant cost savings opportunities for network operators through the simplicity of ordering, inventory, and installation, as the MCHT terminal can be deployed below-grade, pole-mounted, or for messenger applications and uses the common SCA connector.

"The Midspan Clamshell Hardened Terminal helps to simplify and expedite network installations for our global solutions customers," said Dan Hendrickson, Director, NAR Network Systems PLM & R&D for OFS.  "Fundamentally most of our customers prefer traditional industry connectors. The CHT mid-span enclosure allows installers to add and drop cables with traditional connectors in the field while securing connections without opening an enclosure. "

Go!Foton CTO Dr. David Z. Chen said, "The MCHT represents a major advance in optical connectivity management and a completely fresh approach to managing the proliferation of fiber drops in confined spaces for both inside and outside plant networks. By hardening the individual drop connection chamber rather than the actual connectors themselves, the MCHT can offer hardened fiber terminal functionality using widely available, standard fiber drop cables and connectors. " 

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OFS improves geometry specs for multimode fibers

OFS has improved important geometry specifications for its family of LaserWave multimode fibers, thereby reducing connector loss and improving link system performance. The enhancements can provide extra margin, or "headroom," in 40, 100 and 400 Gbps applications, enabling greater network design flexibility and reliability. The improvements were achieved through the use of OFS' patented Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition (MCVD) fiber manufacturing process. 

The improved specifications are supported by OFS' LaserWave WideBand (OM5), LaserWave FLEX 550 (OM4) and LaserWave FLEX 300 (OM3) fibers. OFS said these improvements include:

• Clad diameter tolerance has been tightened from 125.0 ± 0.8 μm to 125.0 ± 0.7 μm
• core non-circularity has been improved from ≤5.0% to ≤2.5%. 
• Core/clad concentricity  has been tightened from ≤1.0 μm to ≤0.7 μm

Modeling of simulated connections conducted by OFS indicates that the tighter specifications can result in average insertion loss improvement of 0.07 dB per connection compared to industry standard fiber.  The model distribution also shows that 97% of insertion losses would be below 0.25 dB using LaserWave fiber, but 0.40dB using standards compliant fiber.  As loss budgets drop below 2 dB for 40, 100, and 400 Gb/s network, this improved insertion loss performance is critical for links containing multiple connections.

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OFS intros behind-the-wall fiber spool

OFS introduced an InvisiLight EZ-Hide Behind-the-Wall Module for fiber installation inside homes and multiple dwelling units, or for passive optical LAN applications. 

OFS says its new module can further reduce the footprint of InvisiLight ILU installations by up to 50% by hiding the spool behind the wall and using the InvisiLight 600µm buffered fiber.

The original InvisiLight ILU Solution, launched in 2012, offered an innovative yet simple process to reach indoor ONTs by adhering a 0.9 mm diameter optical fiber into the crevices along ceilings and walls or moldings and walls. The InvisiLight EZ-Hide Behind-the-Wall Module uses an even smaller 0.6 mm optical fiber and installs with the same simple installation process and tools as the original. The compact EZ-Hide spool can dispense up to 40 meters of fiber as it is moved along the deployment path to the ONT location yet still fit inside a common behind the wall gang box.

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OFS intros rollable fiber ribbon backbone cable

OFS introduced its R-Pack Rollable Ribbon (RR) Backbone Cable in 24, 48 and 72 fiber counts. The R-Pack RR Backbone Cable, which meets Telcordia GR409 standards for horizontal backbone applications and NFPA 202 requirements, can be used in data center, central office and Fiber-to-the-Business (FTTB) applications.

OFS said that to form a rollable ribbon, 12 (twelve) 250 micron (µm) optical fibers are connected intermittently by
matrix material to form a very flexible ribbon. This design allows the ribbons to be rolled into very tight bundles, helping to double the fiber density of a cable. These fibers can then be unrolled into preorganized ribbon packages that help to reduce fiber crossovers and speed termination. The rollable ribbons can be spliced using traditional flat ribbon splicing machines and procedures.

Benefits of rollable ribbons include efficient and cost-effective mass fusion splicing, easy individual fiber breakout and fiber alignment that aids with multi-fiber connector terminations.

"This unique cable design combines plenum-rated materials with OFS rollable ribbons. The result is a cable that literally doubles the available fiber density in a highly-compact, robust cable that helps customers to substantially improve cable routing and save on space in demanding and congested pathways,” states Dan Hendrickson, Premises Cable Product Manager, OFS.

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OFS expands fiber portfolio

OFS has expanded its AccuTube+ Rollable Ribbon Cable family to include cables with 432, 576 and 864 fiber counts featuring rollable ribbon technology in a ribbon-in-loose-tube cable design.

This expanded product line of 100% gel-free cables will offer both single jacket/all-dielectric and light armor constructions.

OFS said rollable ribbon fiber optic cables can help users achieve significant time and cost savings using mass fusion splicing while also doubling their fiber density in a given duct size compared to traditional flat ribbon cable designs.

Each OFS rollable ribbon features 12 individual optical fibers that are partially bonded to each other at predetermined points. These ribbons can be "rolled" into a flexible and compact bundle that offers the added benefit of improved fiber routing and handling in closure preparation.

The AccuTube+ Rollable Ribbon Cable product line also features cables with 1728 fibers in both single jacket and light armor designs and 3456 fibers in a single jacket construction. All of these cables meet or exceed the requirements of Telcordia GR-20 issue 4.

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OFS cleared in patent claim involving optical fiber coatings

OFS Fitel prevailed over DSM Desotech, a Dutch company, in patent infrigement case heard by the United States International Trade Commission (ITC).

The final determination cleared OFS, a manufacturer of optical fiber products, of all allegations that OFS optical fiber and the coating used on that fiber violated Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended.  The Final Determination found that all claims asserted by DSM at the ITC are invalid.

Dr. Timothy F. Murray, CEO and Chairman of OFS said: "We were surprised to be charged with patent infringement based on the use of coatings to make optical fiber by DSM, a foreign coatings manufacturer who supplies cable coating products to OFS and has been a supplier of fiber coatings in the past.  It is a measure of the strength of our US system of commercial and intellectual property law that foreign companies come to this country to seek just treatment. We appreciate the diligence and care taken by the ITC to hear and understand the arguments of both parties in delivering this ruling. The invalidation of the claims in the patents asserted by DSM is a cautionary note to those who attempt to use unsupportable positions to threaten action."

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CommScope and OFS sign 8-year fiber supply deal

OFS and CommScope a new eight-year deal under which OFS will supply optical fiber to CommScope for use in its customers’ networks. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“Through this agreement, CommScope secures access to a premier supply of optical fiber for development of innovative fiber cabling products for global wireline and wireless networks,” said Jaxon Lang, senior vice president and Connectivity Solutions segment leader, CommScope.

"OFS values our long-standing partnership with CommScope and supports their global operations with a multi-sourced contract from our optical fiber facilities in the United States, Europe and Japan,” stated Pierre Marty, senior vice president, Global Marketing and Sales at OFS.

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OFS improves special fibre for aircraft

OFS introduced a new FlightLinx PLUS Fiber Optic Cable designed for in-flight entertainment, Internet access, networking and display systems used in commercial aircraft.

OFS has been offering its original FlightLinx Fiber Optic Cable since 2012. The new product features a cable design that allows for reliable pull-proof termination during harsh aircraft installations.

FlightLinx PLUS Fiber Optic Cable is a 1.8 mm ruggedized single jacket cable design that meets ARINC 802 performance requirements without the need for a double jacket. This lightweight cable design also helps address the demand for lighter aircraft and improved fuel efficiency.

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OFS expands InvisiLight fiber portfolio

OFS, a manufacturer of advanced fibre optic products and a Furukawa Electric company, has launched the InvisiLight Façade Solution for low-rise buildings or garden-style dwelling units, expanding the InvisiLight portfolio that also includes the drop cable solution to residential homes, MDU solution for building hallways and ILU solution for indoor living units.

OFS' InvisiLight portfolio also integrates with the SlimBox branded portfolio of terminals and closures to provide a modular solution offering for a range of market demands.

The new InvisiLight Façade solution is offered with 12 or 24 fibre-count indoor/outdoor rated cable, which can be installed on the face of a building or placed behind outdoor structures such as rain water downspouts. The 12 and 24 fibre cables have diameters of 3.0 mm and 3.8 mm, respectively, and can be either factory pre-terminated or connectorised on site with a fusion splice or mechanical connector.

During the installation process, the cables are connected to an outdoor building terminal typically installed at the base of a building. From the terminal, the cable can be installed vertically on the face of the building into the attic and then connected to a distribution terminal from which EZ-Bend optical cables can be run into living units.

Alternatively, the cable can be placed along the building facade using clips to pass each living unit, with compact slack loops placed outside or inside the unit. From there the optical fibre can be extracted to connect to the other InvisiLight solutions to connect to the optical network terminal (ONT).

OFS stated that its established EZ-Bend optical fibre is used in the InvisiLight Façade cable products, as well as the other InvisiLight portfolio of products. The EZ-Bend fibre features a 2.5 mm bend radius, which allows it to accommodate the sharp corners often encountered when fitting the cable onto buildings. OFS noted that the new InvisiLight Façade solution is designed to offer an almost invisible cable for installation onto the exterior of and within buildings.

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OFS Carries 200G over 4,500 km with TeraWave Fiber

OFS, a designer, manufacturer and supplier of fibre optic network products and solutions, announced it is showcasing the capacity and un-regenerated reach of Nokia's 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS) C+L-band DWDM system over OFS TeraWave ULL fibre, enabling reduced cost-per-bit of transport across the ultra-long haul distances between hyper-scale data centres.

TeraWave ULL fibre is claimed to offer the largest available effective area for a terrestrial fibre, thereby allowing improved suppression of non-linear penalties that limit the reach of high capacity, coherent modulation formats. The company also claims that the cost-per-bit of fully lighting a TeraWave ULL fibre can be up to 50% less than that of a G.652 fibre through avoiding the need for regeneration.

The Nokia 1830 PSS networking platform is designed to support ultra-long haul performance at 200 Gbit/s using the 8QAM modulation format, and extended metro/DCI reach with high spectral efficiency. The OFS TeraWave ULL ITU-T G.654.E fibre is designed to reduce amplifier noise leveraging low nominal loss of 0.168 dB/km and to minimise non-linear distortion via its large effective area of 125 microns squared.

OFS noted that the waveguide of TeraWave ULL fibre was designed to minimise both micro- and macro-bending losses in the L-band to enable enhanced terrestrial cable performance and superior splice performance.

For extended reach metro/DCI applications, the TeraWave ULL fibre can support 400 Gbit/s capacity over up to 300 km with 100 km spans without the need for Raman amplification when used with the Nokia 1830 platform. When combined with a hybrid Raman-EDFA amplifier, the fibre can support up to 200 Gbit/s transport over distances of up to 4,500 km un-regenerated with 100 km spans.

Commenting on the demonstration, Robert Lingle, Jr., director, market and technology strategy at OFS, said, "Traffic is growing inside the networks of cloud content providers at CAGRs up to 50%, while the distance between web-scale data centres can be over 4,000 km in Europe and North America… as practical and fundamental limits make it more difficult to increase spectral efficiency in the future, C+L-band transmission (can)… double the capacity per fibre if the fibre and cable are designed for L-band wavelengths".

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ZTE and OFS Mark 400 Gbps Optical Transmission Record

ZTE and OFS achieved a new record for 400 Gbps optical transmission by carrying 128.8-GBaud wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) QPSK signals over 10,130- and 6,078-kilometer terrestrial fiber links.

Specifically, the tests transmitted single-carrier 515.2-Gb/s polarization division multiplexing (PDM)-QPSK/9-QAM signals over 10,130km and 6,078km links of OFS TeraWave optical fiber. It was the highest ETDM-based symbol rate reported so far, and the longest WDM transmission distance of single-carrier 400G signals with terrestrial span lengths (100km). For the first time, the 515.2-Gb/s single-carrier PDM-QPSK signals in 200-GHz-grid are successfully transmitted over distances over 10,000km in a terrestrial transmission environment. Researchers have also demonstrated the transmission of single carrier 128.8-GBaud filtered QPSK signals in 100-GHz-grid over 6,078km, which has the line SE of 5.152b/s/Hz.

ZTE said this result sets a new record for 400G transmission in both symbol rate and distance. The milestone, published recently on Optics Express (OSA), surpasses the record last year of 110 GBaud over 3000 km transmission distance of 400G set by the same group from ZTE.

According to Dr. Jianjun Yu, the Chief Scientist on high-speed optical transmission at ZTE and OSA Fellow, “400G transmission on a single optical carrier emerged as an attractive solution since it would offer benefits in terms of system complexity. Namely, the employment of the highest feasible electronic multiplexing rates with a minimum number of channel subcarriers reduces the number of deployed optical components, which typically dominates the transponder cost. ZTE has been relentless in pushing forward-looking research and development on the single carrier 400G transmissions, and we have solved most of key technologies for this 400G product.”

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