No More Worries for Cable Bending

Under general conditions, fiber patch cables are not allowed to be bent beyond bend radius in case of light leaking. However, when installing cables at high-density environments, cable bending is hard to avoid. In order to solve the problem, bend insensitive fiber patch cable is designed to cause much lower optical power loss under bend conditions. In this way, cable bending won’t be an obstacle for your cable installation. This post will take you to explore the world of bend insensitive fiber patch cables.

Introduction to Bend Radius

Bend radius is the minimum radius one can bend a pipe, tube, sheet, cable or hose without kinking it, damaging it, or shortening its life. The smaller the bend radius, the greater is the material flexibility. When you install the cables, keep in mind do not exceed the cable bend radius. Usually, if no specific recommendations are available from the cable manufacturer, the cable bend radius should be smaller than 20 times the cable outside diameter when pulling the cable and 10 times the outside diameter when lashed in place. For example, while pulling a 2mm diameter cable allows for a 40mm sweep. When lashed in place make sure it’s a 20mm sweep. For most of today’s fiber patch cables, the bend radius is 30 mm.

Multimode Bend Insensitive Fiber Patch Cable

Our multimode bend insensitive fiber patch cables have a minimum bend radius of 7.5mm, which compares very favorably to the 30mm bend radius traditionally specified. To achieve this, an optical “trench” is added to the cladding area outside of the fiber core.  This trench retains more of the light that would have escaped the core of a traditional multimode fiber. Requirements for a tighter bend radius have been developed based primarily on factors in the fiber to the home (FTTH) market. However, the benefits for premise markets have rapidly become apparent, particularly in data centers where more and more fibers are being installed in smaller areas. The expectation is that this new feature can enable deployment of multimode fibers in higher densities.

Single-mode Bend Insensitive Fiber Patch Cable

Single-mode bend insensitive fiber patch cables have been commercially available for several years. ITU recommendation G.657 specifies two classes of single-mode bend insensitive fiber patch cables: G.657 A and G.657 B. Each category (A and B) is then divided into two sub-categories: G.

657.A1, G.657.A2 and G.657.B1, G.657.B2. The minimum bend radius of G.657.A1 fibers is 10 mm, of the G.657.A2 and G.657.B1 fibers is 7.5 mm and of the G.657.B2 fibers is 5 mm. Among, ITU-T G.657.A1 and ITU-T G.657.A2 fibers are fully compliant with ITU-T G.652.D fibers. Compared with minimum bend radius of the standard single-mode G652 fibers, which is usually 30 mm, G.657 single-mode bend insensitive fiber patch cables are much more flexible thus can be confidently installed with a variety of installation methods and in the increasingly high-density application spaces of today’s data center.

Conclusion

If you want to be bent-free for cable installation, bend insensitive fiber optic cable is a perfect solution. Its solid trench helps reduce the cable bending optical loss. And this type of cable is as qualified and functional as the standard patch cables. Both multimode and single-mode fibers can be made bend-insensitive. A wide range of bend insensitive patch cord selections is waiting for you to choose.

Source:http://www.fiber-patch-cords.com/blog/a/132/No-More-Worries-for-Cable-Bending

Applications of Special-Purpose Fiber Patch Cables

Fiber patch cable is an indispensable part for fiber optic communication. Signals are depending on this device to finish data transmission. Standard fiber patch cables are the most common patch cables in the market. However, there are some specific applications that need special treatment. Therefore, a range of special-purpose fiber patch cables have emerged as required. This article will recommend several unique but useful fiber patch cables. Maybe one of them will suit your needs.

HD TAB Fiber Patch Cable

As the name suggests, HD TAB fiber patch cable has a special push-pull tab which provides great convenience for high-density installations. Technicians can have easier finger access to installing or releasing the cables without using any additional tools. In today’s market, HD TAB fiber patch cables are usually terminated with LC or MTP/MPO connectors. If you are seeking for a high-density and space-saving solution, HD TAB fiber patch cable is highly recommended.

Uniboot LC Fiber Patch Cable

The uniboot LC fiber patch cable bundles two fibers in a single patch cord which saves much space for cabling. The changing of its LC uniboot connector polarity is easy ,which skips the using of tools. Uniboot LC fiber patch cable is available in different fiber types of single-mode, OM3 and OM4. The purpose of this cable is to deliver maximum connectivity performance in a minimal footprint. If you want to achieve an easier cable management, this is definitely a good choice.

In addition, there is an upgraded version of uniboot LC fiber patch cable - HD uniboot LC fiber patch cable. You can’t miss this one if you are looking for the extreme space saving solution. It is basically the combination of uniboot LC fiber patch cable and HD TAB fiber patch cable. Likewise, two optical fibers are wrapped together in a single strand. The difference is that its connector is attached with a push-pull tab which is more flexible for releasing the connector. It can be applied to data centers and high-density environments.

Keyed LC Fiber Patch Cable

In terms of data security, keyed LC fiber patch cable or secured LC fiber patch cable is the perfect solution. It is designed to prevent unauthorized and inadvertent changes in highly sensitive applications. Keyed LC fiber patch cable is identified by the connector color. Each color of a set of keyed LC connectivity products represents a unique keying pattern that only allows matched color mating. Multiple keyed LC connectivity products are included in this family. The picture below gives an example of the simplex keyed LC connectivity.

Bend Insensitive Fiber Patch Cable

Originally, when bending an optical fiber by stress, there will be a bend loss. This sensitive nature of optical fiber causes low efficiency in optical transmission. But it is hard to deal with the problem as bend loss issue is difficult to locate. Fortunately, bend insensitive fiber patch cable is designed to solve this problem. In this kind of cable, a layer of glass is added around the core of the fiber which has a lower index of refraction that literally "reflects" the weakly guided modes back into the core. Many data centers and FTTH systems are deploying this cable to reach lower signal loss.

Conclusion

From this article, we can see that there still exists many other types of fiber patch cables. And special fiber optic cable solutions are always more effective to special applications. By the way, if you just want a standard optical cable, you may consider from the aspects of fiber type, connector type, connector polishing type, fiber count, cable jacket, etc. These options are fit for average circumstances when choosing the optical cables. Hope you choose the right one according to your requirements!

Source:http://www.fiber-optical-networking.com/applications-special-purpose-fiber-patch-cables.html