Taking advantage of the growth in optical fiber

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The
data market doesn’t sit still for long. Even with the release of the 40Gig and
100Gig Ethernet standards, we’ve seen growing demand for speeds beyond these
new standards. The ever-increasing need for data has arisen from social
interaction and the rise of the Internet of Everything, as businesses seek to
maximize their advantage.

 

Historically,
the introduction of new standards would see a performance increase but in
copper we’ve seen three new standards that seek to use current copper
technologies to overcome shortfalls in performance. The introduction of 2.5G
and 5.0G standards have seen users of Cat5E and Cat6 secure additional gains
from their platform, albeit in a wireless manner. The introduction of the 25G
system is a downgrade of the 40G standard.

 

Has
copper reached its performance zenith when compared to optical fiber? With
future standards focusing on 400GB and beyond and with single mode optical
fiber in the drafts, who knows?

 

Implementation
costs for an optical fiber system have been dropping significantly in recent
years; everything from the cable, connectors and hardware on the network side
is closer to copper as the performance and its sophistication rises. Optical
fiber has moved from being a data center and trunk application to becoming more
mainstream in premises.

 

Customers
wishing to future-proof their networks are looking at how optical fiber can fit
their needs. The introduction of platform designs and technologies such Oplan
(optical fiber LAN) have built on historical systems such as GPON,
broadening the appeal within the premise market. Its cost still ensures that
this technology is used in certain applications such as:

 

• Government
facilities – long term buildings/lease

• Health Care
and Research Facilities

• Defence and
other National Security Facilities

 

We
all know that as we move forward, this is transitory, as barriers to adoption
decline and businesses seek to gain advantage through higher data throughputs.

 

The
barrier to adoption has been the cost of the converting the optical signal into
an electrical one; in high-end applications, this has been overcome with the
introduction of Active Optical Patch Cords. Historically, these cables have
been expensive but expansion in production has meant competition, which
invariably leads to lower cost. Product such as Thunderbolt Active Optical
Cables will be able to deliver high-performance straight to a laptop or device
via an optical fiber line.

 

A
key point to note is that these higher performance networks – be it either
copper or optical fiber – are becoming what is termed ‘plug and play’. Unlike
hooking up the latest gaming system, an installer will need some understanding
of how it works and what is required to adequately install and test it, so
perhaps now might be a good time to bone up on your optical fiber skills – and
it needn’t be an exercise in frustration!