Archive for March 2016

What factors affect optical fiber splicing loss?

FS-60S Fusion SplicerThere are two types of factors that fiber splice loss depends on: intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors.

1、intrinsic factors
Mode Field Diameter Mismatch

Intrinsic factors are parameters that you can not control. These factors are determined when the fiber is manufactured and Mode Field Diameter (MFD) is the most critical one.

Differences in the mode field diameter between single mode fibers lead to a signal loss. More splice loss can be observed for higher difference in MFD values.
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How to choose a best fiber optic power meter.

optical power meterFiber optic power meter measures how much light is coming out of a fiber optic cable; it can be used to determine the amount of light being generated by an optical source, or the amount of light being coupled into an optical receiver.

Optical power is usually measured in dBm, or decibels referenced to 1mW. These devices measure the average optical power, no the peak power, so they are sensitive to the duty cycle of the data transmitted. Their wavelength and power range have to be appropriately matched to the system being measured.

Most power meters used to best communication networks are designed to work at 850nm, 1300nm, and 1550nm wavelength ranges and in the power range of –15dBm to –35dBm for multimode links, or 0-40 dBm for single mode links.
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Best Practices for Data Center Fiber-Optic Cabling Systems

images2Fiber-optic cabling is an ideal medium for data center networks, because of fiber’s ability to support high transmission speeds and long-distance connections. Many factors come into play when planning, deploying and administering a data center fiber-optic cabling system.
The following are some suggestions for efficient cabling and network management.

Presentation 1: Fiber-optic Port Replication—How and Why
Large volumes of connections in a densely packed environment are a hallmark of fiber-optic networks. In these connectivity environments, managing the large volume of fiber-optic cables can be a constant challenge. One means of easing and simplifying this management is to implement passive port replication. This presentation describes what port replication is, how it can be accomplished, and why it eases the cable-management burden for a data center administrator.

Presentation 2: Testing and Assuring Fiber Connections
Once a fiber-optic cabling infrastructure is installed to support data center networking, that infrastructure must be tested to ensure it performs at the expected performance level and supports the intended applications. This presentation discusses several critical aspects of fiber-optic testing, including proper reference setting, the role of encircled flux (EF) and its implications on test tools/procedures, as well as the ability to test different connector-endface types with a single test unit.

Presentation 3: Fiber Splicing in the Data Center
While preterminated systems have gained popularity for some data center settings and circumstances, many data center fiber-optic cabling systems can benefit from fusion-spliced connections. This presentation explains the circumstances under which splicing fiber represents an efficient and effective connectivity method. It describes the splicing technologies and techniques that can be put to effective use in data centers.

Why do we need to cleave optical fibers?

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Optical fiber needs to be cleaved for fusion splicing. Optical fiber fusion splicing nearly always requires that the fiber tips exhibit a smooth end face that is perpendicular to the fiber axis.

This sufficiently perpendicular and planar fiber end face can be achieved via the fiber cleaving process. In this cleaving process, the brittle glass fiber is fractured in a controlled manner.

Polishing a fiber tip can result in even higher quality fiber end faces, but polishing requires more expensive equipment and more processing time, so it is very rarely employed for fusion splicing.

FS-C20 Fiber CleaverA fiber optic cleaver is a piece of tool or equipment to make an almost perfect fiber end face cut. Just like using a diamond scribe tool when cutting glass, a fiber cleaver’s cutting wheel (blade) makes a very tiny cut on the fiber first, then the fiber is pressed against the little cut to force it to break at 90° angle and expose a mirror like fiber end face.

The SYOPTEK FS-C20 Fiber Cleaver is designed to precisely cleave all 125um multimode or singlemode optical fibers. The high precise adjustable blade can perform up to 60,000 cleaves with a typical cleave angle of 90 degree.

 

How to Use FIP-800-D Fiber Optic Cleaning, Inspection Kit.

FIP-800-D Fiber Optic Cleaning, Inspection Kit provide a complete selection of fiber optic cleaning products for field cleaning, inspection of connector endfaces in a hard-side carrying case.

It contains everything needed to eliminate the #1 cause of fiber optic network failure: contamination.

FIP-800-D Fiber Optic Cleaning, Inspection Kit includes FIP-800 fiber optic inspection probe, one click cleaner for SC, ST, FC connectors, one click cleaner for LC, MU connectors, NEOCLEAN-N Optical Connector Cleaner, replacement reel for NEOCLEAN-N fiber cleaner in a hard-side carrying case.

The AOCs and EOMs market will go on to approach $850 by 2021

aoc-eom1Optical interconnects have long served as data bridges between elements of large systems or clusters, and they’ve taken many forms. Since 2000, embedded optical modules (EOMs) have supported supercomputers, core routers, and an array of other interesting and unique applications. Active optical cables (AOCs) arrived in 2007 as a practical, low-cost alternative to regular pluggable modules, and found a home primarily in high-performance computing (HPC) clusters. The market for AOCs and EOMs has really been a collection of niches, which has made it lumpy and large-order sensitive. For example, combined market revenues fell 17% in 2013, and then recovered by the same percentage in 2014. With such a lumpy and variable past, what does the future hold?

The analyst thinks the future for both AOCs and EOMs is bright, with the next two years marking a real departure from the past. They predict that the combined market will grow 48% to $262 million in 2015 and will go on to approach $850 by 2021. What is driving this change?
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How to clean fiber optic ferrule End-faces with NEOCLEAN-N3 Optical Connector Cleaner.

The NEOCLEAN-N3 Optical Connector Cleaner is a simplified and a replaceable reel type cleaner for ferrule end-faces (Connectors Cleaned: MT with pins, MPO with pins). It enables low cost cleaning.

Features:
– Cassette case made with anti-static resin
– An alcohol-free dry cloth solution
– Palm-sized and lightweight
– Efficient and easy to use
– Delivers consistently high quality cleaning performance
– Specially washed, high-densely woven, micro-fiber cleaning tape
– Each cassette provides approx. 400 ferrule cleaning cycles

What does Passive Component mean?

8 channels CWDM moduleA passive component is a module that does not require energy to operate, except for the available alternating current (AC) circuit that it is connected to. A passive module is not capable of power gain and is not a source of energy. A typical passive component would be a chassis, inductor, resistor, transformer, or capacitor.

Generally, passive components are not able to increase the power of a signal nor are they able to amplify it. However, they can increase current or voltage by an LC circuit that stores electrical energy from resonant frequencies or by a transformer that acts like an electrical isolator.

An electronic circuit that is composed of just passive components is called a passive circuit. A module that is not passive is called an active component.
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How to clean fiber optic ferrule end-faces with NEOCLEAN-N1 Optical Connector Cleaner


The NEOCLEAN-N1 Optical Connector Cleaner is a simplified and a replaceable reel type cleaner for ferrule end-faces (Connectors Cleaned: SC,FC,ST,MU,LC,MPO,MT,MT-RJ). It enables low cost cleaning.

Features:
– Cassette case made with anti-static resin
– An alcohol-free dry cloth solution
– Palm-sized and lightweight
– Efficient and easy to use
– Delivers consistently high quality cleaning performance
– Specially washed, high-densely woven, micro-fiber cleaning tape
– Each cassette provides approx. 400 ferrule cleaning cycles

Report: Data center switch market hits $12B in 2015

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2015 was another year of growth for the data center switch market, according to the most recent report. The firm reported that Ethernet, which accounts for the majority of data center switch revenues, grew 7% in 2015, and that InfiniBand revenues surged to a record year, surpassing its prior record of 2012.

In contrast with Ethernet and InfiniBand, Fibre Channel switch revenues declined slightly following growth in 2014, adds the new report.

In addition to the top-level performance of Ethernet, Fibre Channel and InfiniBand, notable results from Crehan’s data center switch report include the following:

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