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Fiberstore White Paper | Drop Cable and Its Termination in FTTH
FTTH (fiber to the home) networks are installed in many areas covering indoor section, outdoorsection, as well as the transition in between. To fulfill the cabling requirements from different areas,different types of fiber optic cables are well developed. Drop cable as an important part of FTTHnetwork forms the final external link between the subscriber and the feeder cable. This blog postwill focus on this special outdoor fiber optic cable.
The Basic of FTTH Drop Cable
Drop cables, as previously mentioned, are located on the subscriber end to connect the terminal ofa distribution cable to a subscriber’s premises. They are typicality small diameter, low fiber countcables with limited unsupported span lengths, which can be installed aerially, underground orburied. As it is used in outdoor, drop cable shall have a minimum pull strength of 1335 Newtonsaccording to the industry standard. Drop cables are available in many different types. The followingpart introduces three most commonly used drop cables divided according to the cable structure.
Flat Type Drop Cable, also known as flat drop cable, with a flat out-looking, usually consists of apolyethylene jacket, several fibers and two dielectric strength members to give high crush resistance.Drop cable usually contains one or two fibers, however, drop cable with fiber counts up to 12 ormore is also available now. The following picture shows the cross section of a flat drop cable with 2fibers.
Figure-8 Aerial Drop Cable is self-supporting cable, with the cable fixed to a steel wire, designed foreasy and economical aerial installation for outdoor applications. This type of drop cable is fixed to asteel wire as showed in the following picture. Typical fiber counts of figure-8 Drop Cable are 2 to 48.Tensile load is typically 6000 Newtons.
Drop Cable and ItsTermination in FTTH
WHITE PAPER
Fiberstore White Paper | Drop Cable and Its Termination in FTTH
Round Drop Cable usually contains a single bend-insensitive fiber buffered and surrounded bydielectric strength members and an outer jacket, which can provide durability and reliability in thedrop segment of the network. The following shows the cross section of a round drop cable with onetight buffered optical fiber.
Drop Cable Connectivity Method: Splice or Connector?
It’s necessary to choose a right architecture for FTTH network from overall. However, drop cable asthe final connection from the fiber optic network to customer premises also plays an important role.Thus, finding a flexible, efficient and economical drop cable connectivity method becomes a crucialpart of broadband service. Whether to use a fiber optic connector, which can be easily mated andun-mated by hand or a splice, which is a permanent joint? The following will offer the answer andthe solutions for your applications.
It is known that splice, which eliminates the possibility of the connection point becoming damagedor dirty with a permanent joint, has better optical performance than fiber optic connector. However,splice lack of operational flexibility compared with fiber optic connector. Fiber optic connector canprovide an access point for networking testing which cannot be provided by splicing. Both methodshave their own pros and cons.
Generally, splice is recommended for drop cables in the places where no future fiber rearrangementis necessary, like a greenfield, new construction application where the service provider can easilyinstall all of the drop cables. Fiber optic connector is appropriate for applications which flexibility isrequired, like ONTs which have a connector interface.
WHITE PAPER
Fiberstore White Paper | Drop Cable and Its Termination in FTTH
Choosing the Right Splice MethodFor splice, there are two methods, one is fusion splicing, the other is mechanical splicing. Fusionsplicers have been proved to provide a high quality splice with low insertion loss and reflection.However, the initial capital expenditures, maintenance costs and slow installation speed of fusionsplicing hinder its status as the preferred solution in many cases. Mechanical splicing are widelyused in FTTH drop cable installation in countries, as a mechanical splice can be finished in the fieldby hand using simple hand tools and cheap mechanical splicer (showed in the following picture)within 2 minutes. It’s a commonly used method in many places, like China, Japan and Korea.However, in US mechanical splicing is not popular.
Choosing the Right ConnectorFor fiber optic connector, there are two types connector for drop cable connection. Field terminatedconnector, which contains fuse-on connector and mechanical connector, and pre-terminated dropcable, which is factory terminated with connector on the end of drop cable.
Fuse-on connector uses the same technology as fusion splicing to provide the high opticalconnection performance. However, it requires expensive equipment and highly trained technician,and more time like fusion splicing. Mechanical connector could be a replacement of fuse-onconnector (showed in the following picture), if the conditions do not fit the mentioned ones. Itcould be a time-save and cost-save solution for drop cable termination.
If you have no limits in cost and want high performance termination in a time-save way,pre-terminated drop cable could be your choice. Many factories can provide you customized dropcables in various fiber types, fiber optic connector and lengths.
WHITE PAPER
Fiberstore White Paper | Drop Cable and Its Termination in FTTH
Conclusion
Customer demand for higher bandwidth will continue to drive the development of FTTH as well asits key component like drop cable. Choosing the right drop cable and drop cable terminationmethod is as important as choosing the right network architecture in FTTH.
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Notice: This document is for informational purposes only and does not set forth any warranty, expressed orimplied, concerning any equipment, equipment features, or service offered or to be offered by Fiberstore.Fiberstore reserves the right to make changes to this document at any time, without notice, and assumes noresponsibility for its use. This information document describes features that may not be currently available.Contact a Fiberstore sales team for information on feature and product availability.
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