Update on optical fiber and cable standards

Daniel Daems Tyco Electronics Belgium

22 Jan 2010

Most relevant standardization bodies

Leading standardization bodies for:
Fibers: ITU-T SG15:
G650 test method series G651 multimode 50/125 m G652 dispersion unshifted singlemode optical fiber G653 dispersion shifted singlemode optical fiber G654 cut-off shifted singlemode optical fiber G655 non-zero dispersion-shifted singlemode optical fiber G656 non-zero dispersion-shifted singlemode fiber for wideband optical transport G657 bending loss insensitive singlemode optical fiber Recent changes seen in G657 for low bend loss fibers

FO Cables: IEC SC86A

60793 series for fibers 60794 series for cables Recent changes seen in patchcord cables IEC 60794-2-50 TELCORDIA GR 20

Daniel Daems March 2010

Slide 2

Low Optical Bend Loss Fibers

Why needed?
Cable attachments with staples!? Smaller boxes and wall outlets with fiber bend radius 20 mm

Staples

Sharp bends Corners According to Verizon the radius around corners and under staples can go down to 5 mm!
Daniel Daems March 2010 Slide 3

Low Optical Bend Loss Fibers

Bending loss performance of standard singlemode fiber (ITU-T G. 652D)
Spectral macrobending loss of SMF 28 fiber for 10 loops 4 3.6 3.2 MFD (1310 nm) : 8.9m ...9.5m

1625 nm results

Loss (in dB)

2.8 2.4 2 1.6 1.2 0.8 0.4 0 1250 1300

Radius 10 mm

Radius 30 mm 25 mm 20 mm 15 mm 10 mm

Radii 20 mm Radius 15 mm

Loss increase G.652 matched < 0.05 dB < 0.05 dB < 0.05 dB 0.49 dB 17.3 dB

1350

1400

1450

1500

1550

1600

1650

Wavelength (in nm)

Observations:
Loss becomes important once bending radius becomes smaller than 20 mm Splicing trays with 25 mm and 30 mm bending radius will not affect transmission at 1625 nm in G. 652D fibers In some limited cases (max 2 meter) a 20 mm radius is allowed (see ITU-T L13 and IEC 61756)
Daniel Daems March 2010 Slide 4

Low Optical Bend Loss Fibers

The traditional ITU-T G. 652D singlemode fiber Matched cladding

Refractive index profile: n

General:
Optimized bandwidth for 1310 nm transmission (= Minimum chromatic dispersion at 1310 nm) Lowest attenuation at 1550 nm

Characteristics: R
Core Cladding

Corning SMF 28e

Mode field diameter at 1310 nm: 9.2 m 0.4 m Mode field diameter at 1550 nm: 10.4 m 0.5 m Cladding diameter: 125 m 0.7 m Mode field concentricity error: 0.5 m @ 1310 nm 1550 nm loss performance: < 0.05 dB for 100 turns on 50 mm mandrel diameter Chromatic dispersion: 3.5 ps/(nm.km) @ 1310 nm 18 ps/(nm.km) @ 1550 nm PMD (fiber): 0.2 ps/km Proofstress strain test: 1% Attenuation: <0.35 dB @1310 nm and <0.25 dB @ 1550 nm Non colored coating diameter: 245 m 10 m Colored coating diameter: 250 m 15 m

Daniel Daems March 2010

Slide 5

Low Optical Bend Loss Fibers

Another traditional ITU-T G. 652D singlemode fiber... Depressed cladding

Refractive index profile: n

General:
Optimized bandwidth for 1310 nm transmission (= Minimum chromatic dispersion at 1310 nm) Lowest attenuation at 1550 nm

Characteristics (not up-to-date!): R

Mode Field Diameter at 1310 nm: 8.8 m 0.5 m Mode field diameter at 1550 nm: 9.7 m 0.6 m Cladding diameter: 125 m 1.0 m Mode field concentricity error: 0.8 m @ 1310 nm PMD (fiber): 0.5 ps/km at 1310 nm Chromatic dispersion: 18 ps/(nm.km)at 1550 nm 1550 nm loss performance: < 0.1 dB for 100 turns on 75 mm mandrel diameter Proofstress strain test: 1% Attenuation: <0.4 dB @1310 nm and <0.3 dB @ 1550 nm Non colored coating diameter: 245 m 10 m Colored coating diameter: 250 m 15 m

Lucent Bending loss performance is 5x better

Daniel Daems March 2010

Slide 6

Low Optical Bend Loss Fibers

How can you improve the bending loss performance?

Light in a waveguide is better contained when the difference of refractive index between the core and cladding is increased. This results in a better bend loss performance, but it will result in a lower bandwidth or transmission capacity (modal dispersion, higher chromatic dispersion)

Daniel Daems March 2010

Slide 7

Low Optical Bend Loss Fibers

Different low microbend loss fiber types
Refractive index

Matched cladding singlemode fiber (standard)

Better bend loss performance

The mechanical reliability remains the same for all these 125/250 m fibers since the cladding and coating has not changed!

Radius Refractive index

Depressed cladding singlemode fiber

Radius Refractive index

A lower refractive index can be achieved by fluor doped solid glass or by air-holes in glass Examples Hole Assisted Fiber (HAF):

Trench assisted
Radius Refractive index Refractive index

Ring assisted singlemode fiber

Radius

Hole assisted

Radius

Daniel Daems March 2010

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Low Optical Bend Loss Fibers

ITU-T G. 657 recommendation
ITU has published in Dec 2006 a recommendation for such fibers: ITU-T G.657A fiber: These are G. 652D fibers with tighter dimensional tolerances that will result in a better optical performance during bending. These fibers are also known as Low Macrobend Loss fibers. The specified minimum bending radius for optical attenuation is 10 mm. Roughly 10 times better bending performance than traditional single-mode fiber ITU-T G.657B fiber: Fibers designed to have a very low loss during bending, but they are not always compatible with the G. 652 fibers anymore and therefore restricted to shorter distances (associated with indoor cabling). These fibers can have connection and splicing problems for some types. These fibers are typically called Bend Tolerant Fibers. The specified minimum bending radius for optical attenuation is 7.5 mm. Roughly 100 times better bending performance than traditional single-mode fiber

Daniel Daems March 2010

Slide 9

Low Optical Bend Loss Fibers

Mechanical reliability concerns Installation inside houses:
Assume cable is routed though 3 rooms on the 1st floor:
1m

5m

4m

5m

7m

This results in about 15x 90turns around a corner When nails or staples are used every 30 cm, about 70 staples will be used in this example. Assume that each staple or nail creates a bend with radius 5 mm over 15 In total 2 meter of fiber is stored in the floor distribution box and wall terminal with radius 15 mm
Item Number of turns Length fiber under stress 0.125 meter 0,1 meter 2 meter Total probability: Probability failure over 25 years 10-5 10-5 8.10-6 3. 10-5

Corners Staples Boxes

15 x 90(5mm) 70 x 15(5 mm) 20 x 360(15 mm)

Important: In this case the estimated contribution of bending loss will be 1 dB at 1550 nm and 3 dB at 1625 nm for a G 657 B3 fiber!

Daniel Daems March 2010 Slide 10

Low Optical Bend Loss Fibers

Issues seen with bend insensitive fibers
Some fusion splicing machines do not recognize the core of the new fibers and will not perform a core alignment (switch to cladding alignment to solve this) Hole assisted fiber types give problems during fusion splicing (unexpected and unpredictable deformations). Fluids may enter the holes when cleaning the fiber ends with alcohol Higher losses seen when different fiber types are spliced or connected together (mode field diameter mismatch with most G. 657B type fibers). Losses above 1 dB can be seen!

Rt RR Insertion Loss = - 10 Log10 [ 4 ( + ) ] RR Rt Rt and RR = Mode Field Radii of connected fibers

Daniel Daems March 2010 Slide 11

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Low Optical Bend Loss Fibers

Issues seen with bend insensitive fibers
OTDR traces will show strange effects (gainers or higher losses) when mixing fiber types in connections or splices! Non-trained installers might make wrong conclusions about the splice loss or connector loss quality!
652 652 652 652 652

OTDR

Loss

Distance

OTDR

652

657

652

657

652

Loss seems high

Loss

Loss seems high

Distance Daniel Daems March 2010 Slide 12

IEC fiber standards

IEC SC86A Working group 1 (fibers) Mainly copy of ITU-T G6xx fiber documents for the singlemode fibers, but IEC 86A is the leader for the multimode fiber specifications.
Fiber standards 60793-1-1 60793-2-10 60793-2-20 60793-2-30 60793-2-40 60793-2-50 60793-2-60 Title Optical fibres - Part 1-1: Measurement methods and test procedures - General and guidance Optical fibres - Part 2-10: Product specifications - Sectional specification for category A1 multimode fibres Optical fibres - Part 2-20: Product specifications - Sectional specification for category A2 multimode fibres Optical fibres - Part 2-30: Product specifications - Sectional specification for category A3 multimode fibres Optical fibres - Part 2-40: Product specifications - Sectional specification for category A4 multimode fibres Optical fibres - Part 2-50: Product specifications - Sectional specification for class B single-mode fibres Optical fibres - Part 2-60: Product specifications - Sectional specification for category C single-mode intraconnection fibres

Daniel Daems March 2010 Slide 13

IEC cable standards

IEC SC86A Working group 3 Leading group for cable "family specifications". In fact a set of test is standardized, but the severities can be freely chosen between the manufacturer or customer in the detail specifications. As a result, there are no real worldwide "cable standards" existing for pigtail cables or other cables!
Cable standards 60794-1-1 60794-1-2 60794-2 60794-2-10 60794-2-11 60794-2-20 60794-2-21 60794-2-30 60794-2-31 60794-2-40 60794-2-50 Title Optical fibre cables - Part 1-1: Generic specification - General Optical fibre cables - Part 1-2: Generic specification - Basic optical cable test procedures Optical fibre cables - Part 2: Indoor cables - Sectional specification Optical fibre cables - Part 2-10: Indoor cables - Family specification for simplex and duplex cables Optical fibre cables - Part 2-11: Indoor cables - Detailed specification for simplex and duplex cables for use in premises cabling Optical fibre cables - Part 2-20: Indoor cables - Family specification for multi-fibre optical distribution cables Optical fibre cables - Part 2-21: Indoor cables - Detailed specification for multi-fibre optical distribution cables for use in premises cabling Optical fibre cables - Part 2-30: Indoor cables - Family specification for ribbon cables Optical fibre cables - Part 2-31: Indoor cables - Detailed specification for optical fibre ribbon cables for use in premises cabling Optical fibre cables - Part 2-40: Indoor optical fibre cables - Family specification for A4 fibre cables Optical fibre cables - Part 2-50: Indoor cables - Family specification for simplex and duplex cables for use in terminated cable assemblies

Daniel Daems March 2010 Slide 14

IEC cable standards

Cable specifications (continued)
Cable standards 60794-2-51 60794-3 60794-3-10 60794-3-11 60794-3-12 60794-3-20 60794-3-21 60794-3-30 60794-3-40 60794-3-50 60794-3-60 60794-4 60794-4-10 60794-5 60794-5-10 60794-5-20 Title Optical fibre cables Part 2-51: Indoor optical fibre cables Product specification for simplex and duplex cables for use in cords for controlled environment Optical fibre cables - Part 3: Sectional specification - Outdoor cables Optical fibre cables - Part 3-10: Outdoor cables - Family specification for duct, directly buried and lashed aerial optical telecommunication cables Optical fibre cables - Part 3-11: Outdoor cables - Detailed specification for duct and directly buried single-mode optical fibre telecommunication cables Optical fibre cables - Part 3-12: Outdoor cables - Detailed specification for duct and directly buried optical telecommunication cables for use in premises cabling Optical fibre cables - Part 3-20: Outdoor cables - Family specification for self-supporting aerial telecommunication cables Optical fibre cables - Part 3-21: Outdoor cables - Detailed specification for optical self-supporting aerial telecommunication cables for use in premises cabling Optical fibre cables - Part 3-30: Outdoor cables - Family specification for optical telecommunication cables for lakes, river crossings and coastal applications Optical fibre cables - Part 3-40: Outdoor cables - Family specification for sewer cables and conduits for installation by blowing and/or pulling in non-man accessible storm and sanitary sewers Optical fibre cables - Part 3-50: Outdoor cables - Family specification for gas pipe cables and subducts for installation by blowing and/or pulling/dragging in gas pipes Optical fibre cables - Part 3-60: Outdoor cables - Family specification for drinking water pipe cables and subducts for installation by blowing and/or pulling/dragging/floating in drinking water pipes Optical fibre cables - Part 4: Sectional specification - Aerial optical cables along electrical power lines Optical fibre cables - Part 4-10: Aerial optical cables along electrical power lines - Family specification for OPGW (Optical Ground Wires) Optical fibre cables - Part 5: Sectional specification - Microduct cabling for installation by blowing Optical fibre cables: Part 5-10 Family specification for outdoor microduct optical fibre cables, microducts and protected microducts for installation by blowing Optical fibre cables - Part 5-20: Family specification for outdoor microduct fibre units, microducts and protected microducts for installation by blowing

Daniel Daems March 2010 Slide 15

Low Optical Bend Loss Fibers

Conclusions ITU-T G.657 A1 and A2 fibers are gaining market share in the distribution part of the network (till the wall outlet). For indoor cabling the G 657 B types might be considered as well. Watch out! Cable manufacturers can misuse the advantages of bend improved fibers for making lower quality cables! Specifications should be carefully updated to avoid more cable end interface issues.

Daniel Daems March 2010 Slide 16