In recent years, the industry has been focusing on reducing the footprint of fiber optic network. It can be said that about in 2005, with the development of small bending radius (RBR) fiber by fiber optic suppliers, the trend toward development of smaller cable and hardware had begun to appear. Soon after this new optical waveguide design appeared, people developed international standards, the ie ITU G657, to regulate it. Subsequently, the optical fiber's tolerance to the macrobend and microbend is gradually increased, these fibers which can be "tied knot" begin to allow achieving a smaller size the cable design.

Small Bend Radius Fiber Has High Efficiency

Macrobend is a simple phenomenon easy to understand. For macrobend's performance, ITU G657 stipulates the special optical loss specification at special bend radius. However, some parlances consider the main features that the improved macrobend's performance comes from the small bend radius can achieve smaller size and higher performance cabling. A method for the actual analysis of the differences between the macrobend and microbend is to make a single fiber convolving on your finger to measure macrobend fiber loss, meanwhile put a piece of sandpaper on the fiber and measure the corresponding microbend loss, and then compare the differences between the two.

In the both cases, the underlying optical phenomenons which cause signal loss have a very big difference. When the fiber optic cable is exposed to low temperatures, its material will tend to shrink, and a force is applied along the length along the fiber, which can cause microbend in the fiber optic cable. For example, the improvement of fiber optic cable's microbend tolerance can undoubtedly help to withstand large temperature variations.

Global fiber optic cable manufacturers are utilizing the feature of optical fiber's small bending radius. Their desire is to develope the method that using the fiber optic cable as same as using copper cable - rugged, small size, practical, anyone can easily operate, and will not damage the optical fiber. To achieve this goal, they have also made innovation to the material that used in the fiber optic cables' manufacturing process. Small bend radius fiber bending performance has been enhanced to promote the new materials and manufacturing techniques used in the manufacture of fiber optic cable, which makes the fiber optic cable having the smaller size and lighter weight. Until these problems were solved together, the new generation cable of smaller in size, greater flexibility could be produced.

A major factor in the small radius of the fiber optic cable is the plugged wire and other direct connection cable. Except the obvious benefit of installing more fiber optic cables in the same space, smaller cable size can also speed up the flow of air, because the cables occupy fewer duct space. With active electronic component suppliers trying the miniaturization of electronic enclosures, the importance of this advantage will become more apparent. In such electronic cabinets, heat gradually become an important issue. Typically, one would consider the airflow along the copper (copper itself generates heat), but with the equipment cabinet becoming smaller and hotter, various aspects of the airflow become very important.
Smaller Direct Connection Fiber Optic Cables And Fiber Patch Cables Have Emerged

Smaller size, that's beyond imagination. This phenomenon might not be so obvious now, but as the diameter of the round cable is reduced by one unit, the space occupied by the cable (the circular area) would be reduced much more accordingly. Therefore, the cable diameter is slightly reduced could mean greatly reduction of occupied space. Compared the typically 2.0mm cable to 1.2 mm cable, it can be clearly seen that although the cable diameter is reduced less than a half, the number of cables in the same space (1 square inch) can be mounted is almost 3 times as the original.

In the late 10 years of 2000s, Telcordia released revision 2 for widely used GR-409 standard straight cable. The sub-categories called "mini" cable included in Revision 2, allowed lower production strength of the cable in accordance with GR-409 standard. Revision 2 reduced provisions to the tensile strength of the so-called small package installation, allowing the cable to withstand 9 pounds (40N) of installed load, rather than 22 pounds (100N) standard mounting load. At the time, it was widely believed that reducing the intensity of the production of smaller cable size was required. Compared with a rated load of 22 pounds of cable, the fiber optic cables which rated tensile load of nine pounds require more careful to avoid damaging the cable to installation personnel.

However, at present, the material that some with small bend radius optical fiber based cable actually uses, design, and methodology make the fiber optic cable's size smaller, and beyond the original 22 pounds tensile load installation which GR-409 requirements. For example, 1.2mm direct connection cable is now available and can support 30 pounds of rated installation load. Compared to the nominal small cable 2.0mm, this means that the new cable diameter of 1.2mm is three times the intensity, and only occupies a third of the space.

So, soon after, data center managers and other staff will be able to install fiber optic cables much smaller in size than the previous, while will not passively select GR-409's small package, so as not to reduce the cable strength. Look forward to in the near future, we can see hardware which has more smaller size than ever, so we can achieve higher density and more compact cabling management, while ensuring the reliability of the network.