109 Terabits Per Second Over Single Fiber Optic Cable Sets New World Record
The National Institute of Information and Communications in Tokyo has achieved a world speed record of sending 109 terabits per second over a single fibre optic cable. The cable the team used contained a single fiber with seven “light-guiding cores,” whereas a regular fiber optic cable contains a single core. Each core managed to carry 15.6 terabits per second.
Tim Strong of TeleGeography Research says that the new record speed is far beyond the world’s current capacity, as the total capacity of one of the world’s busiest routes, between New York and Washington D.C., is only a few terabits per second, a speed dwarfed by the 109 terabits per second record. Strong does point out, however, that traffic has been growing 50 percent each year for the past few years.
The runner-up record-setter, Dayou Qian, achieved a speed of 101.7 terabits per second using a method that employed 370 separate lasers, each one carrying a small amount of information, but combining to form a large, single data transfer sent down 165 kilometers of fiber optics.
Though these speeds aren’t practically applied anywhere as of yet, it’s not a stretch to think huge data centers may be using these methods of data transfer soon, as we live in a world dominated by the Internet, and companies like Google and Amazon are gigantic and show no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Fiber Optics Safety
When most people think of safety in fiber optic installations, the first thing that comes to mind is eye damage from laser light in the fiber. They have an image of a laser burning holes in metal or perhaps burning off warts. While these images may be real for their applications, they have little relevance to most types of fiber optic communications. Eye safety is an issue, but usually not from light in the fiber. However, fiber optics installation is not without risks.
Eye Safety
Optical sources used in fiber optics, especially LEDs used in premises networks, are of much lower power levels than used for laser surgery or cutting materials. Even the output of OTDRs, WDM and fiber amplifier systems, which are much higher than LED systems, are still well below that used in laser surgery or machining.
The light that exits an optical fiber is also spreading out in a cone, so the farther away from the end of the fiber your eye is, the lower the amount of power your eye receives. If you are using a microscope, which can efficiently focus all the light into your eye, it should have infrared filters to reduce the danger of invisible infrared light.
The infrared light in fiber optic links is at a wavelength that cannot penetrate your eye easily because it’s absorbed by the water in your eyeball. Light in the 1300-1550 nm range is unlikely to damage your retina, but might harm the cornea or lens.
A typical laser pointer, which has a beam that is collimated (not expanding), and is at visible wavelength (650 nm) where the eye is transparent, is probably more danger to the retina than a fiber optic link.
That being said, it’s not a good idea to look into a fiber unless you know no source is being transmitted down it. Since the light is infrared, you can’t see it, which means you cannot tell if there is light present by looking at it. You should always check the fiber with a power meter before examining it.
The real issue of eye safety is getting fiber scraps into the eye. As part of the termination and splicing process, you will be continually exposed to small scraps of bare fiber, cleaved off the ends of the fibers being terminated or spliced. These scraps are very dangerous. If they get into your eyes, they are very hard to flush out and will probably lead to a trip to the emergency room at the hospital. Whenever you are working with fiber, wear safety glasses!
Bare Fiber Safety
The broken ends of fibers and scraps of fiber created during termination and splicing can be extremely dangerous. The ends are extremely sharp and can easily penetrate your skin. They invariably break off and are very hard to find and remove. Sometimes a pair of tweezers and perhaps a magnifying glass will get them out. Most of the time, you have to wait to let them infect and work themselves out, which can be painful!
Be careful when handling fibers to not stick the broken ends into your fingers. Dispose of all scraps properly. Some people keep a piece of double stick tape on the bench to stick fiber scraps onto. I prefer to use a dedicated container for all fiber scraps. In our training programs, we use the same paper containers used for takeout at the deli, in the pint size, with a lid. We put all the scraps in the container, then when finished, put on the lid, tape it and dispose of it later. Do not drop fiber scraps on the floor where they will stick in carpets or shoes and be carried elsewhere-like home!
Obviously do not eat or drink anywhere near the work area. Fiber scraps can get into food or drink and be swallowed. The scraps can imbed themselves in you digestive system and never be found. Doesn’t sound too appetizing, does it?!
Materials Safety
Fiber optic splicing and termination use various chemical cleaners and adhesives as part of the processes. Normal handling procedures for these substances should be observed. If you are not certain of how to deal with them, ask the manufacturer for a MSDS. Always work in well-ventilated areas. Avoid skin contact as much as possible, and stop using chemicals that cause allergic reactions. Even simple isopropyl alcohol, used as a cleaner, is flammable and should be handled carefully.
Fire Safety
Note that fusion splicers use an electric arc to make splices, so care must be taken to insure no flammable gasses are contained in the space where fusion splicing is done. Splicing is never done in manholes where gasses can accumulate. The cables are brought up to the surface into a splicing trailer where all fiber work is done. Of course the splicing trailer is temperature-controlled and kept spotlessly clean to insure good splicing.
Smoking should also not be allowed around fiber optic work. The ashes from smoking contribute to the dirt problems with fibers, in addition to the chance of explosions due to the presence of combustible substances.
Electrical Safety
You might be wondering what electrical safety has to do with fiber optics. Well fiber cables are often installed around electrical cables. Electricians are well-trained in electrical safety, but some fiber optic installers are not. We’ve heard rumors of fiber installers being shocked when working around electrical cables, but know that two fiber installers were killed when working on aerial cables because we heard about it from OSHA.
These two installers were installing all-dielectric self-supporting aerial cables on poles. The hangers, however, were metal and over six feet long. Both had attached the hangers to the poles, then when installing the fiber cables had rotated the hangers enough to contact high-voltage lines.
So even if the fiber is not conductive, fiber hardware can conduct electricity or the installer can come in contact with live electrical wires when working in proximity to AC power.
History of Fiber Optics
As far back as Roman times, glass has been drawn into fibers. Yet, it was not until the 1790s that the French Chappe brothers invented the first “optical telegraph.” It was a system comprised of a series of lights mounted on towers where operators would relay a message from one tower to the next. Over the course of the next century great strides were made in optical science.
John Tyndall, British physicist, demonstrated that light signals could be bent.
In the 1840s, physicists Daniel Collodon and Jacques Babinet showed that light could be directed along jets of water for fountain displays. In 1854, John Tyndall, a British physicist, demonstrated that light could travel through a curved stream of water thereby proving that a light signal could be bent. He proved this by setting up a tank of water with a pipe that ran out of one side. As water flowed from the pipe, he shone a light into the tank into the stream of water. As the water fell, an arc of light followed the water down.
Alexander Graham Bell patented an optical telephone system called the photophone in 1880. His earlier invention, the telephone, proved to be more realistic however. That same year, William Wheeler invented a system of light pipes lined with a highly reflective coating that illuminated homes by using light from an electric arc lamp placed in the basement and directing the light around the home with the pipes.
Bell patented an optical telephone system which assisted in the advancement of optical technology.
Doctors Roth and Reuss, of Vienna, used bent glass rods to illuminate body cavities in 1888. French engineer Henry Saint-Rene designed a system of bent glass rods for guiding light images seven years later in an early attempt at television. In 1898, American David Smith applied for a patent on a dental illuminator using a curved glass rod.
In the 1920s, John Logie Baird patented the idea of using arrays of transparent rods to transmit images for television and Clarence W. Hansell did the same for facsimiles. Heinrich Lamm, however, was the first person to transmit an image through a bundle of optical fibers in 1930. It was an image of a light bulb filament. His intent was to look inside inaccessible parts of the body, but the rise of the Nazis forced Lamm, a Jew, to move to America and abandon his dream of becoming a professor of medicine. His effort to file a patent was denied because of Hansell’s British patent.
In 1951, Holger Moeller applied for a Danish patent on fiber-optic imaging in which he proposed cladding glass or plastic fibers with a transparent low-index material, but was denied because of Baird and Hansell’s patents. Three years later, Abraham Van Heel and Harold H. Hopkins presented imaging bundles in the British journalNature at separate times. Van Heel later produced a cladded fiber system that greatly reduced signal interference and crosstalk between fibers.
Also in 1954, the “maser” was developed by Charles Townes and his colleagues at Columbia University. Maser stands for “microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.”
The laser was introduced in 1958 as a efficient source of light. The concept was introduced by Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow to show that masers could be made to operate in optical and infrared regions. Basically, light is reflected back and forth in an energized medium to generate amplified light as opposed to excited molecules of gas amplified to generate radio waves, as is the case with the maser. Laser stands for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.”
A helium-neon gas laser (He-Ne) is tested in a laboratory setting. The laser tube is made from lead glass- the same glass used in neon signs. Image courtesy of J&K Lasers.
In 1960, the first continuously operating helium-neon gas laser is invented and tested. That same year an operable laser was invented which used a synthetic pink ruby crystal as the medium and produced a pulse of light.
In 1961, Elias Snitzer of American Optical published a theoretical description of single mode fibers whose core would be so small it could carry light with only one wave-guide mode. Snitzer was able to demonstrate a laser directed through a thin glass fiber which was sufficient for medical applications, but for communication applications the light loss became too great.
Charles Kao and George Hockham, of Standard Communications Laboratories in England, published a paper in 1964 demonstrating, theoretically, that light loss in existing glass fibers could be decreased dramatically by removing impurities.
In 1970, the goal of making single mode fibers with attenuation less then 20dB/km was reached by scientists at Corning Glass Works. This was achieved through doping silica glass with titanium. Also in 1970, Morton Panish and Izuo Hayashi of Bell Laboratories, along with a group from the Ioffe Physical Institute in Leningrad, demonstrated a semiconductor diode laser capable of emitting continuous waves at room temperature.
Military scientists have utilized laser technology for variety of military applications.
In 1973, Bell Laboratories developed a modified chemical vapor deposition process that heats chemical vapors and oxygen to form ultra-transparent glass that can be mass-produced into low-loss optical fiber. This process still remains the standard for fiber-optic cable manufacturing.
The first non-experimental fiber-optic link was installed by the Dorset (UK) police in 1975. Two years later, the first live telephone traffic through fiber optics occurs in Long Beach, California.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, telephone companies began to use fibers extensively to rebuild their communications infrastructure.
Sprint was founded on the first nationwide, 100 percent digital, fiber-optic network in the mid-1980s.
The erbium-doped fiber amplifier, which reduced the cost of long-distance fiber systems by eliminating the need for optical-electrical-optical repeaters, was invented in 1986 by David Payne of the University of Southampton and Emmanuel Desurvire at Bell Labratories. Based on Desurvire’s optimized laser amplification technology, the first transatlantic telephone cable went into operation in 1988.
In 1991, Desurvire and Payne demonstrated optical amplifiers that were built into the fiber-optic cable itself. The all-optic system could carry 100 times more information than cable with electronic amplifiers. Also in 1991, photonic crystal fiber was developed. This fiber guides light by means of diffraction from a periodic structure rather then total internal reflection which allows power to be carried more efficiently then with conventional fibers therefore improving performance.
The first all-optic fiber cable, TPC-5, that uses optical amplifiers was laid across the Pacific Ocean in 1996. The following year the Fiber Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) became the longest single-cable network in the world and provided the infrastructure for the next generation of Internet applications.
Today, a variety of industries including the medical, military, telecommunication, industrial, data storage, networking, and broadcast industries are able to apply and use fiber optic technology in a variety of applications.
Fiber Optics Is A Growing Field (w/video)
Hey guys I thought I would share our new video, there are tons of jobs out there in the fiber optics industry so put together a small video that highlights the way fiber optics is an in demand field.
New Online Fiber Optics Training Program
The National Communications Training Centers are introducing a brand new Online Fiber Optics Training Program. We have been in business for over 10 years and have great success in producing grade A fiber optics technicians. Now you can take part in that with our Online Fiber Optics Training Program. It includes tools, book, video lectures, and you get certified by Draka. For more information check out www.nctcfiberonline.com
NCTC Direct Magazine Release
Hey guys, we just released NCTC Direct Magazine Issue 1, you can pick it up on the Barnes & Noble Digital Market & Amazon Kindle Market or you can get your free digital copy from www.nctclink.to
Jack’s Corner: Testing
Folks,
I understand that we all do not get a chance to test our work, although I don’t think I could sleep at night knowing that I was going to let someone else test my cables. I believe and was taught and preach that once you run your cable, connectorize/terminate it, then you test what you’ve run. Sometimes, companies/customers do not want the installer to test, and let it out to a third party – I know, I get this. But for me, preaching “Craftmanship” I couldn’t let that happen. Even if I knew that someone else was to test the cable infrastructure – I would still test (even just for continuity/wire mapping). But on some installs – this doesn’t happen. I believe this a bad practice, because a simple fix could fix a simple problem. And we all know how, with email being all over the place, how just one little old email can start the avalanche of: cables bad, must be the tech, check the connectors, who tested the run(s), who made the connectors, is he/she qualified/competent/supervised, where’s the foreman…..We all can imagine what the “higher ups” will think. That is the one big reason that after I install cables, I test them – for my own “peace of mind” & to take away the opportunity for the “BOSS” to scream at the top of their lungs at me or my crew. But that’s just me – again trying to cover my & my crews assets in all circumstances. But there are companies out there that still do not let the installers test their own work.
I was taught: “you mess-up, you fess-up, you fix-it.
..//jr//
Jack’s Corner: Safety Issues
Folks,
I understand that this information is a “no-brainer” but I have to mention it just once.
SAFETY equipment is used not for the company, the boss, the foreman, or even OSHA = Its for YOU/US.
Boots: of course we wear boots. Boots come in handy on all job sites – they can save toes, ankles, in-steps, heals – its a “no-brainer”
Long Pants/Long Sleeved Shirts: of course we wear our Carthart gear proudly, or Dickies with Pride, or even the tried and true Levi’s gear. It protects the body parts we want to protect and go home the same way (or better) than we came to work in – its a “no-brainer”
Gloves: of course we wear our gloves. Have you ever met a telecomm guy working in the field for a couple of years and see their hands (the ones that don’t wear gloves) – cracked, red, sometimes swollen, and itchy at night (at least mine were), until I cowboyed up and used gloves. Of course you could be putting lotion on the hands all the time, but I gave that up for the Gloves – its a “no-brainer”
Hard hats: or course we wear hard hats. But for years in the business, we weren’t required to wear Hard hats, but now find a job site/work place that doesn’t wear them and its a rare site. Hard hats protect the head/face/neck – all of which are kind of important to us so – its a “no-brainer”
Safety Glasses: of course we wear our Safety Glasses. Safety Glasses protect one of the most precious and important body parts we have. I am sure that all of us out there have stories to tell about Safety Glasses, either good or bad, but I suggest you wear them no matter how you look, as long as your eyes are protected, who cares what we look like, this ain’t no beauty contest – we are here to work and get paid. We only have two so lets protect them – its a “no-brainer”
This is all very simple, but I’d like to get the point across that the safety gear is not for the higher ups – but for us. Please use all the safety gear available to you as its a way for you to go home after work in the same condition you arrived at work in.
“IT’S A NO-BRAINER”
..//jr//
Jack’s Corner: Tool-age
Folks,
One thing that annoy’s foreman, supervisors, workers in general, are the people who “have tools” but don’t bring them to the job site or people who don’t have tools (leatherman/gerbers are not a tool bag) and can’t bring them to the job site. Its very simple folks – we work with our hands and tools are extensions of the hands. If we can’t do it with our fingers – break out the tool(s). And if you’ve been to any tool store – it seems that they make tools for everything possible. Or if you’re one of the people that brings extra tools for others (there is always one nice guy that supports the entire crew) thats not right either. And how often do those tools get back to the owner? For me – its a matter of pride and preparedness to have a complete tool kit/bag/case, when I report to the job site and start working. I believe thats called being a “Professional” and thats what we strive for..//jr//
Jack’s Corner: Covering your Assets
Folks,
Covering your Assets is an essential part of our industry. What I mean is that when working out in the field, you should always carry a small note book (now a blackberry is the norm) on the job site. That little note book can/will save your job when asked “what are you doing” or “who told you to do that.” This probably has happened to people out there more than once. But when asked, “what are you doing, or who told you to do that” you can whip out your Blackberry or notebook and give all the info needed to the supervisor. As long as you put a little information about what is needed, time/date, and who told you to do what your doing. This technique has worked for me and others for many, many years. And its not like you’re ratting out your friends, but you are documenting what you are doing (as instructed to do per the NEC). That way – you are doing what you’re told to do, documenting what you’re doing, and covering your assets, especially when asked “Who told you to do that.”
..//jr//
