Hollowcore fiber optic cable enables 10G DWDM over 10km

30 Sep Hollowcore fiber optic cable enables 10G DWDM over 10km

30 Sep 2020

Lumenisity’s CoreSmart cable uses nested anti-resonant nodeless patented fiber technology.

University of Southampton spin-out Lumenisity, a developer of fiber optic and cabling technology, has launched its hollowcore CoreSmart fiber cable solutions for DWDM operation over links in excess of 10km.

Hollowcore fibers, in which light propagates in an air core formed by microscopic capillaries, have long been recognized as the next stage of advancement in fiber optic cable technology. They have advantages over conventional solid glass fibers: optical data travels 50% faster in hollowcore fiber as the light propagates in air, offering the potential for higher data capacity and extended reach due to the 1000x reduction in power-induced non-linear effects, states Lumenisity.

A key challenge has been both the design and manufacturing processes. In particular, for making fibers and to develop the cable and processes for seamless in-field installation in existing and green field networks. Lumenisity has solved many of these challenges in collaboration with the University of Southampton, to create rugged cables designed for deployment in significant lengths for metro networks.

Mike Fake, the company’s director responsible for Product Management, commented, “This is the first of several announcements where we will be exploiting our patented and ground breaking NANF technology to extend reach and bandwidth for our customers.”

Marcus Washco, Global Head of Networks for Jump Trading, an early user of the technology, commented, “The cables we have deployed from Lumenisity have exceeded our performance expectations. We selected Lumenisty as the best in class performing cable we are aware of and an impressive near term roadmap that will allow us to have much longer path lengths in our network”.

Design and specification

Lumenisity’s CoreSmart hollowcore cable uses a nested anti-resonant nodeless fiber (NANF) patented technology. The previous generation of hollowcore design, photonic bandgap fiber (PBGF), is inherently multi-moded and requires complex solutions to reduce the impact of parasitic modes on the hollowcore performance.

The launch statement says, “The new fiber is robustly single-moded, which provides continuous uninterrupted simultaneous single mode transmission at 1310nm, as well as over the full C and L bands and beyond. The advanced NANF technology offers the promise of realizing loss values at, or better than, conventional solid silica core fibers.”

CoreSmart hollowcore cable has losses of ~2dB/km over a wide temperature range – which Luemnisity claims is “the lowest loss deployable hollowcore cable commercially available.” The company added that its cables are being evaluated for much higher data rates over the coming months.

Lumenisity was formed in early 2017 as a spin out from the University of Southampton to commercialize breakthroughs in the development of hollow core optical fiber. The company has built a team of industry leaders and experts to realize their goal to be the world’s premier high-performance hollowcore fiber optic cable solutions.