Outside plant costs usually account for about 40 percent to 50 percent of FTTx deployment costs. With that in mind, Corning at the recent OFC show, debuted new outside plant devices aimed at simplifying fiber installation and maintenance.
Corning’s new OptiSheath Advantage Terminal is a small, oblong enclosure that sits in a neighborhood to feed fiber to homes. The device has preinstalled pigtails, so fusion splicing is done at network installation and the box never needs to be opened again. Instead, when it is time to connect customers, the technician simply screws in the pre-connectorized drop cable and does the same at the network interface device on the customer’s home. This method can result in time savings of up to 50 percent and labor cost savings of up to 40 percent, vs. traditional installation methods.
Also announced at the fiber optics show in Los Angeles were new Corning OptiTect cabinets. One model called the FDH-SE, displayed on the show floor, separates fusion splicing from splitters and crossconnects because patching and splitting are done by different types of technicians. Splicing is located in a drawer at the bottom of the enclosure, where feeder and distribution cable are located. And in the general part of the cabinet, Corning included a “parking lot” to house fibers that are hanging if there are open ports or couplers.
Available now, the cabinet for FTTx has a 432-home capacity. The previously released cabinet served a maximum of just 192 homes.
Corning also recently launched a specialized FTTx fiber-optic cable. NexCor optical fiber offers more power for long reach, higher split ratios or both. This fiber cable has what is called an improved stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold of more than 3 dB over other standard single-mode fibers, an increase that enables twice the launch power for triple play networks.
