BendBright XS Whitepaper

What is bend-insensitivity? There are two types of bend-insensitivity: Millimetre-range macrobend-insensitivity Macrobends are visible to the naked eye, such as fibre cabling which bends around corners, inside splicing closures and within connectivity devices. Macrobending is especially likely to occur within high-density networks, as space is limited to route and accommodate fibres within connectivity devices. Micrometre-rangemicrobend-insensitivity Microbends refer to microscopic local effects on a cable – for example, cable material squeezing the fibre. Such bends can occur due to the cable’s reduced diameter, or because the cable has been squeezed by external pressure – common over the long life-cycle of a cable. Microbends can also occur during temperature variations, which can induce material shrinkage. Microbending is especially likely to occur within high-density cables, as fibres can touch due to material shrinkage or other strain. While BendBright XS fibres were initially developed with macrobend-insensitivity in mind, they also outperform all other existing fibre types for microbend-insensitivity. Pencil Testing: A bend-insensitive BendBright XS G.657.A2 fibre patchcord loses only 0.2 dB when twisted twice around a pencil, whereas a ‘regular’ fibre loses more than 11 dB Reference 0 dB G.652.D -11 dB BendBright XS -0.2 dB Macrobending loss induced by 2 turns around a pencil Fibre types Microbend loss Macrobend loss Bend-insensitive fibres significantly reduce microbend and macrobend losses across the entire wavelength spectrum used by current and future PON. Fibre types