Bend-Insensitive Fibres

Access network system evolution Advanced broadband wireless and FTTX networks are considered essential infrastructure to support economic growth. Deployments of FTTX and mobile networks have consumed more than hundreds of millions of fibre km per year to support the bandwidth demand of end users. Having deployed 1 Gigabit PONs (EPON and GPON), operators moved to a higher speed of 10 Gigabits in 2015: 10 Gigabit EPON (10G-EPON) and 10 Gigabit (symmetrical) PON, or XG(S)-PON. XG(S)-PON already used a broader spectrum than GPON, up to 1580 nm for downstream. These evolutions are expected to represent the largest market during the next decade. Next generation PON2, delivering 10 Gigabits per wavelength up to 1625 nm on a single fibre, was also standardised by ITU-T and it is expected to see significant market adoption in the coming years. The ITU and IEEE Standardisation bodies are now considering even higher speeds of 25 Gigabits and 50 Gigabits with high-speed PON (HS-PON) and WDM PON for 5G wireless fronthaul, where 20 channels resulting in an aggregate capacity of 500 Gigabits could be useful. Recently, operators have deployed WDM systems for mobile fronthaul. Both coarse WDM (CWDM) and dense WDM (DWDM) systems are being offered by equipment vendors. The adoption of WDM fronthaul puts extra constraints on the optical network, as more wavelengths are activated. As 5G grows and more antennas are deployed, WDM optics will also be required to manage system congestion. The long lifecycle of access infrastructure requires PON systems to be backwards compatible, with new, longer-wavelength windows needing to be activated. OTDR testing and monitoring signals will then be pushed up into the 1650 nm range, where cable constraints become critical. 1260 1280 1290 1480 1525 1550 1330 1500 1544 1560 1575 1581 1603 1675 1596 1625 GPON/EPON XGS/XGPON1/10-10EPON XGS/XGPON1/10-10EPON NGPON2 TWDM-PON GPON/EPON/1-10EPON TWDM-PON OTDR RF video PtP WDM-PON The increasing wavelength requirements of Passive Optical Networks