Can L.110 Optical Cable

lower fibre rollout costs?

TECHNOLOGY

Laying fibre optic cables involves a specific set of skills and dedicated machinery. However, the new L.110 standard specifies a lightweight optical cable that could make rolling out broadband networks faster and less costly.

Interview with Lionel Provost,

Prysmian Group R&D, Telecom, Optical Fibre

 

How much of network CAPEX is usually spent on fibre cable installation?

 

What are the risks of using unskilled labour and non-purpose built tools?

There may be a risk of damage to the cable or the fibre inside due to excess mechanical stress during unreeling and residual strains due to poor handling. What’s more, there is always a chance that something might happen that could reduce the cable’s reliability over its expected lifetime.

 

Which pros and cons do you see in using L.110?

Compared with duct cable, L.110 cable is more prone to external adverse effects throughout its lifetime. There are many of these factors to take into consideration: water, chemical, crush, UV, temperature change… (The temperature impact is lower for a buried or a duct cable, as the soil acts as a temperature protection buffer). Resistance to crush is also key and is more demanding, and there are other mechanical effects to consider

 

There is a trade-off between the ease of installation and the expected or desired performance of cabling, which might exceed performance of other solutions (such as cabling in ducts or direct buried cables). There is no specific guidance in this area yet, but the design of the cable may be more complex.

 

The current L.110 document only lists standard characteristics of the fibre and cables on manufacturer/end user has to agree upon. More feedback about these solutions from the field is to be expected (some are reported as appendix of L.110).

 

The benefit is the fact that this solution could offer a quick, low cost solutions for roll out of cabling in different conditions (buried, aerial, temporary) and that it can be deployed or maintained by people without specific training, which also helps reduce cost. Although this could be useful for Rural FTTH across Europe, for example, the business case described for L.110 seems more geared toward developing countries.

 

L.110 Optical Fibre Cables for Direct Surface Application has been developed within the framework of Recommendation ITU-T L.1700. This builds on existing technologies to create a definition for (largely technology-neutral) low-cost, sustainable broadband backhaul infrastructure.

 

© Copyright Prysmian Group.

All rights reserved.

© Copyright Prysmian Group.

All rights reserved.