It is known that fiber optic patch cables or fiber optic cable jumpers play important roles in telecommunication networks. With fiber optic patch cable being widely used in a variety of industries and places, standard fiber patch cables cannot satisfy some special application environments. For example, due to the fragile nature of glass fiber, standard patch cables are typically very susceptible to damage upon maximum bending or twisting when installed in corners and narrow spaces. This may cause bend loss issues, which not only result in ongoing intermittent failures for network managers, but also post difficulty in locating and resolving. With lower optical power loss under bend conditions, bend insensitive fiber patch cable presents the solution to this problem. This post will introduce what bend insensitive patch cable is from the aspects of design and advantage.
Bend insensitive (BI) patch cable is similar to standard fiber patch cable, except that it adds a layer of glass around the core of the fiber which has a lower index of refraction that literally “reflects” the weakly guided modes back into the core when stress normally causes them to be coupled into the cladding (Some early depressed-cladding patch cables used a similar technology to contain the light in the core of the fiber but this design has a much stronger effect.). The trench, also called as moat, surrounds the core in both BISMF and BIMMF to reflect lost light back into the core. The trench is just an annular ring of lower index glass surrounding the core with very carefully designed geometry to maximize the effect. The following picture shows the differences between standard multimode patch cable and BIMMF patch cable.
Compared to traditional fiber patch cable, bend insensitive patch cable is with several advantages.
One of the most attractive features is that bend insensitive patch cables have greater material flexibility than standard patch cables. The material flexibility of a cable depends on whether its bend radius is small or big. Bend radius is the minimum radius one can bend a pipe, tube, sheet, cable or hose without kinking it, damaging it, or shortening its life. The smaller the bend radius is, the greater is the material flexibility (see in the following picture). For most standard patch cables, the bend radius is 30 nm, while multimode bend insensitive patch cables are only with a minimum bend radius of 7.5 nm.
Another advantage of bend insensitive patch cable is that it can be compatible with conventional patch cable and can be mixed with other conventional (non-BI) patch cable without inducing excess loss. Therefore, BI patch cable and standard one could easily be mixed in an optical channel without complicating the estimation of losses. Besides, bend insensitive patch cable may lead to higher tolerance to possible misalignment when two connectors are mated. This is an additional positive feature for 40G and 100G applications.
Bend insensitive fiber optic patch cable is commonly used in the following applications:
- When cables are required to be installed in corners or in tight spaces, for example FTTH installation.
- Data center where network uptime is critical. For example, OM4 RBS patch cord will continue to provide data service when pinched by a cabinet door, whereas service would be lost with conventional OM4 patch cord.
- When small radius installation is needed or the cabling may be subjected to occasional small radius events.
Since bend insensitive patch cable is made of solid trench assisted optical fiber which is designed to reduce signal loss, so that you won’t be worried bend loss issues any more. Now, more and more data centers and FTTH systems are tending to use these bend insensitive fiber patch cables. FS.COM is committed to customer satisfaction. In accordance with this, each of standard bend insensitive fiber patch cable assemblies is altered to meet any customer unique requirements. And our bend insensitive patch cables are terminated with various connectors, such as LC to SC, LC to FC, and LC to LC, etc. For more detailed information, please visit FS.COM or contact sales@fs.com.
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