Date: 14/05/2010

New area submarine optical fiber by Corning for better performance

Corning has introduced the new area submarine optical fiber. Vascade EX2000 optical fiber has a typical effective area of 112 square microns (µm2) and average attenuation of 0.162 decibel of loss per kilometer (dB/km) at 1550 nanometers (nm). This design allows extending of system reach and reducing the number of amplifiers in submarine networks with repeaters. In submarine networks without repeaters this fiber can accommodate higher optical launch power and high system span length. This new optical fiber will be used to develop its dispersion-managed fiber solution, Vascade R2000 fiber, which enables high data rates.

"Large effective area and ultra low loss are essential fiber attributes that improve system performance and bring cost-saving benefits to any system operating at very high data rates. Today, we face the first deployment of 40 Gb/s systems in submarine networks, and we expect that Vascade R2000 fiber and Vascade EX2000 fiber will play a critical role," said Barry Linchuck, director, worldwide marketing, Corning Optical Fiber. "Industry trends point to the deployment of higher line rates and higher capacity. This drives the need to develop and offer new submarine optical fibers and unique dispersion-managed optical fiber solutions. We believe that Corning innovation is at the forefront of these developments."

Vascade EX2000 optical fiber is fully qualified and is being sampled and tested by submarine-system vendors around the world.