Transcript:
Hi, I’m Mark Boxer Technical Manager for Solutions and Applications Engineering for OFS and this is what’s new in my world.
We are seeing a tremendous amount of recognition around the country that fiber is the answer for connectivity now and into the future. We’ve seen just unprecedented interest in fiber networks around the country and the benefits that bandwidth brings to an area and specifically with a focus in rural areas. I live in a rural area this is an old, restored farmhouse and we are seeing a lot of interest in broadband even in very remote and rural areas. The Fiber Broadband Association is in the process of publishing some projections showing that demand for a household will exceed a gigabit per second.
This demand is coming from a lot of different places. It’s coming from the use of high-resolution video, all of the different applications that we’re running, as well as augmented reality and virtual reality. We’re starting to see a lot of these trickle into daily life today. We expect that these types of technologies will continue to get more accepted over the decade leading to a lot of increase in demand for bandwidth. Fiber is really the only way to build a future proof network. We are also seeing a high level of interest in next generation PON platforms including XGS-PON, NG-PON2. These are platforms that use different wavelengths than the networks that we’ve been deploying primarily for the last 15 to 20 years. These wavelengths are a little bit different because they are a little bit longer and they’re also a little bit more bend sensitive. Which means that we’re also a little bit more focused on bend sensitivity and making sure that these networks are viable for decades to come as more of these applications and more of these protocols come online and onto the networks.
If you’ve been using OFS fiber for years you know this is something you’ve probably heard about for a long period of time. It’s something your network is well prepared for. There has been lots of innovation especially over the last few years with fiber. There have been some groundbreaking technologies introduced and one of those is the concept of rollable ribbon. We see rollable ribbon making its way really into all parts of the network and we think that’s going to bring a tremendous amount of benefits to network operators including higher density. Once you have higher fiber density you can put more fibers into a smaller space. That frees up a lot of benefits with underground networks because you can pack more fibers into a smaller duct. For aerial networks now you can go longer distances with less sag or less weight on your poles so a lot of different benefits there. Also, since it’s a ribbon then you get the benefit of ribbon splicing.
We’re seeing a lot of interest in rollable ribbon being applied throughout the network and on top of that we’re seeing a lot of interest in builds to the home, builds to the MDU. These networks have a lot of bends and so they require that their fibers have a lot of bend insensitivity and so we’ve seen a lot of builds of those kinds over the last six months to year.
At OFS we bring a lot of different solutions. If you’re a network operator don’t get overwhelmed that you have to use this technology or that technology. A lot of these are just different tools in the toolbox and you can mix and match to make your network the most sustainable and viable for the for the future and OFS can really help with that.
So, one of the things that we are happy to do is spend some time with you looking at the choices that go into the network. So if you’re interested in learning more about some of the choices and the trade-offs in their network and how we could potentially help with that please feel free to contact me or your OFS representative and we’d be happy to help.
And that’s what’s new in my world.
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