What is fiber optic ribbon cable? What are the advantages and disadvantages of fiber optic ribbon cables?

Optical fiber ribbon is a thin flat ribbon formed by 4 to 24 optical fibers arranged in parallel and cured. Optical fiber ribbon cable refers to the optical fiber cable in which the optical fiber in the cable adopts the optical fiber ribbon structure, and the optical fiber in the non-optical fiber ribbon optical fiber cable has the discrete optical fiber structure. ”), some people call it a bundled fiber optic cable.

In fact, "bundle" is only called so at the end of the optical cable to distinguish the optical fiber ribbon. Fiber optic ribbon cables are often referred to as "ribbon cables", but flat fiber optic cables are veritable ribbon cables that look like strips.

Structure type of fiber optic ribbon cable

Optical fiber ribbon cable can be divided into layer twisted type (GYDTA), skeleton type (GYDGA) and central tube type (GYDXTW) from the structure.

The structure of the stranded optical fiber ribbon cable is basically the same as that of the ordinary GYTA optical fiber cable. The optical fiber ribbons in the cable mainly include 12 cores, 6 cores, and 4 cores.

Skeleton Fiber Ribbon Cable

The inner optical fiber ribbon is generally 4 cores and 6 cores, which is a dry water-blocking structure (no grease in the cable), which is suitable for fiber cores on each floor during vertical wiring in the building. The structural characteristics of this kind of optical cable determine that it has strong rigidity and is difficult to bend during construction; but because it is a dry structure, it has become the type recommended by CMCC; in fact, the layered optical cable can also be made into dry or semi-dry resistance. water structure.

Skeleton Fiber Ribbon Cable

The structure of the central tube type optical cable is generally 12 cores and 24 cores. The central tube type optical cable has the characteristics of light weight, small diameter and low cost. If the number of cores of the optical cable is not large, it should be a better choice in the project. Due to the difficulty in controlling the excess fiber length of the central tube optical cable, the optical fiber in the cable may fail at extreme temperatures. Therefore, whether it is an optical fiber ribbon or a discrete optical fiber structure, CMCC is not very fond of using it; in fact, the central tube optical cable has The temperature adaptability is not so bad, and it can fully meet the usage requirements of most scenarios.

Central tube fiber optic ribbon cable

The characteristics of the optical fiber ribbon cable are that the number of cores is large and the splicing efficiency is high. When the optical fiber ribbon cable is spliced ​​by a ribbon fiber fusion splicer, the optical fibers of one optical fiber ribbon can be spliced ​​at one time, thereby greatly improving the splicing efficiency. The more the number of cores in each optical fiber ribbon, the higher the efficiency of the connection; at the same time, the quality of the connection will be worse.

Due to the limitation of the receiving efficiency of ordinary optical cables, the number of cores is generally not very large, and the maximum number of cores usually does not exceed 288 cores. The number of cores of the optical fiber ribbon cable is mainly affected by the demand. Although the current maximum is 576 cores, the optical fiber ribbon cable with more than 576 cores will definitely be used in large quantities in the future. However, when the optical fiber ribbon is spliced ​​with discrete optical fibers, or optical fiber ribbons with different numbers of cores, the optical fiber ribbon needs to be torn into separate optical fibers for splicing, which is more troublesome than ordinary optical cable splicing. The splicing loss is large. Since the optical fiber ribbon cannot be guaranteed to be accurately aligned with all the fibers in the ribbon during splicing, the splicing loss is greater than that of the single core.

The outer diameter of the optical fiber cable with small core count is larger. When the number of cores of the optical fiber cable is less than 144 cores, the outer diameter of the optical fiber ribbon cable is obviously larger than that of the ordinary optical fiber cable. Similar to ordinary optical cables.

low engineering investment

The investment difference between using optical fiber ribbon cable and using ordinary optical cable in the project is mainly reflected in two points:

(1) The difference in the price of the optical cable; (2) The difference in the connection price. From the perspective of production cost, the production process of optical fiber ribbon cable is a little more, and the cost will be higher. However, the price of commodities is often determined by the purchase volume and the competitive environment. At present, with the increase in the use of optical fiber ribbon cables, the unit price of optical fiber ribbon cables is getting closer and closer to the unit price of ordinary optical fiber cables. Due to the high connection efficiency of optical fiber ribbon cables, each connector The connection cost is lower; the larger the number of cores of the fiber optic ribbon, the more obvious this advantage is. On the whole, the cost of using optical fiber ribbon cable in the project is slightly lower than that of using ordinary optical cable.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The advantages and disadvantages of fiber optic ribbon cable are as follows:

Advantages: high connection efficiency, slightly lower cost;

Disadvantages: It needs to be equipped with a fusion splicer capable of splicing optical fiber ribbons, the connection loss is large, and the efficiency of splicing with ordinary optical cables or optical fiber ribbons with different core counts is low.

Suggestions for usage scenarios

Optical fiber ribbon cables are recommended to be used in large and medium-sized metropolitan area networks with a large number of optical cable cores (not less than 72 cores), such as the core layer of the metropolitan area optical cable and the backbone section of the access layer. Trunk optical cables, other optical cable sections with a repeater distance of more than 70km, the lead-in section of the access layer optical cable (distribution optical cross-fiber box section) and other sections with a small number of optical cable cores are not suitable for optical fiber ribbon cables.

other suggestion

The number of cores of the optical fiber ribbon cable should be unified, preferably 12 and 6 cores, and it is not appropriate to use multiple core numbers, otherwise it may cause the number of optical fiber ribbon cores to be mismatched when the cable is connected. The number of cores of the optical fiber ribbon should be indicated in the model of the optical fiber ribbon cable, such as: GYDTA-144B1.3-12F.

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