Bend Insensitive Microstructured Optical Fibres for FTTH Deployments | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) is becoming the main stream broadband technology of choice. Significant commercial deployment of FTTH has started only a couple of years ago in most of the countries. The main factor for the slow growth of FTTH is the higher installation costs compared to copper wires. While optical fibres have the benefits of signal capacity and immunity to electromagnetic interference, they suffer from losses due to excessive bending. When standard single-mode fiber (G.652) is used, the fiber must be installed cautiously avoiding small bends to restrict total single loss. Single Mode Fibre also has difficulty of transmitting video signals through bends tighter than about 30 mm in diameter. The bending requirement for deployment limits dimensions of hardware and imposes significant costs for FTTH installations. Hence bend insensitive single-mode fibers are attractive for FTTH applications to lower the installation costs and improve the system performance. Several fiber designs have been proposed to meet different bend loss requirements including both conventional and microstructure design approaches. This paper reviews recent progress that is reported in bend insensitive fibers.