Ribbon Fiber Cable 101: Five Fundamentals of Ribbon Optic Cable

Ribbon Fiber Cable, do you know about it? Trying to understand the power and capabilities of these fiber networking passive devices can be confusing. How to choose the right ribbon fiber cable is best for your fiber infrastructure is an even tougher obstacle. To eliminate some confusion, Optcore.net has created a quick list of answers to fundamental questions about ribbon fiber cable to help you get your fiber network up and running. Let’s begin on ribbon fiber cable 101.

What is Ribbon Fiber Cable?

Ribbon fiber optic cable is exactly what its name says, the ribbon of the fiber, which is formed by a flat strip. This is achieved by making a series of separate fibers and tiling them and bonding them to each other. Using this technology, up to 24 fibers can be grouped together. Fibers are usually placed side by side to form a flat ribbon.

Special waterproof tape material is then used to secure it in the appropriate position. This process uses only coated fiber, which helps provide extra space when working on the network. Whenever Setup owns an application in compact installation space, like many data centers, this type of cable is usually one of the solutions. Thanks to the design of ribbon cables, fusion splicing becomes much easier, saving time and money.

Ribbon fiber optical cables are described by a number of international standards bodies, including the International Electrochemical Commission (IEC) and the Association of Insulated Cable Engineers (ICEA). Optical ribbons are designated as part of the IEC 60794 series specifications and some ICEA fiber cable files, which are ANSI approved U.S.National standards. And GR-20-CORE, Telcordia Technology’s external plant fiber, and fiber optic cable specifications are related to the fiber and fiber ribbon cables and ribbon cables mentioned in this document.

Features and Benefits of Ribbon Fiber Cable

The first advantage of a ribbon fiber jumper is the ability to save time and reduce installation costs. Since the cables are pre-banded (usually made up of 12 sets of separate fibers), installers and technicians can perform simpler, faster mass fusion stitching so that all fibers in the ribbon matrix can be stitched together at the same time. This means less installation time, lower installation labor costs, and faster recovery during downtime.

The second benefit of the ribbon fiber cable is increasing the fiber density in a given cable. Of particular importance is fiber density, as fiber counts increase in the data center, it is an attractive feature and benefit.

Disadvantages of Ribbon Fiber Optic Cable

Traditional fiber optic cables can bend smoothly in all directions-within the appropriate bending radius specification, the motion plane of the ribbon fiber is limited, but can only bend along its longitudinal axis. This is called “priority bending “-Because the cable only likes to bend along a moving shaft. There is no control over the direction of the ribbon structure inside the cable, so any bending of the ribbon fiber may be perpendicular to its longitudinal banded axis, which may cause stress on the fibers. This can damage the cable and cause insertion loss (signal power loss).

Ribbon Fiber Applications

Ribbon fiber optic cable can be used in indoor FTTH network and indoor/outdoor point-to-point applications, but also for the interconnection and cross-application of MTP fiber wiring box; The 12-core ribbon fiber cable is one of the most widely used ribbon fiber cables, and the 12-core banded fiber jumper can be easily used by LC connectors or SC connectors, such as single-work, Duplex connector or MTP Connector for termination; Ribbon fiber jumper can also be stitched with loose casing cable. The specific approach is to remove the coating of the ribbon fiber jumper and stitch together 12 fiber fuses in batches.

However, ribbon fiber is not always the best choice indoors: when the indoor ribbon fiber is transmitted to the Cabinet, it becomes challenging to operate the cable for termination. In fact, some people say that many ribbon cables feel like “iron bars ” When they are processed. As you can imagine, this makes installation difficult. Even if the termination process is faster, time is likely to be saved due to the complexity of routing these cables to cabinets and racks when the cable is installed for too long.

Difference between Ribbon Fiber and Loose Tube Fiber Cable

Ribbon fiber cable and loose tube fiber cable look different. The Ribbon fiber cable uses a ribbon cable, most of which is flat, while the loose tube fiber cable uses a bundle of optical cables, most of which are round.

Different structure. The Ribbon fiber cable consists of a fiber band, while the loose tube fiber cable is usually composed of a 0.9mm loose casing.

Different optical fiber arrangement. Ribbon fiber jumper inside the fiber is arranged in order of color in a row, banded, and arranged in a relatively fixed form, and the beam fiber jumper inside the fiber is not arranged, each fiber is more independent.

Summary

The ribbon cable is lighter, more compact and easier to handle and splice. It is best suited for future expansion since the transmission protocols progress to higher and higher data rates. Optcore offers different ribbon fiber cables for indoor fiber cabling.

Reference article https://www.belden.com/blog/data-centers/Ribbon-Fiber-Pros-Cons