The Fiber Optic Association, Inc. (FOA)

New Idea For Cable Marking And Identification Marking cables at patch panels or equipment is important for making proper connections and keeping documentation up to date. Most techniques for identification use color codes or printed labels. A Canadian company has another idea, adding a NFC (near field communication) chip to the cable and also providing color codes. PUL-R Technologies Inc. https://pulr.direct/ from Canada, now offers Heli(TM), which is a miniature, fully re-usable NFC cable tag. The use of NFC as an RFID makes it compatible with any smart phone which can read NFC tags. The NFC has a non-volatile memory with 60 years of data retention, which allows it to encode circuit information and optical parameters such as circuit length, insertion loss, return loss, etc. While PULR has developed this product for FTTH applications but it should be highly useful in any application where it can be used to identify cables at a patch panel or at equipment. Heli is available for both fiber optic cables https://lnkd.in/exDejMZp and UTP (Cat 5) cables https://lnkd.in/g36rdzPS and other cable types. They offer an iOS app for programming and reading the labels. For more information, PUL-R Technologies Inc. https://pulr.direct/

Fiber Optic Ducts and Microducts Vladimir Grozdanovic Underground cable installation in ducts can be done with either standard ducts or microducts. Optical cables are installed in the ducts by pulling or blowing/jetting. Ducts can be characterized into the following types: • Main PVC (polyvinyl chloride) duct, also called conduit, with a diameter of 100–110 mm, in which smaller ducts for individual cables are installed, • Standard HDPE (high-density polyethylene) ducts or sub-ducts with diameters ranging from 18 to 63 mm (40 or 50 mm are common sizes), • Micro HDPE ducts with diameters ranging from 3 to 16 mm • Microduct Bundles(tight, loose, round or flat ducts). Ducts can either be directly buried or installed within existing larger-diameter ducts. The main difference between standard ducts/sub-ducts and microducts is their diameter. Over the past 20 years, both ducts and cables have become smaller to allow installing more fibers or cables in the same ducts. Using microducts reduces construction costs and increases the capacity of underground installations. Read more in the FOA Guide page https://lnkd.in/gFGhGHbq

How Submarine Cables Get Repaired Undersea Surgeons: In a wireless world, it is easy to forget the all-too-real cables that snake across the turbulent ocean floor. Until they snap https://lnkd.in/gAw7yz3f. NYTimes How undersea cables fail and how they are repaired. Also covered in an short but amazing video: https://lnkd.in/g44C2x8X

ITU Sets Up Group For Submarine Cables Resilience (Reliability) The International Advisory Body for Submarine Cable Resilience was established by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in partnership with the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) in November 2024, with the aim of promoting dialogue and collaboration on potential ways and means to improve the resilience of this vital infrastructure that powers global communications and the digital economy. In an increasingly interconnected world, submarine telecom cables serve as the lifelines of the global digital economy, facilitating over 99% of international data exchange. These cables enable communication, finance, cloud services, and vital infrastructure to operate seamlessly across borders. Yet, despite their critical importance, submarine cables face a range of vulnerabilities, from natural disasters to ageing infrastructure to accidental human activity such as fishing and anchoring. Disruptions can affect industry and government operations, as well as the ability of individuals to access education, healthcare and financial services. Over 200 cable repairs were reported worldwide in 2023 by the ICPC - equivalent to more than three cable failures per week on average. With the world's reliance on stable, high-speed Internet growing every day, the resilience of these cables is paramount. Read the announcement here: https://lnkd.in/geSE4GWS

For 50 years the Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC) has showcased the emerging technologies of researchers and industry for the optical networking and communications community. Throughout the years, OFC has been the conference to communicate and share the technical advances in fiber optics. Come celebrate 50 years of optical networking and communications achievements that the OFC community has facilitated to connect individuals and businesses across geographic and oceanic boundaries. Learn more about OFC, see upcoming schedule, and register for the conference.https://https://lnkd.in/gJJdEtpK

Undersea ROV Maneuvers With 11 km Fiber Optic Tether (Video) AUS-ROV Undersea exploration with ROVs (remote operated vehicles) has led to many interesting discoveries like Dr. Robert Ballard of Woods Hole Oceanographic discovering the Titanic. (FOA Newsletter 03/23 https://lnkd.in/gmJTEibq) An important part of the development of ROVs has been the fiber optic cable in the tethers that allow transmission of video up from the ROV and control signals down to it. AUS-ROV has a new undersea exploration ROV called Maestro ROV that has an 11 km fiber optic tether, a technical achievement provided by Linden Photonics. AUS-ROV has a short video about Maestro on YouTube https://lnkd.in/gUV3t9pk. Also interesting is to go to the AUS-ROV website and just watch the video playing continuously on the page! Linden Photonics https://lnkd.in/gCJaMVYY has been involved in many exciting projects on land, under the oceans and in space. You can go to the Linden Photonics News page and read about these very interesting projects. https://lnkd.in/gUV3t9pk

2025 Will Bring.... We don't have a crystal ball so we don't do a lot of speculation, but we are willing to share what we are watching for. We expect both land and sea systems to continue to be strong. Data centers, we're not so sure about. While investors continue to fund AI startups with $billions needed for data centers dedicated to AI, we know investors are poor predictors of market success because they follow the hype. The cracks in the the AI hype are already starting to appear. Some claim it has already been trained on all the data on the Internet, possible since that is how search engines work, so now it's training on the misinformation it created itself or users are finding it is unable to reason simple tasks like word problems in math. And the power consumption problem is not easily solved. Like 5G, the hype overshadowed the reality at first, but reality eventually won out. FTTH continues strong everywhere because it is a sensible solution, new products ease installation and the cost has become reasonable. In the US, FTTH is going to face a new problem and it is not cost, it's politics. The change in US administrations may signal a decline in funding for fiber broadband and a move to use low earth orbit satellites instead. It is interesting (scary?) to consider how technology markets are so vulnerable to hype. Fiber optics has weathered economic fluctuations in the past, but has proven highly vulnerable to hype. The hype over the Internet in the late 1990s created a frenzy in the fiber optics marketplace, but the bursting of the Internet bubble in 2001 devastated the industry. The hype over 5G had a smaller but similar effect. More recently we've seen the hype over US government funding of broadband, especially BEAD, which has already caused chaos in the supplier market, first in oversupply and then the actual BEAD funded projects which have yet to materialize - and may never happen. May you live in interesting times!

2024 In The Fiber Optic Industry Fiber optics is a number of diverse applications, so taking a year-end snapshot of the industry requires taking some very different points of view. One of the more important applications is one of the smallest, the submarine cables connecting the world. It also seems to be one of the most stable, with demand for bandwidth rising, the demand for cables seems unending. According to Telegeography https://lnkd.in/gqv5iQWJ there are currently 559 cable systems with 1,636 landing points in use or under construction, up from 529/1444 a year earlier. The world depends on these cables so the cable failures in the past year were troublesome, especially those suspected of sabotage (we posted about this not long ago) Telegeography map of submarine cables, 2024 https://lnkd.in/fiFa2G2 Once you move to land-based systems, the numbers are undoubtedly large but hard to actually enumerate. Africa and South America are continuing to catch up, bringing submarine landings inland. FTTH has become commonplace, data centers are being built wherever power is available and cellular networks continue expanding and upgrading. The most interesting news about land-based systems was that ITU (International Telecommunications Union) was heading a consortium trying to map the world's fiber optic networks. In terms of applications, the most attention was focused on data centers and FTTH. The drive behind the data center frenzy was AI - artificial intelligence. The problem was power for the new high speed processors needed for AI and some of the solutions were puzzling, fusion power, small nuclear reactors onsite, restart Three Mile Island or coal power plants - just about everything but developing the area around Chernobyl! In the US, the government programs to connect everybody to broadband got most of the attention and fed the hype machine almost daily. The programs were however complex to start up and administer so by the end of the year only saw the allocations completed but it seems no projects funded at the state level.

2024 In Fiber Optic Components In 2024 the important developments in fiber optics were focused on improving fiber density in installations. One change, modifying singlemode fiber to bend resistant designs similar to G.657.A1 has allowed the size of cables to be reduced and increased their ruggedness. Reducing the size and weight of fiber optic cables is important today, as the demand for bandwidth leads to the need for more fibers in long distance and middle mile networks. Smaller cables with more fibers allow installing more cables in existing underground ducts or using microtrenching for less costly and disruptive construction. It also permits lashing more cables to current aerial cable bundles without overloading the messenger. The other change in new cables is the move to flexible ribbon designs, with a dozen fibers loosely bound together to allow packing more fibers in smaller cables. Ribbon splicing can also be done in a fraction of the time required for single fiber splicing. That means contractors need to add a modern ribbon fusion splicer to their tool kit, and those tools have been improved as well. Several new fiber optic connectors have been standardized that increase density at patch panels, a necessity with the new high fiber count cables. These connectors use LC ferrules but align them vertically instead of horizontally, allowing higher density of connectors in patch panels. Other major component changes have been made with fiber optic transceivers for networking equipment. As speeds continue to get faster to allow more bandwidth, coherent transmission is being adopted for speeds of 100 Gb/s or higher. What was once a complete printed circuit board in a system is now available in a plug-in module. Likewise, the passive optical network (PON) head end system called an optical line terminal (OLT) has also been reduced to a plug-in module, allowing a service provider to eliminate a rack-mounted OLT with an Internet router and a plug-in module. Both these reduce system size and costs, making network expansion easier. Photo: 144 & 288 fiber microcables

2024 At FOA FOA certifications headed for 100K Last year FOA reached an amazing milestone - 100,000 certified fiber optic technicians who hold over 130,000 FOA certifications https://lnkd.in/gQEtpXrf. The CFOT® Certified Fiber Optic Technician was the vast majority of certifications, with the CPCT Certified Premises Cabling Technician, Splicing, Testing, OSP, Design and FTTH certifications also popular. With all the discussion about the need to expand the fiber optic workforce, it is notable that the FOA has been working behind the scenes for decades to create a network of training organizations capable of training the fiber optic workforce the industry needs. Reaching this milestone shows the capability of the FOA worldwide network of training organizations. Read what the industry says about FOA's milestone in the December 2024 FOA Newsletter. https://lnkd.in/gJb5BM-d The FOA network of approved training organizations https://lnkd.in/gJD93aku grew substantially in 2024. In the US, several states adopted the FOA program for both college curriculum and continuing education. We finally see some adoption at the secondary school level, a critical time for recruiting for the trades. FOA's partnership with the IBEW/NECA electrical training Alliance training centers continued to expand in both locations and curriculum. The FOA network of schools outside the US remains the choice for service providers, telecom ministries and contractors worldwide. 2024 saw a major update of the FOA basic fiber optics textbook, The FOA Reference Guide to Fiber Optics https://lnkd.in/gJnMqmbX, with updates to the FOA guide and recommended curriculum along with the book. Next year will see a similar update for the Design textbook https://lnkd.in/grhb94Mr. The popular FOA online credentials got a few minor updates also. Those holding current FOA credentials can now print a wallet-size card as well as a certificate for their certification.