Hello, everyone!
Let's go back to today's popular topic – the 5G network. The construction of the 5G network is in progress, it is believed that it will be completed in about 5 years. The main infrastructure consists of optical cables. That is today's topic. Let's see.
As we know, 5G networks require a large number of base cells - micro cells (number of global micro cells will reach 6.5 million). All micro cells should be connected. There are many ways to implement this network, which I talked about in one of the previous articles. But now let's see which optical fibers are used.
1. Bend Insensitive Optical Fiber
This type of optical fiber is desirable in indoor applications. It is used in rooms where large bends are required due to limited and small space. For 5G networks, these types of fibers are used in easy 5G indoor micro base stations. Band insensitive optical fibers are fibers standard ITU G.657.A2/B2/B3. This standard allows for large bending, without sacrificing performance.
In the next figure, we can see the difference between the normal optical fiber and bend insensitive optical fiber.
Figure 1. Normal optical cable vs. bend insensitive optical cable
In the table below, we can see examples of insensitive optical fibers.
2. OM5 Multimode Fiber
For 5G networks, MM optical fibers are used in data centers. There are 5 different types of MM optical fibers, but the recommendation is OM5. The transmission speed of data centers is constantly growing, from 10G, 40G, 100G, etc. MM optical fibers must enable these transport transmissions. And to be ready for new transport speeds. Therefore, OM5 MM optical fibers are used. They enable high transmission speeds because they allow multiplexing of wavelengths 850 nm to 950 nm. OM5 uses PAM4 modulation and WDM technology and thus supports all current and future data transfer needs.
In the next figure and tables, we can see MM OM5 optical fiber in 100G BiDi and 100G WDM applications and main features.
Figure 2. MM optical fiber – OM5
This is the end of this article. In the next article, I will continue to write about this topic – Optical fibers for 5G networks (2).
Thank you!
