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www.read-wca.comWire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2016
Abstract
This paper presents a new flat indoor/outdoor drop cable
for FTTH application. The flat cable is all dielectric and,
with an oblong cross section, could be applied to harsh
environments, with large bending stress, lateral pressure
or wind load.
Therefore, the flat cable is conducive to the realisation of
large-span aerial installation and is particularly suitable
for the indoor and outdoor drop application in the FTTH
access network.
In this paper, three different combinations of materials are
explored to verify the processing performance and product
properties of the cable. That is, different combinations of
sub-unit material and outer sheath material.
Eventually, it was found that the two kinds of the cable
structure could totally satisfy the users’ requirements
and have excellent transmission, mechanical and flame
retardant characteristics, and could be applied in the FTTH
applications.
1 Introduction
In order to realise the tri-networks integration as soon
as possible, operators in China continue to promote the
large-scale FTTH network construction.
FTTH networks can not only provide higher bandwidth,
but also improve the anti-interference performance of the
access network and integrated access capacity of service.
To meet the different demands of users, there are many
types of FTTH optical cable for unceasing requirements
from users, such as different demands of construction
costs, convenience and rapid cable laying, and the
reliability of the optical fibre communication lines.
Therefore, it is very important to choose an appropriate
cable for different drop applications.
A New Flat Indoor/
Outdoor Drop Cable for
FTTH Applications
By Qin Yu, Fei Qian, Liming Chen, Qingqing Qi, Shiying Wang, Huiping Shi, Cheng Liu
FiberHome Telecommunication Technologies Co Ltd
2 Common drop cables
In general, drop cables are small count fibres with special
designs, and most drop cables are of self-supported
structure with tight buffer fibres.
The most common shapes of drop cables are figure-8
bow-type cable, round cable, or some other special drop
cables, such as low friction bow-type cable and invisible
micro cable and so on.
In the present drop applications, the figure-8 bow-type
cable and round cable are used widely.
As new drop cables, low friction bow-type cable and
invisible micro cable were gradually accepted by more and
more users.
Although drop cables become ever more diverse,
different kinds of drop cables usually have the following
characteristics:
• Diversified and rational structure, able to satisfy the
users’ special requirements
• Smaller size and can save laying space
• Easy to branch and save construction time and money
• Easy to manufacture and can keep the continuity and
consistency of processing
• Easy to install, maintain and replace
3 Structure of the flat cable
3.1 General structure of the flat cable
The flat cable developed for this paper was to satisfy the
customers’ requirements for indoor and outdoor drop
applications with both aerial and duct construction.
The cable should have good directional bending
properties and excellent ability to resist lateral pressure.
Moreover, the flat cable with oblong sectional profile
should effectively reduce the destructiveness induced by
wind load, and be adaptable to various harsh construction
conditions and a complex environment.