SEPTEMBER 4, 2009 -- Corning has announced that its ClearCurve OM4 multimode fiber and InfiniCor eSX+ multimode fiber meet the new OM4 standard for laser-optimized, high-bandwidth, 50-micron fibers approved by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) in August 2009.
“In response to market demand, we have been selling similar high-bandwidth multimode fiber products since 2005,” said David Velasquez, head of global product line strategy and operations, Corning Optical Fiber. “We are pleased that the industry has reached consensus on the specific requirements for OM4 and we have now formalized our product offerings in relation to the new standard. In addition to our longstanding InfiniCor eSX+ fiber, we have added the innovative ClearCurve OM4 fiber to our product offering in January of this year for customers who need both superior bandwidth performance and bend resistance in a multimode fiber.”
The requirements of the OM4 standard are identical to OM3 with the sole exception of the bandwidth values. At 850 nm, the primary wavelength used in multimode systems, both the laser-based effective modal bandwidth (EMB) and the legacy overfilled launch (OFL) bandwidth are increased from the OM3 requirements. The table below provides specifics:
| Bandwidth (MHz.km) | OM3 requirements | OM4 requirements |
| High Performance EMB at 850 nm | 2000 | 4700 |
| Legacy Performance OFL at 850 nm | 1500 | 3500 |
| Legacy Performance OFL at 1300 nm | 500 | 500 |
Corning ensures the performance of its laser-optimized multimode fibers (including OM3 and OM4) with minEMBc, which it asserts is the industry’s most rigorous bandwidth measurement. As a lynchpin of Corning’s multimode fiber quality system, minEMBc predicts a fiber’s performance under worst-case deployment conditions in laser-based optical systems operated at speeds up to and including 100 Gbps.