Corning intros submarine optical fiber

MAY 11, 2010 -- Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) has announced the commercialization of a new ultra-low-loss, large-effective-area submarine optical fiber designed to address the needs of next-generation, high-data-rate submarine networks.

Vascade EX2000 optical fiber has a typical effective area of 112 square microns and average attenuation of 0.162 dB/km at 1550 nm. This design attribute enables system designers to extend system reach and reduce the number of amplifiers in repeatered submarine networks, Corning says. In unrepeatered submarine networks, Vascade EX2000 fiber can accommodate higher optical launch power and increased system span length.

Corning says it will use this new optical fiber to develop its next-generation dispersion-managed fiber, Vascade R2000 fiber, which will be engineered to enable 40- and 100-Gbps systems to reach transoceanic distances.

“Large effective area and ultra low loss are essential fiber attributes that improve system performance and bring cost-saving benefits to any system operating at very high data rates. Today, we face the first deployment of 40-Gbps systems in submarine networks, and we expect that Vascade R2000 fiber and Vascade EX2000 fiber will play a critical role,” said Barry Linchuck, director, worldwide marketing, Corning Optical Fiber. “Industry trends point to the deployment of higher line rates and higher capacity. This drives the need to develop and offer new submarine optical fibers and unique dispersion-managed optical fiber solutions.”

Vascade EX2000 optical fiber is fully qualified and is being sampled and tested by submarine-system vendors around the world.

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