OFS TeraWave ULL fiber offers larger effective area, lower loss

Optical fiber developer OFS has introduced TeraWave Ultra Low Loss (ULL) fiber, targeted at terrestrial long-haul applications. The fiber offers 50% greater effective area than G.652.D fiber and ≤ 0.17 dB/km loss at 1550 nm, making it particularly useful as carriers deploy coherent optical transmission technology, OFS says.

OFS launched a G.654 terrestrial product line with TeraWave single-mode fiber in April 2014. (It also introduced a TeraWave fiber for submarine network applications; see "New OFS fiber supports 100G transmission over trans-oceanic distances.") Both TeraWave fibers offer an effective area of 125 square microns; the TeraWave ULL fiber offers lower loss than the initial product. Both fibers can support longer transmission distances and a greater number of wavelengths than ITU-T G.652.D fibers, OFS asserts.

The fiber should prove particularly useful as carrier look to enable coherent-enable 400-Gbps wavelengths with an eye toward even greater data rates, OFS believes.

"OFS has a long heritage of development and commercialization of optical fibers specially designed for submarine and long haul applications. Building upon this experience OFS is now offering our customers longer optical reach enabled by TeraWave ULL fiber, which can provide 50% farther reach than the best G.652.D fiber. This means fewer regeneration sites, which helps our customers save capital costs in building their terabit networks," said Pierre Marty, vice president, sales and marketing for OFS.

For more information on optical fiber and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer's Guide.