OFS has introduced AllWave® FLEX ZWP single-mode fiber, the first Zero Water Peak G.652D fiber to offer outstanding bend performance for Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH), enterprise networks, or any application where small bend diameters may be encountered. AllWave FLEX ZWP fiber maintains very low bending loss across the full usable spectrum of wavelengths from 1260 to 1625 nm. It can be coiled into a 20 mm loop with < 0.5 dB incurred loss at 1625 nm and < 0.2 dB incurred loss at 1550 nm – five times better bending performance than conventional single-mode fibers. AllWave FLEX ZWP fiber also helps improve cable performance in demanding high-stress and low-temperature environments by providing double the microbending performance of conventional single-mode fibers. Get the full story.

OFS has improved the optical and geometric specifications for its multimode fiber products.
These enhancements can help provide extra power “headroom” advantageous for demanding 1 Gb/s and 10 Gb/s premises applications, allowing for greater network design flexibility and reliability. “By lowering the loss in a fiber link, these improvements can allow users to extend the reach of their networks, add additional connections, make use of higher loss connectors, and achieve greater reliability,” said Andrew Oliviero, senior product manager for OFS. “Since Channel Insertion Loss budgets have been decreasing with each successive increase in Gigabit Ethernet speeds, we thought it was critical to improve our specifications to provide users with greater headroom.” Get the full story.

Katsuhiko (Jack) Murota has been named CEO and Chairman of OFS. Murota has served as corporate vice president of overseas business in the Telecom Division of OFS parent company Furukawa Electric Company (FEC) since January 2004. He replaces Kiyoshi Takeuchi, who returns to Japan to become the CTO of FEC.

… OFS was one of four companies to receive a gold medal from Eurocabel, Russia’s largest cable manufacturer, in appreciation of their outstanding partnership in 2005. OFS was the only supplier among the award winners.

No – not all laser-optimized fiber (LOMMF) is 10 Gb/s capable. The first laser-optimized fibers, introduced to the market in the mid-1990s, were designed for 1 Gb/s applications. As attention turned to 10 Gb/s data rates, existing LOMMF (designed for 1 Gb/s speeds) did not provide the support needed for 300-meter backbone distances. Further refinement of the fiber’s refractive index profile was necessary to achieve 10 Gb/s data rates on multimode fiber to distances of 300 meters and beyond. Fortunately, advancements in DMD testing developed by OFS enabled the necessary improvements to the fiber manufacturing process that would produce fiber with accurate refractive index profiles. Get the full story.