900um & 250um Fiber Adds An Additional Layers G652D G657A1 G657A2 SM For FO Cable Production

Tight-buffered 900um fiber includes an additional 900um layer of hard plastic over the 250um fibers for protection.

Within the cable, several of these color-coded 900um tight buffered fibers are situated around a central strength member

and then covered with Kevlar or aramid yarn for protection, a rip cord and then the jacket.

Tight-buffered 900um fiber cable comes in various fiber counts that typically range from 2 to 144 fibers,

with larger fiber counts featuring fiber subunits of 6 or 12 fibers within the cable.

For example, a 144-fiber cable usually has twelve 12-fiber subunits while a 36-fiber cable could

have six 6-fiber subunits or three 12-fiber subunits.

From Outdoor to Indoor Applications

• Generally speaking, tight-buffered 900um fiber cables are used for indoor applications, including intra-building riser and plenum applications and in the data center. Loose-tube 250um fiber cables are typically used in outside plant (OSP) applications, such as inter-building duct, aerial and direct buried installations.

  While indoor/outdoor cables are popular for eliminating the need for service entrance splicing to in-building cable, OSP loose-tube 250um cabling must be terminated within 50 feet of entering a facility. To accomplish this, breakout kits are used to build the 250um cable up for protection and termination to 900um connector boots.

• The problem with breakout kits is that they add additional material costs and a significant amount of labor. One option is to terminate the 250um fiber directly to 250um connector boots. This can speed network deployment in the data center and fiber-to-the-home applications.