WCA MAY 2015

Technology news

Sharpen up connections

Investment in Dätwyler system

connectors in the communications channel. This causes increased attenuation, decreased bandwidth results and general degradation in signal integrity. Stacks of splice trays that must be manipulated to access a single fibre can disrupt the entire network every time service is performed. Ultimately, conventional network architecture is prone to disruptions, increased financial costs due to maintenance, and premature system overhauls. Users in many industries are actively seeking solutions for these problems. A new solution is offered through the OCC Blade™ Solution, the most recent addition to the Procyon family of high-density connectivity and structured cabling solutions. The OCC Blade system provides flexible cable subgroups that protect the installer from damaging the fibre during the installation process, and a connectivity system that provides easy access to every fibre in the system, without disrupting peripheral fibres during servicing. As Dr Timmins explains, this is a fibre network solution designed for building-to-building applications, incorporating a unique “blade-like” splicing system along with OCC’s HC-Series cable, a proprietary high-count indoor/outdoor fibre optic cable. Optical Cable Corporation – USA Website : www.occfiber.com

AS the demand for high-bandwidth networks continues to proliferate on campuses of all types, many are struggling with how to implement a high-count fibre backbone that supports high-speed data requirements, and yet is reconfigurable to suit both current and future needs. For many of these campuses – multi-building complexes such as hospitals, corporate centres, government facilities and universities – future needs are not currently known and incorporating a network system that offers both high-density and easy accessibility is a challenge. Thus, a reliable and reconfigurable system innately suited to increasing bandwidth-hungry users is needed for dynamic support of future applications. High fibre count cables with a large OD are inflexible and are hard to manage and install which can risk broken fibres and jeopardise the success of the system. This, combined with connectivity utilising stacks of splice trays feeding adapter plates with extremely high fibre counts, can make for infrastructure that is very challenging to service or execute moves, adds, and changes. Conventional implementations intended to enhance versatility and thereby overcome this challenge can easily lead to systems with too many

The new Swisscom data centre (DC) in Bern-Wankdorf, which represents a Swisscom investment of around 60 million Swiss francs and was under construction for two years, opened in September 2014 and was fully operational by the end of the year. The DC currently occupies 4,000m 2 of usable space on four floors, with room for expansion as required, and houses approx- imately 5,000 servers with around 10,000 customer systems. In spring 2013 Swisscom evaluated a comprehensive premium quality cabling solution for the high-speed fibre optic links in the new data centre, and the ‘Dätwyler Data Centre Solution’ was selected. All the fibre optic links were executed with preassembled cables and system components from Dätwyler. Altogether around 90 kilometres of fibre optic cable were laid using the highest-performance OM4 multimode and OS2 single-mode fibres. Dätwyler Cabling Solutions AG – Switzerland Website: www.cabling.datwyler.com

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Wire & Cable ASIA – May/June 2015