(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Increasing server density, energy efficiency, installation speed, and overall reliability, specialty glass and ceramics manufacturer Corning Incorporated (www.corning.com) has developed a new optical fiber that can be looped tightly – even knotted – and maintain a clear signal, significantly reducing the space requirements of wires.
Corning’s bend-insensitive “ClearCurve” optical fiber technology increases data center deployment speed by up to 35 percent, according to the company’s announcement this week. ClearCurve significantly reduces the impact of tight bends on networks due to challenging installations, fibers caught in cabinet doors or cable ties that are pulled too tight.
“Through our new data center solution, we took the opportunity to combine our expertise in cable, hardware and equipment with our innovative ClearCurve bend-insensitive fiber to create an offering that maximizes the benefits of a fiber solution, while also creating new advantages in the areas of reduced installation time, improved data center layout and overall reliability,” Corning president and chief executive officer Clark Kinlin said in a statement.
In a video demonstration, the new ClearCurve is tightly wound and knotted, showing minimal data disruption compared to a standard, 50-micron OM3 fiber.
ClearCurve comes in two varieties, a single-mode optical fiber and an OM3/OM4 multi-mode fiber. The single-mode fiber is hundreds of times more bendable than standard single-mode fiber. Ideal for data centers and enterprise networks, the ClearCurve OM3/OM4 multi-mode fiber is the world’s first laser-optimized multi-mode fiber to withstand tight bends at or below 10 mm radius with substantially less signal loss than traditional multi-mode fiber.
“As information technology executives continue to manage their way through data center projects and upgrades in today’s difficult economic environment, the new Corning solution will enable them to capture the functionality and efficiency benefits of optical fiber over unshielded twisted-pair copper wiring,” Kinlin said. “Fiber optic solutions improve overall airflow, thereby reducing energy costs. Conversely UTP copper wiring creates higher generated heat, thereby increasing cooling requirements.
ClearCurve will be showcased next week at the BICSI European Conference & Exhibition in Dublin, the DatacenterDynamics Conference & Expo in Madrid, and the 2009 LANline Tech Forum, “Cabling, Network and Data Centre Infrastructure,” in Zurich.
