Fibre-optic networks are the platform driving massive change in the way that people, companies, organisations and governments communicate. This is the message from the international Fibre Optics Association (FOA), whose president, Jim Hayes delivered a keynote address to the industry at a seminar arranged by Midrand-based Datanet Infrastructure Group.
Most of the world today benefits from under-sea fibre-optic cables, totalling millions of kilometres with as many as seven active fibre-optic submarine cables serving sub-Saharan Africa. “It is fibre-optic technology that is connecting the world,” said Hayes. “We just need to figure out how best to deliver this capacity to customers in Africa and this is where companies like Datanet have a huge role to play now and in the future.”
Datanet managing director Dave Lello said the company is engaging with the FOA on fibre-optic (FO) technology because it offers so many advantages, which includes removing from the equation copper cable theft, a well-known problem in South Africa that has affected many home and business users.
“FO provides high bandwidth capacity and the ability to efficiently carry large amounts of data at a low cost per bit from short to very long distances. However, it is a technical environment that requires skilled and well-trained manpower and therefore makes training a necessary investment. Datanet is becoming involved in skills development and training with the FOA and the objective is to expand formal training to build up the South African fibre-optics skills pool. We collaborate with Triple Play in running the second largest FOA accredited fibre-optic school in the world, offering courses in Midrand, Cape Town, Durban, Kenya, Zambia, and Tanzania.”
Hayes said the FOA has identified the growth areas for fibre-optic as being Internet backbones, wireless backhauls, smart-grid fibre-optic backbones, metropolitan networks, security systems, data centres and FTTH (fibre to the home).
“FO growth has been driven by telecoms extension and advancement world-wide. Data and video traffic has increased, wireless communications has boomed though the likes of smartphones and i-Pads, IPTV has driven Internet growth and boosted security and surveillance. The FO components for FTTH are reducing in cost and passive optical networks cut costs even further. Fibre is cheaper to make than copper and offers new services such as TV and high-speed Internet that lead to increased revenues.”
Besides component prices dropping as a result of oversupply, new network architectures have been developed that allow sharing expensive components for FTTH and, unlike copper, FO does not require maintenance. Savings in maintenance alone were projected by a Telcordia report to pay back the cost of installing fibre in under 20 years, irrespective of revenue from new services.
“This makes it even more worthwile to replace old copper cabling, particularly with high-speed digital FTTH systems on offer.”
Hayes emphasised the versatility of FO in enabling delivery of a wide range of services, for example perimeter intrusion detection systems where the FO can be woven into a fence to monitor stress and trigger alarms if the fence is breached or climbed. Video and audio - analogue or digital - are turning to FO for applications such as major sporting events, concerts, large gatherings or meetings and for giant display screens.
Remotely operated underwater vehicles (such as those deployed to find theTitanic) also contains fibre-optic cables which are used to send and receive commands to and from the vehicle - live video is also streamed. Optical fibre data links are used throughout wind farms in different ways - interconnections run between individual towers within the farm and links also run from turbines back to the central operations centre. A key advantage of optical fibre is its immunity to EMI/RFI, especially in the noisy environment created when power is generated and transmitted.
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