Create air-filled fiber optic cables up to 50% faster

This innovation is tested by BT in the UKa new type of optical fiber calledhollow core fibers“, Oh hollow fiber cable. With it, you get the necessary data for travel 50% faster of those commonly used for 5G networks.

Air-filled fibers: reduce latency

The cable was developed by Lumenisity, following research by the University of Southampton. I tested both companies with 10 km fiber cable To find out how they can take advantage of its features. Thus, in addition to speed, they found that latency was also improved. Although the company is not yet in a position to mass-produce cables with this technology, the prototype is working perfectly and they know how to develop it en masse.

BT, like other operators, usually publishes a single-mode optical fiber, made of fiberglass which carry information through light pulses emitted by the laser. However, glass is more resistant than air, which causes optical signals to move along cables more slowly than they should.

cables Gloss You have, as its name suggests, a hollow core filled with air, It runs along the cable and is enclosed in glass. Thanks to this, the signals are transmitted to Speeds very close to the speeds of light Thanks not only Endurance On their way, so they arrived early at their destination.

5G can greatly benefit from these cables

5G will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of this type of fibre. To achieve high speeds and low latency, it is necessary to use a file mmWave s small cellsAnd fill cities with antennas. By achieving the same performance with more widely spaced antennas, the number of antennas can be reduced, costs reduced, and deployments faster.

The first commercial use of this hollow fiber was in London Stock Exchange, in the cable that goes from the Exchange itself to the telecommunication node intercourse, with the aim of reducing the response time as much as possible, since differences in microseconds can mean Million in profit or loss. In this case, they reduced the latency by a third.

The next step will be to build cables longer than 10 km that it currently uses, as it currently only guarantees improved performance at distances of less than 10 km.