Page 47 - Market Analysis Report of Optical Communications Field in China & Global market 2023

A Sustainable Future with Optical Fiber

Corning Incorporated: Aislin Sullivan, Dr. Pushkar Tandon, Dr. Roshene McCool;
Sphera Solutions: Amalia Diaz, Dr. Ing. Constantin Herrmann

Introduction Figure 1. Corning research indicates that as data rates increase,
Optical fiber is at the heart of our modern connected more electrical systems are moving to optical systems
world, transmitting massive amounts of data daily.
Today’s connections are made possible by beams of light
propagating through hair-thin strands of optical fiber, each
potentially capable of supporting more than 150 terabits of
data per second.

Invented more than 50 years ago, fiber has undergone
numerous evolutions: from connecting disparate locations
with long, straight cable runs; to highly interconnected
networks connecting over 400M homes [1] with video,
telephony, and data; to high-data-rate meshed networks
within data centers delivering cloud services to homes and
businesses.

Optical fiber is the present and future of connectivity,
For the initial twenty years, optical fiber deployments keeping the world connected in the most sustainable
were primarily in long-haul systems, with the emphasis way while expanding the bandwidth of human
on maximizing capacity. As fiber penetration increased in potential.
access and fiber to the home applications, the focus also
shifted to lowering the transmission cost (per bit) in these Fiber is integral to some of the technological advances that
networks. With the current data rate explosion in data are driving the future. AI and machine learning techniques,
center applications, managing energy consumption and the engine of data driven decision making, use fiber optic
developing sustainable solutions are becoming paramount meshed networks to connect massive amounts of data to
considerations in optical fiber network expansions, a trend processing machines at high speeds. The rise of remote
that is likely to accelerate in the near future
working, video conferencing, and the ability to connect to
any customer, colleague, or family member anywhere in
With the escalating demands for bandwidth and data rate the world, while on the move, is enabled by a worldwide
transmissions, electrical systems are being replaced by network of fiber optic cables.
optical systems at an increased pace for a growing number
of applications. From a techno-economic perspective, this Optical fiber is the present and future of connectivity,
transition has occurred in different systems at data rate * keeping the world connected in the most sustainable way
distance threshold of about 100 Gb/s * m (Figure 1).
while expanding the bandwidth of human potential.

Because of the long application distances, the shift from Expanding the bandwidth of human potential
electrical to optical systems for submarine, long-haul, and Since its invention, the world has deployed over 6 billion
metro networks occurred in the early days of optcal fiber. kilometers of fiber, enough to travel to the sun and back
The product of data rate and distance is now approaching about 20 times. But still, the digital divide persists, with
this threshold even for short distance applications due to only 23% of the world able to access the internet through a
rapidly increasing data rate transmissions. As a result, home fiber connection as of December 2021 [1].
electrical systems are converting to optical ystems in access
networks, data centers and data center interconnects, fiber For those with access to broadband connectivity, high-
to the server, and onboard optics.

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