Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) recently introduced its latest optical fiber cable innovation: the RocketRibbon extreme-density cable is billed by the company as "a next-generation ribbon cable which enables up to 30 percent faster installation than other high density ribbon cables designed for data center and carrier environments."
Leveraging Corning’s optical fiber cable design innovations, the company asserts that its RocketRibbon cable allows operators to quickly install more capacity in the same duct space to accommodate increased bandwidth demand. The company says its RocketRibbon cables deliver up to 3,456 fibers in the same diameter as existing central and stranded tube cables. In addition to the improved fiber density, a unique ribbon design makes the fibers within RocketRibbon cable easy to manage, identify, and trace – all of which significantly improve install times and lower ongoing maintenance costs, contends Corning.
“Corning’s industry leadership and unique co-innovation approach mean our customers come to us to help solve their most important problems," explains Bernhard Deutsch, vice president and general manager, Corning Optical Fiber and Cable. "The RocketRibbon extreme-density cable demonstrates how we work hand-in-hand with our customers, listening to their challenges. In this case, we developed an entirely new system of ribbon protection and sub-units that provide our customers with easier, faster cable access for ribbon identification and splicing.”
The company notes that the RocketRibbon cables use a proprietary manufacturing process to create as many as 12 individually protected sub-units, each with 288 closely packed fibers. An extruded color-coded jacket protects and identifies each bundle and allows for direct and easy routing to splice trays, without the need for additional materials, ribboning processes, or furcation kits.
Concludes Corning's Deutsch, “The RocketRibbon cables leverage next-generation cable production technology, while maintaining the benefits of a backward-compatible and proven industry-standard ribbon design. The RocketRibbon extreme-density cable is another example of how Corning is investing in innovations that help our customers reduce total cost of ownership by increasing deployment speeds and improving network performance.”
For more information, visit the Corning's RocketRibbon product information page.