Introduction to Fiber Optic Cable (Optical Cable) Products

 OTDR testing equipment, welding machines, fiber optic cable connectors,... of brands EXFO, Acterna, Fujikura, HP.

 Comba Telecom System repeaters, Champion-USA walkie-talkie systems.

 Generator systems for provincial radio and television stations, cassette players, speakers, amplifiers for commune radio stations,...

 Grounding systems for lightning protection equipment for radio and television stations of provinces and cities,...

 Loadsell head, Electronic scale platform,... of Omron, Toledo brands.

Construction

 Supply and installation of antenna poles.

 Pulling and laying optical cables, welding and splicing, measuring and checking optical cable continuity.

 Installation and adjustment of radio systems, radio transceivers and optical communications.

 Install and synchronize surveillance camera systems with other systems.

 Installation and operation instructions for switchboard equipment system.

In the future, VTC Telecom plans to expand its scale, promote its strengths in consulting and construction projects, and move towards establishing an IP telephone network system. Most importantly, VTC Telecom will focus on completing the construction of the "VTC Optical Fiber Cable Factory" in the first half of 2007 to supply optical cables to companies in the telecommunications and electricity sectors in Vietnam as well as to export to some markets in Asia and Africa.

II. INTRODUCTION TO FIBER OPTICAL CABLE PRODUCTS AND FIBER OPTICAL CABLE PRODUCT MARKET

1. Introduction to fiber optic cable (optical cable) products

1.1. The birth of optical fiber and optical fiber cable - Optical fiber "enlightens" the global information network

The discovery of fiber optics 40 years ago has made the world’s information system a miracle. Without it, the Internet would not exist and people would not be able to simply pick up the phone and make international calls…

In 1966, Charles Kuen Kao and George Hockman, two young engineers at the Telecommunications Standards Laboratory (UK), announced a promising new discovery about the capabilities of optical fibers - transparent, flexible glass or plastic fibers thinner than a strand of hair.

At the time, the use of fiber optics for transmitting information was very limited. A message was converted into a pulse of light, which traveled down the fiber to the other end. However, they could only travel a short distance before the light began to fade away. This is a phenomenon of decreasing intensity at a rate of dB/km (dB - short for decibel - a unit of sound intensity). Charles Kao observed fibers capable of carrying one gigahertz (GHz) of information - the equivalent of 200 TV channels or 200,000 telephone lines. He found that the light escaped at a speed of 1,000 dB/km, meaning that the signal had been reduced by less than half after traveling just a few meters.

After several days of research, Dr. Kao discovered that the problem was not due to the inherent nature of the fiberglass, but rather to some defects within the material. If these problems were eliminated, the light loss rate would drop to an acceptable level of 20 dB/km.

Kao's conclusion sounded "absurd" and he was under a lot of pressure. "My wife was always annoyed because I came home late all the time. When I told her that this would be a world-shaking project, she didn't believe me at all. I knew I was on the right track, but it would take a lot of work to convince the industry worldwide," Kao said.

In 1971, the Queen of England witnessed video images transmitted via fiber optic cable.

Maybe you are interested!

John Midwinter, an expert in fibre optics at the University of London, also recalled: "A lot of people just laughed when the paper was published. They thought in some lucky moment he had achieved 20 decibels."

Four years later (1970), Corning Glass Works, an American glass and ceramics manufacturer, unexpectedly announced that it had created a fiber optic cable that broke the 20 dB (17 dB/km) barrier. "Corning was working on silica while other companies were focusing on glass filtration. It was successful in choosing its own path," said Jeff Hecht, author of City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics.

In the late 70s, telecommunication companies decided to deploy and use this technology. Network

Fiber optic cables began to be popular in cities as well as under the ocean, but it only made a revolution in the 90s.

The Internet has really made fiber optics explode. "Fiber optics are the basis of the Internet and Wi-Fi. Every business with a LAN now uses it. People also rely on fiber optics to send e-mails, SMS messages, photos, videos and other data files," said Philip Hargrave, an expert at communications solutions provider Nortel.

Fiber optics is also playing an important role in many areas such as IPTV network television and in the future it will be the mainstay of home entertainment networks.

1.2. Definition of fiber optic cable

In part 1.1, we learned about the birth of optical fiber - "a transparent, flexible glass or plastic fiber that is thinner than a strand of hair". To put optical fiber into use in the actual environment of telecommunications networks, the fibers need to be combined into cables with structures suitable for the installation environment. The structure of optical fiber cables is very diverse and different in many points, depending on the specific conditions and the environment in which the cable is placed, optical cables have names such as: cables buried directly underground, cables pulled in sewers, outdoor cables, indoor cables, cables connecting devices, submerged cables, and sea cables... Each type of cable will have a different design, but the basic design principles must be present in all types of cables.

Before the cable is clad, the optical fiber is usually tightly wrapped with a layer of protection during cable manufacturing, this is the primary cladding layer. The primary clad fiber is the final product in the optical fiber manufacturing process; these fibers will then be wrapped into cables, which can be tightly wrapped or loosely wrapped.

The basic cable elements are: core containing optical fibers, reinforcing elements, jackets and filler materials.

Cable core

Optical fibers are tightly wrapped or loosely packed, and both the fibers and the loosely packed or channeled structure combine to form the cable core. The cable core typically surrounds the cable's reinforcing elements. The channeled components or sleeves are typically made of plastic.

Reinforcement components

The reinforcing members of a cable are elements that provide the cable with the mechanical strength necessary to withstand tension and contraction, and in particular to ensure thermal stability for the cable. The reinforcing members can be metallic or non-metallic. They can be located in the center of the cable or distributed in the outer layers concentric with the cable.

Cable jacket

The outer layer of the cable is usually covered with polyethylene which has low moisture absorption and high mechanical and chemical properties. Polyethylene has low friction so it is very suitable for cables in ducts. Polyurethane is often used as the inner sheath of the cable because it is very soft, has a high coefficient of friction and low mechanical properties.

The metallic sheath of the cable is usually made of corrugated steel tape or steel wires arranged in a sheath. These sheaths are commonly used for direct burial cables to protect against mechanical stress, rodents, and damage by insects and other organisms.

1.3. Types of optical cables and applications

The design and selection of fiber optic cables mainly depends on the installation environment. There are many cable manufacturers that produce a wide variety of cable types, but in general, fiber optic cable products are divided into the following main types:

1.3.1. Cable car

Cables are cables used to hang on high-voltage power poles to help transmit signals. Due to the characteristics of being greatly affected by the natural climate environment, such as environments with ice, snow and wind, or being affected by mechanical stress and temperature, optical cables must have very high durability and must have a suitable structure.

Currently, the two main types of hanging cables are ADSS (All Dielectric Self-supporting ADSS optical cable) and cable number 8. In addition, there is also OPGW cable, which is an optical cable hanging on lightning protection lines. OPGW cable has a rather complex technical structure and currently, optical cable factories in Vietnam have not been able to produce it.

1.3.2. Cable pulling in sewer

Cables for use in sewers must be able to withstand tensile and torsional forces, have a light weight for ease of installation, and be flexible enough to overcome obstacles during installation. They must also be able to withstand moisture and water, as water often accumulates in sewers and cable tanks. Therefore, the cable structure often contains jelly fillers and metal moisture-proof components.

1.3.3. Direct buried cable

The characteristics of direct buried cables are similar to those of cables pulled in sewers as mentioned above, but they have better protection, which is shown in the fact that buried cables usually have a good metal sheath to avoid damage caused by digging the ground or other impacts in the ground. The outer steel sheath consists of steel wires or steel tapes. The outer sheath of this steel layer is a plastic sheath.

1.3.4. Indoor cables and patch cables

This type of cable usually has a small number of optical fibers, the main characteristics are: small external dimensions, flexible, allowing bending, easy to manipulate and weld. The cable needs to have good anti-rodent properties. Because this type of cable is often close to the walls and equipment, it must ensure that it does not conduct fire and does not emit toxic gases in the room. The structure of this type of cable is often tightly wrapped to ensure size.

1.3.5. Submerged and offshore cables

Submerged cables are often used to drop across rivers or through shallow flooded areas, swamps..., so this type of cable needs to meet strict requirements including:

 Moisture and water resistance in areas of particularly high pressure.

 Ability to resist water conduction along the cable.

 Able to withstand pulling during cable installation and repair.

 Resist statistical pressures.

 Allows for easy welding and repair.

 Has a structure compatible with land-based cables.

The structure of the submarine cable is very complex. It can be considered a special type of cable because it requires many requirements that are many times more stringent than the above submerged cable. In addition to the above factors, the submarine cable must also withstand other special impacts such as the ability to penetrate seawater, the destruction of marine animals, the friction of ships, etc. In addition, it is necessary to consider the ability to repair the cable by ship.

Submarine cables are of two types, shallow and deep. The structure of shallow cables is more complex than that of deep-sea cables.

In addition to the above types of cables, there are also some special types of cables used for specific purposes.

1.4. Advantages and disadvantages of fiber optic cable

The transmission system uses optical cables with the only disadvantage being difficult connection but has a series of advantages such as:

 Small weight, wide bandwidth.

 Low loss, large repeat interval.

 No interference (static, electromagnetic).

 Low maintenance costs (few repeaters).

 Information security.

 Fewer solder joints compared to copper cables.

 Lower cost with larger transmission system.

 Low cost.

Fiber optics enable high-capacity work and enable fast, high-quality multimedia products and services. When fiber optics are widely used, multimedia products and services will be more abundant, convenient, and popular than they are today.

2. Fiber optic cable product market

2.1. World Optical Cable Market - Market Development Trends and Prospects

2.1.1. World telecommunications market

a. Overview

In recent years, the world telecommunications market has been growing steadily. According to a report by The Insight Research Corporation, if 25 years ago, mobile phones were still something very new in the world telecommunications market, by the end of 2005, there were more than 1.8 billion subscribers worldwide using wireless transmission technology of mobile phones. Wireless services are available everywhere and have changed the way people communicate globally.

Below is a chart predicting the growth of wireless subscribers worldwide through 2011.

Chart 1: Growth of wireless subscribers worldwide to 2011

Unit: Million subscribers

(Source: The 2006 Telecommunication Industry Review by The Insight Research Corporation)

Looking at the chart above, it can be seen that the number of wireless subscribers worldwide will continuously increase from 2005 to 2011, from 1,851.4 million subscribers in 2005 to

Comment