* The flexibility of Air-Blown Fiber
An advance in the deployment of fiber optics is getting renewed focus from Sumitomo Electric Lightwave – an advance that can give users of fiber-based LANs flexibility in when and how fiber is deployed.
It’s called “Air-Blown Fiber,” and the technology makes it possible to deploy fiber-optic lines only when you need them.
The way it works is you install empty tubes throughout a building wherever you think you might need fiber later. When the time comes, you hook a tank of compressed nitrogen to the tube, and it pushes a bundle of fiber into the tubes at a rate of up to 150 feet per minute. The outside of the bundle has a special covering – it looks like a golf ball’s surface, Sumitomo says – that helps the bundle get pushed along.
One advantage is the up-front costs. If you’re building a new building, you can just run the less-expensive tubes for now. That can be better than running the fiber lines themselves, which may remain inactive for some time if you don’t need fiber right away – and while they’re inactive, they’re an investment without a return.
Another advantage is during upgrades. Sumitomo claims the fiber lines are as easy to remove as they are to put in. So if you want to go from one type of fiber-optic lines to another, you just blow out the old fiber and blow in the new stuff.
You don’t have to worry about construction permits every time you deploy more fiber, either, if that’s a concern.
Users include Atlanta Motor Speedway, McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, and the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino (also in Vegas), the Pentagon, and CNN.
