EVOLUTION OF OPTICAL-FIBER AND CABLE TECHNOLOGIES

Production technologies of optical fibres and optical fibre cables are principally guided by production costs and new technical constraints imposed by the market. The arrival of long distance transmission systems shifted the emphasis to the transmission characteristics of optical fibres. Intensive development of cables and optical fibres has made possible prices which are perfectly competitive with those of systems using coaxial cables. As a result of the evolution linked to distribution systems, new constraints imposed on mass produced cables with high fibre density have to be taken into consideration. The concept of fibre-cable-system integration is currently giving birth to new concepts for optical fibres and optical fibre cables.