Online at any time has become a must for modern everyday life. People are used to making calls, sending emails or watching videos anytime, anywhere. The human society is entering the 5G era of more advanced and higher-speed network interconnection, and everything may far exceed our imagination. For example, in a densely populated area to transmit data at a faster rate, real-time connection to the cloud for high-definition video playback, using high-definition VR and AR to interact, as if the exchange of thousands of miles away is around. In addition, 5G can support large-scale Internet of Things (IoT), from home appliances, drones, cars to industrial equipment, etc. will be connected to the network. The most attractive and challenging 5G applications support similar telemedicine and autonomous driving, which have ultra-low latency and high reliability requirements for the network.

Implementing these 5G functions requires higher coverage and performance. If the wireless network performance is not good, it will bring great inconvenience to the user, for example, buffering and jamming during high-definition video playback. In other applications, the risk of network performance will become higher. Imagine that the self-driving car must keep a link with the network at any time during the journey. In the event of a dangerous situation, the signal must be transmitted with the lowest delay to avoid accidents. At the time of surgery, the wireless network has no room for error.

Currently, 3/4G networks require a macro base station to be set every few kilometers. Macro base stations are usually deployed on high towers or on the roof of buildings. In the macro base station network, some areas are blocked due to signals, and network coverage often has blind spots. Therefore, additional small base stations need to be deployed to fill or enhance coverage of users.

 5G requires more fiber support than 4G

In order to achieve higher bandwidth and faster network speed than 3/4G, 5G networks use higher frequency electromagnetic waves, but the consequent disadvantage is that the area covered by a single base station is reduced. In a city, if you achieve the same coverage as 4G, you need a larger number of base stations, and you may need to deploy 5G base stations every 200~300 meters or less. In some hotspots, even less than 100 meters. To deploy small base stations, 5G is a high-density networking and more base station-type stereo networks. To achieve such a networking function, more fiber optic cables are needed to connect the base station to the network.

On the other hand, the high frequency band adopted by 5G, the smaller cell coverage, and the dense base station bring more difficulties for site selection and base station equipment installation conditions, so the AUU is extended, and the BBU (DU) centralized mode has network construction. This will become the main architecture of the 5G wireless access network. Compared with the traditional distributed base station mode, that is, the DRAN mode, the AAU to BBU distance, that is, the distance traveled by the optical cable increases from hundreds of meters to several kilometers, or even ten kilometers, the number of optical fibers required for a single base station will be multiplied.

Based on the above two factors, the base station density of 5G is greatly increased compared with 4G. In the CRAN-based mode, the fiber demand of a single base station is also increased compared with the traditional DRAN mode. Therefore, the construction of 5G networks requires more deployment of optical fibers to achieve better coverage of wireless networks.

 Highly reliable 5G networks require high performance fiber

The high bandwidth and low latency of 5G requires challenges to the fabric structure, and the fiber infrastructure, functionality, topology, and fiber type will change. The optical fiber infrastructure is divided into a core layer, an aggregation layer, and an access layer. The access layer of the 5G bearer network is composed of a trunk cable, a distribution cable, and an incoming cable. The convenient access layer facilitates low cost and high bandwidth.

Typical access layer fiber optic cable topologies include point-to-point, access trunk chains, and trunk rings. The typical core of the trunk cable is 144/288 cores when the 4G network is built, and the typical core of the cable is 12/24 cores. In the CRAN architecture, because the BBU is remotely concentrated and placed in a remote integrated access room, the number of fiber cores of the backbone cable is rapidly consumed as the number of base stations increases. It is necessary to increase the number of cables in the trunk ring, or to lay 576 at a time. The core has even larger core count cables. Multiple fiber optic cables or large core fiber optic cables are deployed within limited pipeline resources, presenting challenges such as fiber size and bending performance.

Moreover, the number of 5G macro base stations will be doubled compared to 4G, and the number of small stations will be several times that of macro base stations. Most of them will be placed in business districts and densely populated residential areas, railway stations, airports, stadiums.  These application scenarios often require deployment of equipment and fiber optic cables in a limited space. Optical fiber with bending resistance provides good quality assurance for installation and deployment in complex network environments, while reducing network construction costs and labor requirements.

 Fiber with both bending and low loss performance

MF-28 Ultra is a new type of fiber that Corning has introduced in recent years. This fiber is fully compliant with ITU-T’s G652.D and G657.A1 specifications. It is fully compatible with the previous standard single-mode fiber and can be laid in the previous stage. The Corning SMF-28e and SMF-28e+ fibers are perfectly welded to each other.

The SMF-28 Ultra has three advantages: First, the attenuation performance of the SMF-28 Ultra fiber is 10% lower than that of the G.652.D typical fiber, which brings additional redundancy and maintenance space to the network. Second, the SMF-28 Ultra, The macro bending loss of the fiber is 10 times lower, and the 10mm radius macro bending loss performance is also 50% higher than the G.657.A1 standard. Better bending performance contributes to more flexible cable structure design and more reliable network performance. Finally, the fiber meets the bending performance and has a mode field diameter of 9.2 μm, which is consistent with the mode field diameter of most standard single-mode fibers currently on the market, enabling seamless compatibility with existing networks (usually for better bending performance, the mode field diameter of the G.657 series fiber is about 8.6um, and the difference between the mode field diameter and the conventional G.652D will increase the welding loss)

SMF-28 Ultra fiber is superior to G.657.A1 standard bending performance, enabling fiber optic cable designers to design smaller and lighter cables, taking up less pipe space, and lighter in the air, will be installed and maintained. The resulting bending reduces the amount of repetitive work, which reduces setup time and supports fast and reliable deployment of 5G.

200 micron small core fiber

In order to achieve higher density cable and occupy smaller pipeline resources, Corning released Ultra200 fiber in early 2015. The SMF-28 Ultra200 is the industry’s first high-performance fiber that combines a small outer diameter, 9.2 micron mode field diameter, low loss, and G.657A1 bending resistance, and is fully compatible with G.652D fiber. The glass portion of the fiber (fiber core and cladding) is identical to the SMF-28 Ultra, and uses a more advanced coating technology to achieve a smaller outer diameter (200 um) while maintaining product performance. It can improve pipeline utilization and achieve a minimum footprint with a smaller outer diameter, providing an innovative solution for scenarios where new networks such as 5G require a large number of fiber deployments.

 The future of 5G and the connection of Corning

The high bandwidth and ubiquitous mass links provided by 5G mobile communications will generate huge data traffic, and 5G needs to transmit this data via fiber optics. Although operators around the world will have their own deployment methods, they all use fiber as their preferred medium. Corning’s leadership in fiber optics and optical connectivity will enable rapid deployment of access points and better service to new 5G base stations. Communication networks are constantly evolving and evolving, and are gradually changing our world and the way we communicate.

In 1970, Corning invented the world’s first low-loss fiber, thereby establishing Corning’s innovation and market leadership in the fiber sector. Today, Corning has produced more than one billion core kilometers of fiber. With the popularity of 5G technology, Corning relies on innovative products and services to keep up with the pace of network changes and strive to contribute to the next wave of network infrastructure.