Ribbon Splicing in Fibre Optic Technology: A Comparison and its advantages for Datacenter Interconnects

Ribbon fibre cables have been around since the 1980s. These cables were developed to simplify the installation and management of fibres in telecommunications and network applications. They consist of multiple optical fibres arranged in a flat, ribbon-like format, allowing for more efficient and faster splicing and installation. The specific introduction of such cables varies by region and technology provider, but the core technology and its commercial applications began in the 1980s.

Ribbon splicing involves splicing several fibres simultaneously. These fibres, arranged in a flat ribbon format (similar to electrical flat cables), are typically grouped into a "ribbon" of 4, 8, or 12 fibers. In contrast, traditional single-fibre splicing requires splicing each fibre individually.

1. Speed and Efficiency:

• Ribbon Splicing: Since multiple fibres are spliced simultaneously, the process is significantly faster, reducing the splicing time per connection.
• Single-Fibre Splicing: Each fibre must be spliced individually, making the process more time-consuming and increasing the total connection time.

2. Workload:

• Ribbon Splicing: Lower workload and reduced complexity when handling and splicing multiple fibres.
• Single-Fibre Splicing: Increased workload, as each fibre needs to be individually prepared, spliced, and tested.

3. Precision and Quality:

• Ribbon Splicing: Modern ribbon splicing machines are highly precise and deliver consistently good splice quality with adequate insertion loss (IL).
• Single-Fibre Splicing: Single-fibre splices are usually more precise than ribbon splices, often resulting in slightly lower insertion loss (IL), depending on the splicing machine and how well the fibre cores are aligned.

Datacentre interconnects (DCI) are networks that connect multiple data centres to efficiently transfer data and optimise resource use. In this context, ribbon splicing is particularly advantageous:

High Bandwidth: Data centres require massive data capacity. Ribbon cables offer high fibre counts in a compact format, increasing bandwidth.

Space Savings: Since multiple fibres are housed within a single cable, less space is needed, simplifying cable management within the data centre.

Reliability and Scalability: Splicing multiple fibres at once reduces the risk of connection errors and makes future upgrades and expansions easier.

The fibre optic pigtails spliced to the ends of ribbon cables must converge into fibre ribbons, which are spliced to the cable ribbons using ribbon splicing equipment. Rosenberger OSI offers two solutions for this:

• Pre-assembled ribbon splice cassettes for use in ECO splice enclosures, which are splice-ready with fibre optic pigtails on one side and fibre ribbons on the other.
• Ribbon splice variant of the PreCONNECT^® SMAP-G2 splice module, which is now available for ribbon splicing to fibre ribbons.

Conclusion

The use of high-fibre-count ribbon cables for datacentre interconnects (DCI) and backbones within data centre buildings is a growing trend. Ribbon splicing, which is used to splice fibre optic pigtails in their ribbon splice cassettes or ribbon splice modules to these ribbon cables, outperforms traditional single-fibre splicing in terms of installation speed and efficiency.