In Draka, our firm belief is that bend insensitive optical fibers should not come at this expense of any other characteristics, but should be in addition to the broadly accepted specifications of world most deployed fiber, the G.652 standard single-mode optical fiber. Draka is offering its BendBright family: the original BendBright (G.657.A1) and the industry leading FTTH product: the BendBright-XS (G.657.A2&B2). These two bend-insensitive optical fibers provide bend-sensitivity reduction of, respectively x10 and x100 as compared to G.652 single-mode fiber, while still fully compliant with the most stringent ITU-T G.652.D recommendation. In addition, built on the same platform, Draka proposes its specialty BendBright-Elite (G.657.B3) (see Specialty Product Group Description), which is an ultra bend-insensitive optical fiber for tighter radii high end specialty operations.
BendBright is the world first introduced bend improved fiber, more than four years in advance of the first G.657.A ITU-T recommendation. The fiber encompasses all the feature of Enhanced Single-Mode ESMF fiber and provides high resistance to additional losses due to macro and micro-bending, particularly in the 1600 nm wavelength region.
BendBright-XS is the Draka’s single-mode optical fiber for FTTH deployment. It combines excellent low macro-bending sensitivity (G.657.A2 and G.657.B2 compliant) and all the feature of regular E-SMF (G.652.D compliant). It permits then to use one fiber type from the central office to the optical network terminal. Wherever small cable size, low foot-print connectivity or tight accidental bend are the concerns, BendBright-XS is the solution you need. This superior behavior has been obtained by adding a trench with a lowered refractive index in the cladding area, preventing the optical field to escape. This has been designed in such a way that no compromise has been made with respect to the main transmission parameters. It is consequently fully backward compatible and future proofed. In other words, on top of being the champion single-mode optical fiber for FTTH roll-outs, BendBright-XS can also cope with any higher bit rate, higher wavelength operation, and WDM transmission of any kind, in all standardized bands, that may come with the next generation FTTH systems.