Mar 24 2009
Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) announced today that it has sold more than 30 million kilometers of LEAF® optical fiber since introducing the product in 1998. As the backbone of many of the world’s most advanced long-haul networks, LEAF fiber is the most widely deployed non-zero dispersion-shifted fiber (NZ-DSF) in the world.
“LEAF fiber is a great example of Corning innovation and has been one of Corning’s most successful products, meeting customer needs over many years,” said Martin J. Curran, senior vice president and general manager, Corning Optical Fiber. “The performance of this fiber is proven by its operation in more than 100 carrier networks worldwide.”
Compared to other non-zero dispersion-shifted fibers, LEAF fiber, with its large effective area, allows higher levels of optical power to be transmitted while minimizing nonlinear impairments that can degrade transmission-system performance. This fiber has low chromatic dispersion, which simplifies dispersion compensation and lowers the cost of network installation and operation for long-haul carriers. In addition, this fiber has low-polarization-mode dispersion (PMD), which enables high-data-rate transmission. LEAF fiber continues to be the fiber of choice for new long-haul builds and upgrades to existing builds as it provides longer uncompensated reach, room for future upgrades, and optical specifications that can be leveraged to simplify and lower network costs.
In 1998, Corning demonstrated a 10 Gb/s system using LEAF® fiber. This year, at the OFC/NFOEC conference, Corning will demonstrate LEAF® fiber’s performance at 40 Gb/s, in a system with Opnext, the industry-leading maker of 40 Gb/s transponders. This demonstrated 40 Gb/s system, as in 1998, uses single-stage, in-line amplifiers and dispersion compensation only at the terminals, showing that LEAF fiber brings the same network simplification and cost advantages it did upon commercial introduction.