From FTTH to the Internet of Things: Six Disruptive Application Scenarios of Wire and Cable

In today's era of the Internet of Everything, optical fibers are like the lifeblood of the digital society. Among them, an innovative product called "fiber optic cable" is revolutionizing traditional connection methods with its slender form like a butterfly, capable of withstanding heavy loads, and with a diameter of less than 3 millimeters, quietly changing our digital world.

The core features of the cable

• Compact structure: The outer diameter is usually 2-3mm, light in weight, and suitable for wiring in narrow Spaces.

• High flexibility: Small bendable radius (usually ≤10mm), facilitating pipe threading or concealed installation.

• Tensile strength: With built-in reinforcing materials such as aramid yarn, it can withstand a tensile force of up to 100 Newtons, preventing construction damage.

• Easy installation: Supports hot fusion or cold fusion, with high construction efficiency and suitable for rapid deployment.

• Cost advantage: Compared with traditional optical cables, the material cost is lower, and the construction difficulty is reduced, resulting in a lower overall cost.

Six innovative application scenarios

As the "last mile" solution of Fiber to the Home (FTTH), the cable has now broken through traditional boundaries and extended to every corner of the Internet of Things. This article will explore six innovative application scenarios of cable optic cords in the era of the Internet of Things and demonstrate how they can contribute to an intelligent future.

1. FTTH Home Access Revolution: The Cornerstone of low-cost Gigabit Broadband

As the core medium of the "last mile", the pig-wire optical cable is directly connected to households through pre-buried PVC pipes or cable trays, replacing copper cables to achieve a bandwidth of 100 megabits to 1 gigabit. In China, the FTTH coverage rate is close to saturation, but the promotion of FTTR (Fiber to the Room) technology has given rise to new demands for invisible optical cables and butterfly-shaped optical cables.

Compared with traditional copper cables, the advantages of sheathed optical cables are obvious:

• Structural advantages: The cross-section is designed in an "8" shape, with the central optical fiber surrounded and protected by reinforcing parts. The diameter is only 2-3mm, making it easy to pass through pre-buried PVC pipes.

• Easy installation: Supports both hot fusion (loss ≤0.05dB) and cold fusion (loss ≤0.2dB) methods, increasing construction efficiency by over 50%, significantly reducing deployment costs, and facilitating network coverage in remote areas around the world.

• Cost-effectiveness: The material cost is 30% lower than that of traditional optical cables, and the reduced construction difficulty brings a comprehensive cost advantage.

  Data Insight: The global optical fiber cabling market size is expected to reach 20 billion US dollars by 2025, with China's growth rate maintaining at 6% to 7%.

2. Intelligent building neural Network: The space liberator of high-density and anti-interference wiring, vertical and horizontal wiring

In modern high-rise buildings, optical cables are reshaping the neural network systems within the buildings. It perfectly solves the problems of large space occupation and complex wiring of traditional multi-core optical cables.

Inside the building, the cable and optical cable simultaneously serve as the vertical main trunk line (connecting the weak current shaft and the machine room) and the horizontal cabling (connecting terminal devices such as aps and cameras).

Application highlights:

• Vertical backbone: Connects the weak current shaft of each floor to the machine room, with a tensile strength of up to 100N, ensuring safe wiring for high-rise buildings over 20 floors.

• Horizontal wiring: Extending from the weak current well to the AP access point, cameras and other terminal devices, with a bending radius as small as 20mm, easily bypassing the corners of beams and columns.

The advantages lie in:

• Space saving: Replace multi-core optical cables and reduce the occupation of cable trays;

• Anti-electromagnetic interference: Ensure stable transmission of security monitoring and access control systems;

• Long-life design: ≥25 years of service life, reducing maintenance costs

In the FTTH project, a distributed optical splitter ODN architecture is adopted. The optical cables are directly plugged into the optical splitter ports distributed in the basements of each building through the cold connection technology of on-site connectors. In the user's home, a multimedia optical fiber information panel is connected to the ONU, providing seamless conversion between RJ11 and RJ45 interfaces.

This wiring method reduces the space occupied by the bridge frame by 50% and lowers the wiring complexity by 30%. At the same time, it supports high-speed transmission of 40G/100G Ethernet over short distances (≤100 meters), meeting the bandwidth requirements of intelligent buildings in the next decade.

3. Internet of Things Neural Network: The Invisible Connector of Smart Devices

In the era of the Internet of Things, a vast number of sensors and devices require stable and reliable connections. Cable optic cables have become an ideal choice for Internet of Things infrastructure due to their unique advantages.

As the carrying platform of intelligent buildings, the cable and optical cable seamlessly integrate four major systems: video surveillance, hotel management, office automation and home intelligence.

In smart homes: Wire and optical cables are the connection cornerstones of smart homes, providing high-speed and stable network connections for devices. Optical cables provide high-bandwidth and low-latency physical layer support for smart homes:

• Supports 4K/8K video transmission, enabling interconnection of home audio-visual centers. The optical cable directly connects optical fibers to the home through the FTTH network, not only supporting 4K/8K streaming media, but also meeting the real-time data transmission requirements of smart home appliances. The smart thermostat and voice assistant can achieve millisecond-level response through optical cables, enhancing the user experience.

• Connect smart door locks, lighting, thermostats and security cameras to achieve remote automated management.

• In combination with PoE (Power Over Ethernet) technology, it integrates power supply and data transmission for terminal devices.

In hotel management: By directly connecting sensors and control terminals on each floor through optical fibers, a comprehensive access service that is "fast, flexible and convenient" is achieved, and the response time of room control is shortened to the millisecond level.

4. Data center micro-modules: A key driver for high-density cabling

In the face of the surging demand for AI computing power, pico optical cables are used to achieve high-density cabinet-level cabling within data centers:

• Compact size: With a diameter of only 3mm, a single cabinet can accommodate more than 48 cores of high-density wiring

• Plug and play: The pre-terminated design increases the connection efficiency between the server and the TOR (Top of Rack) switch by 70%, and plug and play reduces deployment time;

• The feature of bending without damaging fibers makes it suitable for narrow cabinet Spaces.

• Flexible expansion: The modular structure supports on-demand capacity expansion to adapt to rapid business growth

The global demand for optical cables in data centers is increasing by 10% annually, with North America accounting for more than 40% of the global share.

5. Smart City Arteries: The "Blood Vessels" of a Vast Number of iot Terminals

The construction of smart cities requires the establishment of a high-speed neural network covering the entire region. Smart cities rely on a vast number of sensors and cameras to monitor traffic, the environment and public safety. Optical cables have become the core carriers of urban critical information infrastructure due to their environmental adaptability, anti-electromagnetic interference ability and high transmission efficiency.

In addition, its durability and low maintenance cost make it suitable for long-term deployment in complex urban environments.

Application scenario expansion

• Intelligent transportation system: Connect traffic lights with road monitoring cameras to achieve real-time control within a 50-kilometer range without relay, and transmit road monitoring data to the control center in real time to optimize vehicle flow scheduling.

• Smart grid: The all-non-metallic structure of the sheathed optical cable has excellent lightning protection performance and is suitable for introduction from outdoor to indoor in the power system.

• Public safety: Rapidly deploy the emergency monitoring network through self-supporting overhead optical cables, with tensile strength supporting a span of 50 meters. The anti-corrosion design is suitable for underground pipeline environments and supports 7× 24-hour security system operation.

• Energy-saving management: Provide two-way communication for smart street lamps and adjust energy consumption as needed.

In the FTTH project of Malaysia Telecom, a distributed splitting solution was adopted for a 100,000-line scale, with the combination of cable and optical fibers and on-site connector technology. This reduced the construction cost of the entire line's supporting network by 30% and increased the construction efficiency by 40%, providing a successful example for large-scale broadband speed-up in cities.

6. The Cornerstone of Industrial Internet of Things: A reliable guarantee for intelligent manufacturing

In the wave of Industry 4.0, wire and optical cables have become the ideal choice for connecting intelligent manufacturing systems. Its stability and high-speed transmission characteristics perfectly meet the demands of industrial environments.

Advantages of industrial scenarios

• Real-time control: Microsecond-level delay ensures precise synchronization of industrial robots' collaborative operations.

• Anti-electromagnetic interference: In strong electromagnetic environments such as factories and substations, ensure zero error in data transmission of temperature and humidity sensors and smoke detectors;

• Harsh environment adaptability: The corrosion-resistant sheath material can resist the erosion of industrial environments such as oil stains and high temperatures.

• Safety Assurance: Flame-retardant materials (LSZH) comply with industrial safety standards, reducing the risk of fire.

• The L-wire optical cable connects various sensors, robots and control systems on the production line, achieving real-time collection and precise control of production data, and reducing the product defect rate by 25%.

Future trend: From green energy conservation to global penetration, beyond the infinite possibilities of connection

• Emerging markets are booming: Southeast Asia and the Middle East are expected to grow by more than 10.3% by 2025, with India accounting for over 25%.

• Technology Iteration: The bending resistance performance of G.657 optical fiber has been enhanced, making it suitable for complex Internet of Things terminals.

• Sustainability: Halogen-free flame-retardant materials reduce the risk of fire and cut carbon emissions throughout their life cycle by 30%.

The development trajectory of optical cables is like an ever-extending path of light - starting from the FTTH projects in thousands of households, it has now penetrated into the production lines of smart factories, the transportation networks of smart cities, and the server clusters of data centers. The global FTTH market is growing at an annual rate of 18%, and as its core carrier, the application scenarios of optical cables have transcended the boundaries of traditional communication.

The cable has evolved from a "connection tool" to the infrastructure gene of digital transformation - it is both an information vessel and the neuron of the future intelligent world. With the continuous evolution of technology, optical cables will continue to demonstrate their disruptive power in emerging fields such as the metaverse and quantum communication in the future, becoming an intangible bond connecting the virtual and the real.