5 ms·
Hollow Core Fiber (HCF)
- sunrunner 1y agoNot a comment on the article, but the linked URL makes me vaguely uncomfortable.
- crunchbang-excl 1y agoThat fullwidth question mark really makes the URL stand out, not in a good way.
- escape_goat 1y agoI think that it was good that it stood out to be honest.
- formerly_proven 1y agoSlightly too clever CMS. Like Dolphin replacing slashes with the Unicode fraction slash.
- hinkley 1y agoI hate it. So... much.
- epx 1y agoCurious about how difficult would be to splice it.
- giuliomagnifico 1y agoGood point. I have no idea, but probably the tools will need an upgrade!
- josephthejoe 1y agoyea hand splicing in the field is already super rare today. I imagine this cannot be hand spliced at all.
- burnte 1y agoConsidering the number of fiber splice trucks rolling around I think your supposition is incorrect. Fiber splicing happens thousands of times every day. Fibers break and get cut all the time. Tt's not common in data centers, but once you leave those walls fiber splicing happens everywhere every day.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- LargoLasskhyfv 1y agoAlso just upgrading the connecting bits. Like the muffle/joint in the ground, for more 'speed', to enable more branching out, or both. Seen yesterday night, had a good chat with the two guys. I always stop when I see them, to get a better picture of what is where, who owns it, and so on. Sometimes they even let YOU do the splicing. Which is actually easy, because it's fully automated. Imagine something like a small suitcase, or a shoebox with LCD-screen on top. You insert both ends into slits on both sides, the 'box' grabs and aligns them, cuts and repolishes the ends, melds them together, and ejects the fibre through a slot in the front. Then you sleeve that with tape, insert it into a muffle, apply some hardening foam, sometimes gel, like hot-glue, and close that muffle like a clam shell. Done.
- burnte 1y agoYeah, splicing is a lot easier these days.
- 0_____0 1y agoI've personally spliced about a dozen optical fibers and I don't even work in telecom :) Not exactly by hand though - all the prep is done by hand but the actual alignment and fusion steps were automated by the fusion splicer machine (about the size of a small toolbox)
- richardwhiuk 1y agohttps://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/azurenetworkingblog/the-deployment-of-hollow-core-fiber-hcf-in-azure%E2%80%99s-network/4395340 https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/azurenetworkingblog... Suggests it can be to some extent.
- ksec 1y agoHollow-core optical fibers may have a bright future [1], along with another HN thread from 8 years ago [2], I have longed for these cables where we could cut Japan to New York latency by 50ms. Unfortunately we dont seems to be anywhere close to it. [1] https://www.laserfocusworld.com/fiber-optics/article/14170019/hollow-core-optical-fibers-may-have-a-bright-future https://www.laserfocusworld.com/fiber-optics/article/1417001... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16194973 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16194973
- giuliomagnifico 1y agoNo... hollow core fibers are being installed as a test in some data centers now/this year. Who knows how many years it will take to (re)make an oceanic backbone (and the prices…)
- RationPhantoms 1y agoI'd also argue that the 50ms reduction time benefit with HCF has waned with the introduction of HFT (High Frequency Trading) over LEO links with lasers.
- GlibMonkeyDeath 1y agoI was going to do the "well akshually..." about HCFs because this article is so light on details. I used to work in a related field many years ago, and the attenuation of these fibers relegated them to niche applications (short-lengths that needed the odd properties of a hollow core, like ultra-high power transmission, low dispersion, low nonlinearity, etc.) They were orders of magnitude too lossy for long-haul telecommunications applications at the time. But a quick search proved my knowledge was not up to date - here is the paper linked from the Laser Focus World blurb someone linked above. Looks like HCFs have achieved loss parity with traditional single-mode fused silica fibers, at least in the lab. Pretty amazing and cool if you ask me! https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/470034/1/OFC2022_PD_Jasion_submitted.pdf https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/470034/1/OFC2022_PD_Jasion_submi...
- pletnes 1y agoDo the wave modes offer higher velocity?
- GlibMonkeyDeath 1y agoYes, basically most of the electromagnetic wave is in the hollow (gas-filled) core, which is going to have an index closer to 1 (as opposed to ~1.4 for silica fibers.)
- IAmBroom 1y agoOh, wow! Thanks for clarifying. I get it now! (Former optical engineer, but not in fiber optics.)
- chorsestudios 1y agoA key detail I found lacking in this article was the manufacturing cost difference. It mentions that it is more expensive, but no indication of how much more expensive.
- GlibMonkeyDeath 1y ago
- exabrial 1y agoThis is fascinating. As an engineer, my mind always goes to: "what are the practical challenges": * How do you splice without crushing the core? * How do you terminate/splice and maintain vacuum? * How do you terminate at all
- frainfreeze 1y agotldr: lasers (angry light)
- hinkley 1y agoHow do you make the fiber in the first place?
- IAmBroom 1y ago> * How do you splice without crushing the core? Pressurize during the slice, and slice quickly before the pressure drops. Not hard over that very short distance. * How do you terminate/splice and maintain vacuum? Gas-filled, not vacuum. * How do you terminate at all See above.
- Ciunkos 1y agoThe article is full of AI slop, sorry.
- londons_explore 1y agoHow do you evacuate these fibers to any decent vacuum? Sticking a vacuum pump on one end and waiting presumably won't work because gas will take a really really long time to diffuse along a multi kilometer long micrometer wide tube...
- avidiax 1y agoMy uneducated guess, fill the cavity with a reactive gas, then apply heat in one part of the process to react the gas with the walls, leaving a vacuum. Part of the article mentions silver cladding on the inside wall, which would be a getter for some gasses, with the downside that it is slightly tarnished. Or, the entire process is performed under vacuum. More likely, that part of the manufacturing process isn't fully solved, so they just have pumped samples.
- LargoLasskhyfv 1y agoYou produce them in orbit. Like ZBLAN. Actually hollow cored ZBLANS seems like a nice idea, to a layman like me :)
- dvno42 1y agoSo what's the application for data? Would this provide for tighter channels in WDM networks (with less spacing between channels) since dispersion is less of an issue? Might be out of my league on this but I thought DCMs were a work around for dispersion at distance. Maybe faster packets for teleprotection control systems? Either way, cool to see!
- eternityforest 1y agoI wonder if we'll see more power-over-fiber products with this kind of thing?