Connectivity innovation cuts costs, complexity and cassettes

Legrand believes that the Infinium acclAIM technology redefines fiber connectivity, incorporating as it does a variety of innovations, such as replacing pre-terminated cassette-based solutions with direct breakout connections and delivering the lowest insertion loss available on the market.

Klaus Dafiner, Marketing Manager Structured Cabling at Legrand, takes up the story: “Infinium acclAIM combines multifiber and traditional two fiber transmission in one system without the need to adapt multicore connectors to single fiber connectors, the advantage being how the multifiber connector is made. Today’s multifiber MPO connectors can connect, say, eight or 12 fibers simultaneously but within one single ferrule. Therefore, you have to adapt from MPO via a harness cable to, for example, an LC connector. The acclAIM connector handles eight fibers simultaneously, and every single fiber is terminated with its own ferrule and connects one to one to the opposite connector (MDC). There’s no adaptor required – hence a direct link between multifiber and two fiber transmission is now possible.”

The driving force behind Legrand’s Infinium acclAIM innovation is the increasingly higher densities and improved scalability required by the hyperscale, cloud, and, in time, 5G infrastructures of today’s digital businesses. For example, the newest SFP-DD and QSFP-DD (DD = double density) transceivers double the amount of fibers that can be used in these new designs. The connector that fits into these new transceivers is the MDC connector, the counterpart to the acclAIM solution – with the required flexibility and scalability being provided by a combination of both connector types, within very high densities to minimize the distribution space.

Attempts to upgrade fiber systems to meet these new requirements have faced some significant challenges, such as polarity, optical loss, delivery, design and deployment headaches, not to mention the high costs associated with cassette use.

Klaus comments: “With existing cabling solutions and how they are used, the polarity often causes trouble. Indeed, in the past 15 years or so, I’ve never met a customer that hasn’t struggled at one time when using MPO cabling systems. There are three polarity variations available if you combine them the wrong way within your infrastructure, and the only thing you get are grey hairs as you search for the problem and how to solve the issue!”

Klaus continues: “Another issue is caused by the required adaption from MPO to single fiber connectors. This is required on both sides of the cabling structure and, therefore, you have two more ‘extra’ connectors in your link, which adds to the insertion loss. Our acclAIM solution solves this problem.”

In terms of the relative costs of what we might call the ‘old and the new’, Klaus provides a great analogy: “If you want to drive your truck full of data on a wide, clean, multi-lane highway you will expect to pay for this; otherwise you can use the bumpy side road and risk losing some packages.”

acclAIM benefits

Near infinite scalability is a major claim, but with the acclAIM solution, it becomes a reality. The direct combination of multi-fiber to two fiber transmission, eliminating the need to adapt to another connector along the way is the first key element for this degree of scalability. The rest is achieved by the size of the connectors themselves and the plug and play handling.

Additionally, acclAIM offers the possibility of running the newest link configurations with the MDC connector directly to double density transceivers, but, at the same time, it is fully compatible with all existing link configurations.

Multiple media interfaces are defined by the active component used – the good news is that they can all run on the acclAIM cabling solution.

As for application-defined polarity – with acclAIM the polarity can be changed in seconds without the need for a special tool and without the risk of damaging fibers and/or the connector surfaces.

In terms of direct mating breakout – so that the direct connection from ferrule to ferrule on each single fiber in the system offers the highest possible quality – the ceramic ferrules that are used in acclAIM are the same size as those in LC connectors, so the manufacturing process has already been perfected. Also, the cleaning and testing of these connectors in the data center is much easier than it is for MPO connections, and there’s no longer any special equipment required for testing. And the issue of gender considerations has been solved by acclAIM – there are no different gender connectors required in this system, one only!

Klaus outlines one further benefit: “One of the biggest potential advantages with the acclAIM system is in terms of future-proofing. Thanks to the quality of each connection in this system and, as a result, the headroom available for total insertion loss, you don’t have to worry about what the future might hold in terms of increased bandwidths, multifiber combinations with wavelength multiplexing and the like.”

Feedback from customers who have been involved in the acclAIM development programme has been universally positive, as Klaus outlines: “Direct mating, lower insertion loss, no potential polarity problems, plug and play, faster install and removal times, improved accessibility – our customers have been impressed with the real performance advantages offered by the acclAIM system. I’d almost go so far as to say that, with Infinium acclAIM, it’s almost impossible for anything to go wrong, giving our customers significant peace of mind.

The Legrand Infinium acclAIM Fiber solution consists of:

· Infinium acclAIM Fiber Conversion Adapter Panels, max density possible 192fibre/U

· Infinium acclAIM Fiber Trunk Assembly, 8-core for singletrunk up to 48-core for 6x acclAIM multitrunk, available in singlemode and multimode

· Infinium Core, MDC patchcords, available in singlemode and multimode, as MDC to MDC version or hybrid MDC to LC