Things You Should Know About Aerial Fiber Optic Cable

Aerial fiber optic cables are specifically designed for installation above ground, typically suspended between utility poles, buildings, towers, or other structures. These cables are engineered to withstand outdoor environmental conditions such as temperature variations, wind, and exposure to sunlight. Today, we will take you to learn more about the aerial fiber optic cables:

What Is Aerial Fiber Optic Cable?

Aerial fiber optic cable is a type of fiber optic cables that is usually used for outside installation on poles. Due to its installation environment, the design of aerial fiber optic cable must consider to protect it from the destruction of the nature and man-made damage or theft. Aerial cable's laying method is not hard to implement as it can utilize the existing overhead pole line to install that saves more in construction costs and shortens the construction period. Aerial cables are mainly used for secondary trunk level and below and usually applied to flat terrain or low fluctuation area. They are easily affected by the natural disasters, such as typhoons, ice, floods etc. as well as the influence of an outside force and the mechanical strength weakening in themselves. Therefore, the failure rate of aerial fiber optic cables are higher than the pipeline or directly buried fiber optic cables.

Types of Aerial Fiber Optic Cables

According to the installation methods, aerial fiber optic cables can be generally classified as two types: catenary wire and self-supporting. Catenary Wire Aerial Cable is regular outdoor loose tube cables that can be helically lashed to a messenger or another cable (common in CATV). Self-Supporting Aerial Cable, or All-Dielectric Self-Supporting (ADSS) cable (the common style such as Figure-8 Aerial Cables), has cable bonded to an insulated steel or all-dielectric messenger for support. ADSS Cables are usually made of heavier jackets and stronger metal or aramid strength members. Nowadays, the self-supporting aerial fiber optic cables are more widely used by people.

Fig 8: The name of this self-supported cable comes from its strength element being located on the exterior of the cable, forming a figure of the number 8 when cut. This strength member can be made of steel or dielectric material. This type of aerial fiber optic cable can withstand very high-tension forces and extends up to 180 meters. Figure 8 cables can be divided into three types, but all three have high mechanical strength, water protection, and high UV resistance:

• GYTC8S type: The fibers are protected in a corrugated steel tube for great mechanical strength.
  
  
• GYXTC8Y type: It has a loose tube with water blocking and waterproof properties.
  
  
• GYXTC8S type: The fibers are protected in a corrugated steel tube for high mechanical strength, and it also has loose tubes with water-blocking and waterproofing properties.

• OPGW (Optical Ground Wire): These are fully metallic cables, capable of holding large quantities of fibers inside. These aerial fiber optic cables are used in power lines and work for both data transmission and protection against lightning strikes.
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