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ProLabs OM5 fiber patch cables are optimized for the growing needs of today’s data centers. OM5, or wide-band multimode fiber, is designed to accommodate bidirectional and wavelength division multiplexing technology utilized in data centers around the world.

OM5 is specially optimized to support bidirectional (40G-SR-BD and 400G-SR4.2) and wavelength division multiplexing (SWDM) technologies over multimode fiber by opening a wider spectral range to 840nm to 953nm. OM5 cable links offer longer supported distances for these technologies and OM5 patch cables are backward compatible with older OM4/OM3/etc. standards.

Multimode Fiber Standards – Maximum Fiber Link Distances

OM5 support for bidirectional and WDM transceiver technologies

ProLabs OM5 patch cables are available in standard lengths from 1m to 50m and in standard connectors configurations including:

• LC to LC
• LC to SC
• LC to CS
• LC to MPO-12
• LC to MPO-16

Visit our product portfolio of patch cables for more.

The New iTemp range (-40°C to +85°C) of WDM Transceivers ensure the performance over temperature throughout the life of the network.

ProLabs WDM transceivers are the perfect solution to enable greater flexibility from fiber infrastructures. Due to their wavelength stabilising technology, the new range of transceivers can endure temperatures as low as -40°C to as high as +85°C which enable them to perform even in the most demanding environments.

Most commercial temperature rated (0°C to 70°C) products can resist some fluctuations in temperature at initial deployment; however, high and low temperature cycles over time can cause instability in WDM circuits, causing the wavelengths to drift off of the centre wavelength, potentially causing network interruptions. Wavelength stabilisation technologies prevent instability, therefore ensuring trouble free operations over the life of a network.

CWDM and DWDM transmission allow service providers the ability to utilize existing infrastructure to drive fiber optics deeper into the network, closer to the customer. In addition, ProLabs new iTemp WDM transceivers now offer service providers the ability to deploy worry-free WDM services outside the climate controlled locations, closer to the customer.

“ProLabs customers are in the midst of a remarkable network transformation”. Ray Hagen, Product Manager at ProLabs commented “We listened to the needs of our customers to deploy WDM services in environments not historically hospitable for WDM technologies. We are pleased to have worked together to solve this issue and ensure stable and trouble free environments in their network”.

Cirencester, 5 June 2018 – Optical transceiver specialist, ProLabs, is pleased to announce the appointment of Matt McCormick to CEO of Halo Technology, a group recently formed after the forces of ProLabs and AddOn came together in mid-2017.

Joining AddOn in 2005 as a sales associate, McCormick gained invaluable expert knowledge in the generation and development of products and education in the market and proved to be a major asset to the AddOn team. Moving up the ranks to VP of Sales in 2011, his knowledge of the industry, products and impact the business had on the continued interest and development of optical transceivers was unparalleled. As VP of Sales, McCormick was responsible for the continued promotion and development of the company’s high-quality solution portfolio, ensuring it was at the forefront of technology trends and developments and overseeing global sales.

Striving to create a goal-oriented team environment, McCormick pioneered the optical transceiver business for AddOn, which directly lead to the reshaping of the business from re-seller of other network accessories to the current business model. He also developed the white label service offering and continues to drive the initiative.

Now the biggest provider of optical transceivers in the market today, Halo hopes to change the current mindset of customers when they are looking for connectivity solutions as well as challenging OEM (Original equipment manufacturer) dominance in the market.

“Our goal and aspirations for ProLabs is to make our mark on the optical connectivity industry by challenging the mindset of customers when it comes to the compatibles market. In doing this, we aim to bridge the current gap between OEM and mid-tier retailers and to continue to provide our loyal customers with world-class connectivity solutions,” McCormick said. “Through our technical intelligence, sector specialists and expertise, we are on our way to being the recognised provider of compatible products that surpass quality and speed standards of the market.”

Not only specialising in compatible transceivers, ProLabs are working hard to provide future-proof complete solutions from 100mb to 100G and offer a number of network interconnect and active network solutions.

“ProLabs is an ambitious industry challenger and I am looking forward to spearheading our global compatible connectivity mission. Ultimately, our products are tried, tested and ahead of the curve thanks to our on site, state-of-the-art facilities. Compatibility is our middle name but it’s not our end-game, and with the support of the Halo group, our presence is only set to expand,” added McCormick.

What impact will this have on your existing network?
 

5G technology is scheduled to be released in 2018, or early 2019, but in reality, we are still two, maybe three years away from a large scale rollout as Telecom providers run trials and prepare their networks to cope with the huge increase in demand for communication. The growing need for higher speeds and instant, reliable services are all leading to pressure on providers to improve their networks and services. As data consumption increases, the various network segments, and the interfaces between them need to increase in capacity to serve this traffic.

Fundamentally, the right network foundation will need to be laid in order to deploy 5G, but there are technologies available which are ideal for providing both the fibre access and data rates required for 5G fronthaul and backhaul.

How can ProLabs support your 5G network needs?

EON – NSV – OTDR: Coming Soon

• Optical time-domain reflectometer
• Quickly locates faults and issues in optical fibre networks, allowing reactive troubleshooting of any performance issues within the fibres.
• More information coming soon……

Passive Optical Network (PON)

• Efficient usage of fibres
• Good reach
• Cost effective;
  • Lower power
  • High density
• Dominant FTTH technology;
  • As 5G needs fibre everywhere, it’s a logical expansion of the FTTH network to provide Fibre to the Cell over the same infrastructure.

100G Connectivity

• 100G solutions can support by increasing bandwidth, minimising aggregation and significantly improving overall efficiency.

Single Fibre

• Bi-Directional;

Double the bandwidth on existing fibres at relatively low cost.

• HD CWDM;

Double circuit capacity over existing CWDM infrastructure, reducing time and expense.

• Fibre to the Home – EPON & GPON, Ethernet
• Carrier Ethernet/Fibre to the Building – CWDM & DWDM – 1G & 10G, SFP, SFP+
• Wireless Backhaul – 1G & 10G CWDM & DWDM
• Fibre to the Node – CWDM & DWDM, 1G, 2.5G, 10G SFP, SFP+ XFP
• Core network 40G/100G

Click the button below to read our latest blog on this topic by Raymond Hagen - America's Product Manager
 

Can you remember a time before WiFi, the Internet, mobile phones and when computers would just about fit in your car (if you had a car), let alone your pocket?

Anthony Clarkson of ProLabs can, and he would like to take you back… back in time….

It all started in the early 1980s for me. I recall playing ‘Pong’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pong) or more likely a cheap knock off on the TV but it was the arrival in our home of a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K (affectionately known as a Speccy or Rubber Keys) that started a journey into computing for me. The Spectrum had, as the name suggests, 48 kilobytes of memory at its disposal. It was setup (with convenient shortcuts printed on the keys) for programming in BASIC – who can recall simple programmes such as:

10 PRINT “Hello World”

20 GOTO 10

You could also load games like Manic Miner and Horace Goes Skiing into the computer’s whopping 48K memory from an audio cassette tape. Eventually with add-ons (Kempston Joystick Adapter - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kempston_Interface) you could play proper arcade games like Commando. One thing to note about data transfer in the early 80s was that the programmes were loaded into the memory by playing a cassette tape into the machine using audio signals. It could take minutes to load a simple game in to the machine. Transferring data to a friend, involved packing up the tape and walking to their house with it.

Fast-forward to the late 1980s and it was all about BBC Micro & Master at school. I remember staying late after school for Computer Club just to play Stock Car Racer and Chuckie Egg which I had on a 5 ¼ inch floppy disk, which could hold 360kB of data. At home we had, courtesy of a pools (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_pools) win, an Amiga A600 which took 3 ½ inch disks and we upgraded to have an external 20MB hard drive, so that we could load multiple disk games and no disk changing was required.

And then, in the 1990s came the IBM PC compatible running DOS and later Windows. Ours was made by Olivetti came with a 80486 processor running at 25MHz with a gigantic 120MB hard drive. It was bought on the never-never through Radio Rentals for the princely sum of £1000. With these PCs came expansion options like 8-bit sound cards, CD-ROM readers and most excitingly a dial-up modem which meant that we could connect to something called a BBS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system). At the time this was ground-breaking stuff to a teenager but in reality it was a text based system where you could read something called the Jolly Roger’s Anarchist’s Cookbook (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anarchist_Cookbook).

Dial-up internet - at 2400 baud (9600 bits per second using QAM) – only worked if you had a long phone cable running to your computer and no-one was making a phone call at the same time. Throughout the 1990s technology improved and speeds increased through 14.4 and 33.3kbps to an eventually whopping 56kbps. I remember at the time dreaming of one day being able to afford a 128kbps ISDN BRI line. (I was later reliably informed that ISDN stands for It Still Does Nothing!)

University introduced me to Local Area Networks (LAN) running on 10Mbps Ethernet, but then it was back home to the reality of 56k dial-up until something called broadband arrived. Promising 256kbps and quickly 512kbps (or 10x the speed of dial-up in marketing speak!) it was the game-changer of home internet because:

1. It was always on
2. You could use the phone at the same time

Remembering that 1999 was the year that mobile adoption really started in the UK and that most voice calls we to/from landlines (a new term since they were previously the only phones). Broadband meant that you could now transfer data to your friends without getting up from your seat.

Technology moved very quickly and Local Loop Unbundling (basically BT opening up their copper wires to other providers) drove prices down and speeds up. ADSL2 brought 2Mbps and then 8Mbps and then ADSL2+ offered up to 24Mbps!

Now we have ‘superfast’ VDSL2 with speeds approaching 100Mbps and cable offering over 300Mbps connections to our homes. There are Fibre to The Home providers offering residential users speeds of 1Gbps+ - a far cry from the days of 9600bps.

So, what does all this mean? Well, we are now used to always on, all the time, fast internet everywhere we go. My current mobile phone has way more computing power than a relatively recent modest PC and with 4G mobile networks the connection speed is around 20Mbps. My 6 & 7 year old children have tablets, laptops and smart TV and understand the concept of wifi and complain when there is no internet. A bit different to a monochrome tennis game…

​

Save to your favourites or ask Alexa for part 2 in this series where we will look to the future of where the internet and computing is going next..

Top-of-Rack

Top-of-Rack (ToR) data center designs are credited for simplifying data center deployments. Reduced cabling costs and easy integration of modular rack-and-stack cabinets are key drivers for the adoption of ToR data center designs. ToR “direct connects” network elements within a rack to a 1U or 2U switch installed at the top of the rack. ToR typically uses lower-cost copper Direct Attached Cables (DACs) to offer cost effective in-cabinet cabling in comparison to designs that run bundles of cables from one cabinet to the next.

Direct connects

Direct connecting switches, servers and other appliances pose the challenge of interoperability. Interoperability in a ToR environment refers directly to the compatibility of DAC cables connecting devices from different OEMs. Top of Row deployments that mix switches servers, load balancers, or storage appliances from multiple OEMs must address the challenge of interoperability.

Compatibility across OEM vendors

Many OEM switches and servers require proprietary cables to ensure compatibility. When plugging an OEM (let’s call this OEM “C”) DAC into a switch, the user expects a plug and play experience, that the switch will see the cable and not present any alarms. No additional work around commands or special action should be taken.

However, if the user were to take the other end of the cable and plug it into a server from OEM “H,” the server may not see the cable or may present messages or errors that may be picked up by network monitoring tools. Dominant OEM network equipment vendors are in the business to sell their exclusive ecosystem. They do not offer a solution to ensure interoperability across multiple OEM hardware elements in a direct connect scenario.

Multi-vendor connections

Luckily third-party solutions are available to solve this interoperability challenge. DACs and AOCs can be programmed in the factory for compatibility to each OEM, additionally, each end can be programmed for a different OEM.

The hybrid or multi-code DAC solution offers assurance that multi-vendor connections are plug and play.

Even 40G/100G breakout connections for multiple OEMs can be supported by hybrid cables coded for multiple OEMs. Each end on these breakout cables can be programmed for a different OEM if the application warrants!

Third party suppliers have experience in programming pluggable cables and transceivers to work seamlessly with OEM switches and servers. Third party pluggable DAC cables programmed for multiple suppliers give data center operators a robust set of tools to ensure interoperability in Top-of-Rack environments.

Raymond Hagen, Global Product Line Manager