Various types of optical cables have been designed based on actual usage requirements and environmental conditions. Their structural forms are diverse and can be summarized into the following categories:
Tight-buffered optical cables: In this structure, the coated fibers are twisted together at a certain pitch and tightly embedded in plastic. The fibers used in twisted optical cables can be either tight-buffered or loose-buffered. In loose-buffered fibers, because the fiber has a certain amount of slack within the plastic sheath, when the cable is stretched, the fiber has some room to move within the sheath, thus making the strain on the fiber less than the strain on the cable.
Loose-tube optical cables: In this structure, the fibers are in a larger space, allowing for relative movement. This type of cable structure not only has good tensile strength but also excellent impact resistance, and the microbending attenuation caused by cabling is small. Its disadvantage is that the manufacturing process is relatively complex.
Ribbon optical cables: This is a special type of optical cable structure. Multiple fibers are arranged in a row to form a ribbon cable unit, and then several ribbon units are arranged and twisted together in a certain way to form the cable. The characteristics of this type of cable are high space efficiency, easy handling and identification of fibers, and the ability to connect multiple fibers at once. The disadvantages are the complex manufacturing process and the difficulty in controlling the microbending attenuation and temperature characteristics of the cable.
