Top 5 Questions About Air Blown Fiber

1. What is air blown fiber?

Air blown fiber is designed to be placed in the micro duct, typically with an inner diameter of 2~3.5mm. Air is used to propel fibers from one point to another point and reduce the friction between the cable jacket and the inner surface of micro duct when deploying. Air blown fibers are manufactured with a plastic skin which has special friction properties.

Below is a typical air blown fiber, with 2-12 fibers inside.

2. Who innovate？

Air blown fiber(ABF) systems originated in 1982 at British Telecom. The intent of the design was to easily accomplish moving, adding, and changing with no influence on the existing network. The ABF system was developed to enable switching between fiber types as they evolved.

3. The advantage of air blown fiber solution?

3.1. Easy to change or expand your network as requirement.

A best option is to install a few spare micro ducts when start initial installation. These

are left empty for expansion, air blown fiber can be placed in the micro duct according to the real future requirement. While in the traditional optic fiber system, un-used fibers are placed first for future expansion, it is called dark fiber. It needs investing in more fibers, which may become outdated.

3.2. Easy deployment

Blown fiber installations are easy to implement with normally one or two

installers. With a proper air-compression tool and an electric motor, one person feeds the fiber unit and the other receives it at the far end. While deploying traditional fiber optic cable, normally need 3~4 installers to do it.

3.3. Minimum Splice points

it means save much time, and make no more loss to the whole fiber system. You know the splicing is a time-consuming job, and will increase extra loss to the link. While in air blown fiber solution, you just need couple the two micro ducts with seal coupler, it is easy to assemble.

4. Should I use air blow fiber to build a network?

More and more companies choose air blow fiber to build their own networks, since the cost is reducing in recent many years. At the beginning, the air blown fiber solution cost is high, so it is not very popular even it has some advantages comparing to traditional fiber optic cable. Now, more and more companies including manufactures, network operators, service companies are involved in air blown fiber solutions. Much competition will push the technology to go ahead, and reduce the total cost at the same time.

We think the air blown fiber solution has a more and more bright future, it is really a good choice for fiber network deployment. But come to an individual application/project, it need the planner to consider all the factors to choose the right way.

5. Where Can I get air blow fiber?

To be honest, we suggest you choose Ankom, it provides quality air blown fiber, micro duct, and assemble accessories.