CommScope has introduced the SYSTIMAX LazrSPEED 550 WideBand multimode fibre (WBMMF) connectivity solution. The new WBMMF is available as part of the InstaPATCH 360 pre-terminated fibre infrastructure solution and comes in a range of products including trunk cables, modules, array cords, fanouts and duplex patch cords. 

“We have been working very hard at finding new and better ways to help our customers meet their current and future bandwidth needs,” said senior vice president of Enterprise Solutions, CommScope Kevin St. Cyr. “The LazrSPEED WideBand Multimode Fibre provides the ability to support significantly more throughput at longer distances than conventional multimode fibre while maintaining support for all legacy multimode applications. This will help customers save money by supporting high data rates over fewer fibres while opening the door to practical multimode terabit applications, thus extending the life of their data centre infrastructure.”

Multimode fibre continues to provide the most cost-effective and lowest power platform for high bandwidth optical connectivity in the data centre. With the addition of the LazrSPEED 550 WBMMF solution, the platform has been extended to support higher speeds with fewer fibres at greater distances. WBMMF expands the currently specified high-bandwidth operating wavelength spectrum from a single wavelength at 850 nanometers (nm) to a range that includes 850 nm through 950 nm. This wide specification range enhances the capability of short wave division multiplexing (SWDM) technology to transmit 40G and 100G over a single pair of fibres at four different wavelengths.

A demonstration video of the LazrSPEED 550 WBMMF, performing a 40G transmission at 500 meters, can be seen here.

The features and benefits of the LazrSPEED 550 WBMMF when used with SWDM include:

• Retains legacy application support of OM4
• Increases capacity to at least 100 Gigabits/sec (G) per fiber
• Enables single-pair Ethernet at 40G and 100G
• Enables single-pair Fibre Channel at 128G
• Reduces parallel fiber count by a factor of four
• Extends multimode utility as universal medium