Evolution of optical fibre cabling components at CERN: Performance and technology trends analysis

CERN optical fibre infrastructure has been growing constantly over the past decade due to ever increasing connectivity demands. The provisioning plan and fibre installation of this vast laboratory is performed by Fibre Optics and Cabling Section at Engineering Department. In this paper we analyze the procurement data for essential fibre cabling components during a five-year interval to extract the existing trends and anticipate future directions. The analysis predicts high contribution of LC connector and an increasing usage of multi-fibre connectors. It is foreseen that single-mode fibres become the main fibre type for mid and long-range installations while air blowing would be the major installation technique. Performance assessment of various connectors shows that the expanded beam ferrule is favored for emerging on-board optical interconnections thanks to its scalable density and stable return-loss.