Bridging the Fiber Gap: How 16-Fiber Connectors and AFL’s FlowScout® MPO OLTS Test Set Are Revolutionizing Data Centers

What comes to mind when thinking about when market requirements and product supply don’t line up? Is it hot dogs (sold 10 to a pack) and hot dog buns (sold in packs of eight)?  

For those of us in the optical fiber business, it’s been fiber connectors keeping in step with fiber optic transceivers. Early on, they had been in perfect sync, with duplex connectors matching up with duplex transceivers. But when higher speeds drove the need for muti-fiber optics, the great mismatch started. Multi-fiber connectors settled on base-12 while multi-fiber transceivers were mostly built on base-8. The result? Only eight of the 12 fibers terminated in an MPO-12 connector were used, with the remaining four being wasted.

With AI-centric data centers driving the need for even faster speeds, this is changing. 16-fiber connectors and channels, with the ability to support two, eight-fiber applications without any unused fibers, are becoming the norm, especially in hyperscale data centers.

To simplify testing of these fiber links, AFL is launching the FlowScout® MPO OLTS Test Set, a 16-fiber Tier I OLTS tester capable of testing all 16 fibers in less than six seconds.  And since current multi-fiber testers were optimized to test links terminated in base-12 connectors, FlowScout MPO OLTS represents a significant improvement over current testing. The result? Dramatically shorter test times, simplified referencing and testing and faster time to service.

_{Pictured Above: AFL's FlowScout MPO OLTS Test Set}

The next few years will see a dramatic increase in data center construction and commissioning, all built on high-speed optical fiber infrastructure. And with the latest technology in fiber testing now in step with high-speed connectivity and optics, streamlined implementation will make this much simpler.