Testing submarine cables.

The Coherent OTDR¹ MW90010B has been introduced by Anritsu, to locate faults in submarine cables. MW90010B can evaluate up to 20,000 km and has an easily selectable wavelength that covers the full C-band². It is more portable with a 40% weight reduction for the same product size as the previous model. The instrument helps customers to improve the quality of submarine cable communications and continues to support test solutions to meet market needs.

Development background.
The volume of communications traffic is increasing due to the spread of 5G mobile and cloud services. In addition, the worldwide submarine cable network carries most data communications and is expected to expand with future technological innovations.

Nowadays, major IT vendors have not only invested in new installation projects but are increasingly installing landing stations.³

and cables to directly synchronize their data centers at high speed and low latency. As a result, the submarine cable networks become more complex and quality assurance for their installation and maintenance also become more important. To meet this market demand, Anritsu is improving the test solution.

Product outline.
The Coherent OTDR MW90010B uses the coherent (optical heterodyne) detection method and has a built-in tunable wavelength light source. Its selectable wavelength feature facilitates the measurement of all cable lines from each landing station and helps assure the quality of submarine cables.

Key features.
• Locate faults in submarine cables up to 20,000 km
- Supports faulty detection up to 12,000 km with repeaters installed at 80 km or wider intervals.
- Extends the detection distance up to 20,000km with the MW90010B-003 option.
• Wider wavelength range (1527.60 to 1567.13 nm, ITU-T grid 50GHz step)
- Covers the full C-Band measurement.
- Built-in tunable light source with ±0.05 nm wavelength accuracy.
• Reduced weight for better portability
- Weighing less than 10kg and compact size for portability (40% weight saving for same size as the previous model).
- Easy portability at landing station, submarine cable laying vessels and other maintenance sites.

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¹Coherent OTDR: The OTDR (Optical Time Domain Reflectometer) uses the coherent (optical heterodyne) detection method. Ideal for measuring the characteristics of optical fibers in submarine cables with optical repeater amplifiers.
² C-band: Abbreviation for Conventional band; wavelength band with the lowest fiber loss. Used for Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) used in submarine cables.
³ Landing station: Dedicated facility for bringing submarine cables onto land and functioning as a relay point to the land network.

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