Prysmian Group honored as a Lightwave Innovation Reviews High Score Recipient with Sirocco Hybrid cables

Prysmian Group, world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry, is proud to announce that it has received Honoree status in the 2022 Lightwave Innovation Reviews in the Carrier, Fiber, Cable, Enclosures, and Accessories category for its Sirocco Hybrid optical & power cables from blown applications.

Increased digitalization means data volumes will continue to rise, but existing ducts often do not have much space left, therefore optical cables that can be deployed in limited space available in ducts can reduce civil works and increase in costs and disruptions. In addition, the onset of 5G and IoT is driving the need for remote devices and antennas. This brings another challenge to network operators, as these devices in remote locations need to be connected to both power and optical fibre. Prysmian has recently developed the extremely compact and blowable optical fibre and copper cable, Sirocco Hybrid, for fast installation in microducts.

This cable features a diameter of 7.7 mm and can be installed by blowing into 10 mm inner diameter microduct. By benefitting from existing infrastructure and low installation costs without the need for digging, it features six copper cores with a cross section area of 1 mm2, and up to 36 BendBrightXS (ITU-T G.657.A2) optical fibres. The cable can be blown up to 1 km at high speed.

The Lightwave Innovation Reviews program was developed to recognize the top products and services within the optical networking industry as determined by a panel of experts from a wide variety of service providers, technology developers, industry analysis firms, and media. Judges reviewed the product based on originality, innovation, positive impact on customer and cost-effectiveness criteria, among others.

“Sirocco Hybrid is a great example of engineering a solution to a difficult problem, as providing power and data over long distances is not easily achieved”, states Ian Griffiths, Telecom R&D Director at Prysmian Group, whose team of R&D experts in Milan and Slatina, Romania designed the cable. “Hybrid cables will be very important for fibre-fed wireless deployments, and this is a cable with unique features, suitable for a broad range of applications. Thanks to the engagement of everyone in our team Sirocco Hybrid Blown Cables have been a great achievement this year”, concludes Griffiths.