The various optical splitters in the optical communication market confuse consumers with some similar concepts.
FBT optical splitter vs PLC optical splitter
There are two kinds of optical splitter in optical communication market: FBT optical splitter (fused tapered optical splitter) and PLC optical splitter (planar waveguide optical splitter).
The manufacturing materials of FBT optical splitter are affordable and easy to obtain (for example, stainless steel, optical fiber and heat shrinkable tube are all raw materials for FBT optical splitter), and the technology is relatively simple, so the price is low. The PLC optical splitter uses semiconductor technology (lithography, etching, development technology), the production process is complex, the price is higher than FBT optical splitter, but the performance of PLC optical splitter is more reliable than that of FBT optical splitter.
One minute n-optical splitter vs two-point n-optical splitter
The 1-min-n optical splitter (n refers to the number of output ports) or 2-min-n optical splitter is commonly used in PON system. In this way, one input optical power can be evenly distributed to all output terminals. Of course, there are optical splitters with uneven distribution of optical power, but this kind of optical splitter needs to be customized and has additional cost, so it is not common. 1-N optical splitter or 2-N optical splitter is used between one optical line terminal (OLT) and multiple optical network terminals (ont) to realize the laying of optical fiber physical network from one point to many points.
The 2-d-n optical splitter adds a backbone optical fiber to the 1-min-n optical splitter. In other words, there are two optical fibers between the OLT and the optical splitter. If one of the optical fibers is broken, the other fiber will continue to transmit the signal as a spare fiber. For example, the metropolitan area network is a ring structure, so both ends of the backbone fiber can be connected to the input end of the optical splitter. If one fiber cannot transmit the signal, the signal can continue to transmit along the other fiber. In a word, 1-min-n optical splitter is usually used in star network structure, and 2-min-n optical splitter is usually used in ring network structure.
Optical splitter can help users maximize the function of optical network.
