Papua New Guinea Installation of Butterfly Drop Fiber Cable G 655

Papua New Guinea is deploying high-capacity G.655 butterfly drop fiber cables through projects like the Coral Sea Cable System, supported by local contractors for both urban and remote installations.

Overview of Fiber Infrastructure in PNG

Papua New Guinea has significantly upgraded its fiber optic infrastructure with the Coral Sea Cable System (CS 2), a 4,700 km submarine cable linking Port Moresby to Sydney, Australia, and Honiara, Solomon Islands. The system uses a four fiber-pair core, providing up to 20 Tbps capacity to PNG, with initial installed capacity at 200 Gbps. This backbone enables high-speed connectivity for urban centers and supports expansion into rural areas . Local contractors like Cetelnet provide end-to-end fiber services, including network design, trenching, aerial deployment, splicing, testing, and maintenance. They serve telecommunications providers, government, healthcare, education, and industrial sectors, ensuring reliable deployment of both backbone and last-mile fiber networks .

Butterfly Drop Fiber Cable

Butterfly drop cables are designed for FTTH (Fiber to the Home) applications. Their flat, wing-shaped cross-section positions the optical fiber in the center with two parallel strength members, typically Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP), providing flexibility and protection against bending stress. Outdoor self-supporting variants include a steel messenger wire for aerial deployment up to 50 meters . These cables are directional, minimizing stress when bent along walls or conduits, and are compatible with legacy G.652.D networks. For high-density or complex routing, G.657.A1 or A2 bend-insensitive fibers are used, ensuring minimal signal loss and easy splicing with existing infrastructure .

ITU-T G.655 Fiber Standard

The G.655 standard specifies non-zero dispersion-shifted single-mode fibers, optimized for long-haul and high-capacity networks. G.655 fibers reduce nonlinear effects in dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) systems, making them ideal for submarine and terrestrial backbones like the Coral Sea Cable System . Key attributes include:

• Low attenuation and dispersion for long-distance transmission
• Compatibility with DWDM systems
• Bend-insensitive variants for drop cables in urban and residential deployments

Installation Practices in PNG

1. Route Planning and Design: Detailed site surveys and route assessments ensure optimal performance and minimal environmental impact.
2. Trenching and Aerial Deployment: Depending on terrain, cables are installed underground via trenching or directional drilling, or aerially using messenger wires.
3. Fusion Splicing and Termination: Precision splicing ensures low-loss connections, critical for G.655 fibers in high-capacity networks.
4. Testing and Commissioning: OTDR and power meter tests verify signal integrity and network readiness.
5. Maintenance: 24/7 monitoring and rapid fault response maintain network reliability, especially in remote or industrial sites .

Conclusion

The combination of G.655 butterfly drop cables, robust local contracting expertise, and international submarine systems like the Coral Sea Cable System enables Papua New Guinea to expand high-speed, reliable fiber connectivity across urban and remote regions. This infrastructure supports broadband, enterprise, government, and industrial applications while ensuring future scalability and resilience .