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The Anecdote of Ice and Snow: an optical fiber cable's road to Everest

2020-05-27 14:22:37

 

At 11:00 on May 27, the China 2020 mountaineering team of Mount Qomolangmaheight measuring successfully reached the world's highest peak. This summiting measurement was live broadcast for the first time through China Mobile's 5G network. The high-definition video that recording the magnificent landscape of Mount Everest and the climbers challenging the limits of humanity are stunning.

 

Everest’s 5G base station deserved all credit for the entire live broadcast of height measurement.In April 2020, China Mobile officially launched the "5G on Mount Everest" special action, planning to build 5G base stations in the Everest base camp, the transition camp, and the advanced base camp at altitudes of 5,300 meters, 5,800 meters and 6,500 meters respectively. The data from the 5G base station will be collected in the equipment room of RongbukMonastery.The communication transmission between the BBU of the equipment room and the AAU/RRU of the base station needs to be donethrough optical fiber, thus the optical cable is the "sure way" to the 5G base station.

 

 

The optical fiber cablewas deployed in an eco-friendlyway, and pollution-free construction was conducted without excavation ordamage to the environment.,The exposed optical fiber cable is going to withstand “hitting, pressing” and “pulling” from ice and rocks for a long time. Meanwhile, the general temperature of Everest is -20℃~-40℃,or even down to-60℃ when influencedby the cold current, optical fiber cable must ensure the proper functioning ofthe fiber in such anultralow temperature environment.From the base camp to the 5G base station, the transportation of the optical cable is carried out only by manpower, but the thin air on Everest makes single load limited.So, the cable mustbe light in unit weightand quality in communication in the same time……It took only 6 days by FiberHome to design and manufactuer the special optical fiber cable, considering the special material and manufacturing process and they were sent to Lhasa on time according the contract with China Mobile.

 

Base on the requirements of harsh environmentresistence low temperature proof, and light weight in the same time, FiberHomeprovideda fiber optic cable armored withstainless steel tape. The stainless-steel tape helped making the cable withstand the “hitting and pressing” from ice rocksand the “pulling” from outside environment; The other special composed material ensured the proper functioning of the cable at the temperature of -60℃ and reduced the cable weight by 5%. FiberHome overcame lots of difficulties, and sent the cable to camp on time, contributing to China Mobile’ssuccessfulcable deploying and the 5G base stationactivation. The testing showed that the peak rate of Everest 5G single user can reach 1.6Gbps in downlink and 215Mbps in uplink, providing a powerful communication guarantee for high-definition live broadcast.This optical fiber cable had successfully completed its mission so far.

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In 2010, Fiberhome helped China Unicom to successfully complete the construction of the Golmud-Lhasa main line optical cable project. The product operated well after several years of high-altitude permafrost-tolerant environment test.In 2019, the products were successfully delivered in China Mobile's Xining-Golmud-Lhasa trunk optical cable project undertaken by FiberHome.In 2020, Fiberhome's special optical cable helped the opening of China Mobile's Everest 5G base station.Although the "Sky Road" is bumpy, it won’tstop the pace of human challenging nature and overcoming difficulties. Fiberhomekeeps working closely with operators to continuously explore and developoptical communications in China.



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