The August 2009 issue of IEEE Communications magazine contains a 10-page article on the POF-ALL Project entitled:

"Plastic Optical Fiber Technology for Reliable Home Networking: Overview and Results of the EU Project POF-ALL"

The article is availabe on pgs 58-67 of the print magazine and is also available, to IEEE Communications subscribers, as a PDF here.

Below is the abstract from the article:

The rising performance of broadband connections for residential users, particularly in conjunction with fiber to the home, will present a new challenge for telecom operators in the short and medium terms: how to deliver the high bit rate digital signals with high quality-of-service to all consumer devices scattered inside the building of final users? Among the many different solutions for the home network, we review in this article the use of polymer optical fibers for short-reach and high-capacity optical communications for residential customer premises. POF is an easy-to-install, low-cost, and eye-safe solution for these networks, with the potential of being future-proof. In this article the state of the art in POF technology is presented by summarizing significant results achieved in the European project POF-ALL. Data transmission rates of more than 1 Gb/s over 50+ m and 100 Mb/s over 200+ m of standard step-index POF have been shown.

On March 25th, POFTO hosted the "POF Symposium @ NFOEC/OFC 2010" on the show floor. Over a dozen presentations were made over a three hour period on the latest development of POF and its applications. The audience filled up the main seating area and people were standing in the aisles.

Of special interest, was a presentation by AT&T on their experience in wiring four homes in the Northern California area. The objective was to learn how installers would react to POF and what was needed in the way of new equipment and interfaces to make this a viable option for AT&T installation of home wiring.

Cork, Ireland?July 30, 2009?Firecomms Ltd., a leading developer of high speed Plastic Optical Fiber (POF) transceivers and Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs), today announces that it has received notification from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that a patent has been granted for Firecomms’ OptoLock Plastic Optical Fiber Transceiver.

OptoLock, a widely deployed plugless interface for Plastic Optical Fiber, enables a simple to use Fiber Optic link in consumer applications. Ideal for 100 Mb Ethernet applications with stringent quality of service requirements such as IPTV gateways, Set-Top Boxes, and Residential Gateway, OptoLock significantly quickens and simplifies the connection of devices in communications and infotainment networks. The innovative design of OptoLock enables the fiber to be cut and terminated to the exact required length on site, allowing even the most novice consumer to quickly and easily terminate bare optical fiber.

"Not only does this patent attest to the innovation of the design team at Firecomms, it positions this inventive product for even faster growth,” says Declan O’Mahoney, CEO of Firecomms. “As Firecomms has licensed OptoLock technology to several major partners, the patent will assist our partners in protecting their investments in OptoLock-based products." Firecomms leads the development of devices to drive POF, a low-cost optical alternative to copper cabling. Due to its ease of use, large core tolerances, and low costs, POF is enjoying significant growth in a wide range of applications. Created for consumer, industrial, and automotive applications in which plastic fiber can be used more easilyand at lower cost than copper or glass fiber, POF is now used in millions of small area networks, such as those in use in many carmodels, and is rapidly gaining ground in home network and point-to-point interconnection. According to market research by Information Gatekeepers, the POF market is estimated to be worth over $1 billion per year by the end of 2009.

FiberFin® is thrilled to announce its new E-commerce website. This new website has an easy navigation tool for selection to the world's largest variety of polymer optical products, our most popular products are on our home page and an in-depth flow chart lets you easily scroll through your items of interest. Don't miss the Google search bar that helps you search and filter your selection.

FiberFin® is in the process of adding an engineering and applications side to our website that will share there extensive knowledge of Polymer Optical Fiber with our customers. This section is currently under construction so be patient with the new additions to the Engineering and Applications, when completed there will be hundreds of downloads, short video clips and reference papers to help you choose the best products for your application. FiberFin invites feedback on the development of this portion of their website as they truly want to make it a user-friendly as possible.

Austin, Texas - June 16, 2009¾Firecomms Ltd., a leading developer of high speed Plastic Optical Fiber (POF) transceivers and Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs), today announces that it has signed two representative agreements to promote and se

ll its POF transceivers and red VCSELs in the Midwest, with: Electro Mark in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Western Wisconsin and Iowa; and CC Electro in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Both representative firms specialize in customer specific applications, and will market and sell Firecomms’ full range of POF transceiver products which are rapidly being adopted by developers of equipment for the consumer electronics, industrial, and automotive networks worldwide.

“Electro Mark recognizes the tremendous opportunity for POF in the IPTV, industrial, medical, and automotive markets,” says Bob Steffes, Electro Mark president. “These developing markets, along with Firecomms’ innovative products, fit perfectly with our product line card.”

“As a value-add proposition to our customers using Plastic Optical Fiber (POF) from Mitsubishi International Corporation, CC Electro has enhanced our line card with the addition of Firecomms POF termination capabilities,” says Carol Cohen, president of CC Electro. “Firecomms was highly recommended by an associate rep firm who recognized the synergy the company’s products would bring to our existing line card.”

Taipei Taiwan – COMOSS has just announced a new product – the Giga POF Ethernet PCI card. With excellent R&D capability, COMOSS announced the 1st Optolock POF Ethernet PCI card in the world. For FTTX & FITH (Fiber in the home) triple play application, COMOSS can now provide a total solution for a POF optical network. COMOSS can now provide customers with not only fast Ethernet POF solution, but also a GIGA bit POF network solution. Please contact Eden Tsai for sales eden@comoss.com or visit our website http://www.comoss.com/news.htm for more information.

During the week of May 27-29 there were three fiber optics events of interest to POFTO:

1. ARNIC Fiber Optics Subcommittee Meeting
   
   
2. Joint Navair and ARNIC Standards Meeting on WDM-LAN
   
   
3. Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) Symposium

The EFB Symposium was organized by Electronic Cable Specialists., Inc. (ECS) as part of their 25th anniversary celebration. ECS is a major supplier of cable assemblies and wiring of commercial aircraft module for Boeing, Airbus, and private jets.

One of the events was a tour and dinner at the new Milwaukee Art Museum which has a unique roof design which opens like a set of wings as depicted in the photo in its open position.

A presentation was prepared by POFTO on the "Potential Applications of Plastic Optical Fiber (POF) for Commercial and Military Aircraft" for the ARNIC Fiber Optics Subcommittee.

The presentation can be downloaded here.