Microsoft Hollow Core Fiber

Data travels across the cloud mainly as light via optical fibers made from solid glass. But that light—and thus that data—travels faster through air. “With hollow core fiber, the glass [has] an air core in the middle,” says Frank Rey, General Manager of Azure Hyperscale Networking at Microsoft, which this year showed that its hollow-core fiber achieved the lowest signal loss ever. “And because we can use more parts of the optical spectrum to send data, the transmission and overall total capacity is improved.” Current hollow-core fibers extend data transmission up to 1.5 times the distance of today's technology. Microsoft has more than 2,000 kilometers of fiber in production in Europe, mainly as interconnections between data centers, with over 12,000 kilometers planned for deployment in the next year.