In today’s fast-paced workplace maximizing productivity is essential. Whether installing new fiber links or troubleshooting an existing network, the faster you can locate a problem, the faster you can fix it. Fluke’s visual fault cable continuity tester locates fibers, finds faults, and verifies continuity.
Data centers are the control hubs of businesses and organizations. Complex architectures and operating workflows, as well as a range of different applications, all pose a challenge for the network infrastructure. The quality requirements that are placed on structured, application-neutral cabling are correspondingly high. Individualized planning and a high level of automatic cable management play an important role. Transmission paths and attenuation budgets must be considered right from the start in the design of a modern data center. This is because efficient cabling forms the basis for the trouble-free operation of all the processes and this factor must therefore be taken into account during the data center planning phase.
Let’s take a look at the #9 Dumb Thing that smart people do when testing network cabling systems—relying on a duplex tester for certifying MPO trunks. Field testing is the only way to ensure that MPO links meet the application performance requirements. Despite the fact that pre-terminated MPO fiber cables are manufactured and tested by vendors to comply with ANSI/TIA and international standards, there are many factors that can potentially impact performance. First of all, MPO connectors are harder to clean than duplex connectors. The 12-fiber MPO interface features an array with a much larger surface area, which unfortunately makes it easier to move contaminants from one fiber to another within the same array during the cleaning process. 40 and 100 Gbps MPO fiber applications also have much lower loss budgets so it’s important to ensure the highest testing accuracy as possible.
Fluke’s CableIQ Qualification Tester helps you determine whether the cable you’re using will work properly and provide the bandwidth needed for your application, troubleshooting and qualifying Ethernet cabling speed (10/100/1000 VoIP).
While the industry has justifiably regarded the development of bend-insensitive OM3 fibers as an advancement, there has been at least one unexpected consequence. We have observed unusual, high multimode OTDR attenuation rates (hereafter “rates”), in both bend-insensitive fibers and bend-insensitive cables.These high rates can result in rejection of properly installed cables due to excessive attenuation rates, misinterpretation of rate values, and improper interpretation of such rates during troubleshooting activities. These high rates can result in misinterpretation of OTDR data from data centers, as data centers have relatively short fiber lengths, in which these increased rates occur.
Improper use or interpretation of OTDR test results can result in wasted time, materials and money. Estimates indicated contractors lose as much as $100,000 annually due to improperly reading OTDR test results. OTDRs are often used to create a “picture” of a fiber optic cable when it is first installed so later comparisons can be made to help with troubleshooting network problems. OTDRs send pulses of light into optical fibers at varying pulse widths. Then, they measure the small amounts of reflected light that are sent back from faults in the fibers. The device then determines the size and distance of the faults, and defines them as losses or changes in the cable’s light-carrying capacity.
Let’s take a look at the #6 and #7 Dumb Things that smart people do when testing network cabling systems— Using a non-EF compliant tester for testing multimode fiber and choosing the two-cord reference for Tier 1 optical loss testing.
Research from Frost & Sullivan reveals that with telecommunication service providers and cable television multiple system operators (MSO) continuing their fiber build-outs, the market for fiber optic test equipment (FOTE) is expected to grow from $781.3 million in 2018 to $1.31 billion in 2025. The lack of fiber expertise among access network technicians and the sheer volume of fiber deployments required in a short time will enable innovative FOTE manufacturers to differentiate themselves in the market.
Cost study: Compared to a traditional splicer-cleaver combination, a Bluetooth-enabled splicer/cleaver combination produce as much as 76% cost of ownership reduction and weeks of time reclaimed.
In the ninth episode our Cabling Professor series, Christian Schillab discusses the testing of Modular Plug Terminated Links (MPTL).
