African-American folk hero John Henry is known both for his skill as a steel driving man and for his resistance to embrace new technology — in his case a steam-powered rock drilling machine. He raced against the machine only to die from heart failure, hammer in hand. How does this relate to fiber connectivity? Many fiber optic splicers still hand-strip fibers one at a time when they could be using thermal strippers which is not only faster but also won’t damage the fiber.
This handy ebook answers some of your top fiber questions such as: how to calculate a loss budget? Will my application run on this link? and what is the best way to clean a fiber. Download your copy.
Can You Learn Fiber Optic Skills Online? If you have your own tools and components and like to learn on your own, you probably can. The Fiber U “Basic Skills Lab” has lessons for learning cable preparation, splicing, termination and testing. Just download the new workbook sections on each topic along with the VHO “virtual hands-on” tutorials, and you are ready to practice with your own equipment.
What’s bend radius? Why does it matter when installing fiber optic cable? It can make the difference between a successful install and a disaster. A very costly disaster at that. The February issue of the FOA newsletter looks at installing fiber optic cable properly and understanding cable bend radius.
The higher the fiber count of the cable, the more vulnerable the connectors and end faces are to contamination. All connectors are inherently dirty because of the moving parts like springs, connectors, and latches, all of which generate wear debris. Therefore, to get absolute reliability and uninterrupted service from any UHCF network it is important that all connectors are cleaned and inspected to meet IEC 61300-3-35 standards prior to installation. This helps avoid potential fiber network problems such as insertion loss (weakened signal), back-reflection (signal is diverted back to its source) or a complete system shut down.
FOSCO Connect recently published its informative 101 Guidelines for Fiber Optic Cable Installation. The technical article shares their top guidelines for fiber-optic cabling cabling installation including: never directly pull on the fiber itself; and never exceed the cable bend radius.
Fiber connectivity is essential for the physical infrastructure in any enterprise or data center network. While it certainly has advantages, there are also challenges that come along with fiber. Contamination is the #1 cause of troubleshooting in fiber networks, so it is critical that anyone working with fiber is aware of and implementing best practices when handling, installing, or testing fiber connections. During this one-hour session, we will take a closer look at fiber connectivity and educate attendees on the impact that contamination has on fiber connections and network performance. We will also provide guidance on best practices and standards that are in place to ensure clean connections.
Better cleaning is the answer for modern fiber optic networks but the cleaning product selection process based on cost, not effectiveness. This White Paper suggests a better decision is to define the “best practice” that will “future-proof” each installation so the connectors are perfectly clean first time, every time. Better cleaning will save time and money.
A recent evergreen technical brief, authored by Corning Cable Systems and distributed by eAnixter, takes as its premise the reality that improper use of a cable re-spooler can cause damage to fiber-optic cable jackets or, in tight buffered cables, result in wavy fiber due to cable crossovers or excessive tensile loading. The document provides a recommended procedure for cutting and respooling fiber-optic cables.
These two cassettes are the latest options for cleaning connector end faces. Both feature and open cleaning window that provides the operator full and unobstructed access to the cleaning ribbon for effectively wiping the connectors. The open window and manual advancing cleaning wheel make these next generation cassette cleaners more effective with a lower cost of ownership when compared to the first generation trigger and shutter style cassettes.
