Fiber-optic cable has an amazing bandwidth and is often restricted by the hardware either side of the cable rather than the bandwidth of the cable itself. However, performance can be affected by the installation of the Fiber Optic Cabling. Here are some of the key factors affecting the performance of fiber optic installations.
- Incorrect specification of fibre optic cabling
If the speed you wish your network to run on doesn’t have the correct fibre optic cabling installed, it will never run at the desired speed. For example for 10Gig speeds the maximum cable length you can run ranges from OM1 (33metres), OM2 (82metres), OM3 (300metres) OM4 (400metres). Exceed this distances or pick the wrong fibre optic cable and your network will slowly.
- Poor connector terminations
If the fibre optic cabling connector ends are poorly terminated or the ends bent too sharply then the light passing through will either be limited or at too low a range for the transmission to be connected. With fusion splicing and correct terminations, standard optical fibre cabling speeds can be guaranteed.
- Dirty connector ends
If the fibre optic cabling connector ends become dirty then the transmission can be intermittent or not work at all. Keeping the unused optical fibre cabling connectors covered when not in use goes a long way to alleviating this problem
- Poor installation
Fibre optic cabling has a specific bend radius and pulling tension guideline when installing the main cabling runs. If the cable becomes stretched or bent too tightly then the quality of light down the cable is compromised resulting in a poor or non-existent performance.
- Patch Leads
With regular patching and un-patching the patch leads can become scratched or dirty. The weakest part of the link creates the overall quality of the link as a whole, which means a poor patch lead can create a poor link overall. Fibre optic patch leads should be cleaned each time they are re-patched
- Crossed over patch leads
More of a cause of no performance than poor performance the biggest reason a fibre optic link doesn’t work after installation is the patch leads are not patched for the correct fibre optic cabling link. The first place to check when a link doesn’t come up is by swapping around the patch lead cores and testing the link
For more information on Fibre Optic Cable installation please contact us on 01923 888 588 for a no obligation review
Source:- http://www.nmcabling.co.uk/
Profitable - Tips - For - You 