A fiber optic cable tester can be an invaluable tool to determine whether or not there are any issues with the cables in your home or office. This makes it so you don&#;t have to go through every single cable individually to find which one has the issue. And yet, there are so many different types of fiber optic cable testers available today that it can be difficult to figure out which one will work best for your needs. Here are some things you should keep in mind when choosing the right fiber optic cable testers for your own needs and goals.
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There are a lot of cable testers in the market today. It&#;s important to know what you&#;re looking for before you start looking at fiber optic cable testers. Deciding on a fiber optic cable tester for your network isn&#;t easy. And with so many choices out there, you might feel overwhelmed by all of your options.
But that doesn&#;t mean you can&#;t find what works best for you. It just means you need to do some research and learn about each of your options before making a decision.
The luminous source includes a component, either an LED or laser, which is stabilized using an automatic gain control mechanism. LEDs are typically used for multimode fiber applications, while lasers are used for single-mode fiber optic products. The newest innovations in luminous sources take today&#;s idea one step further - some now offer 3 to 4 wavelengths and consist of various combinations of light-emitting diodes and lasers. Some use visual lasers for troubleshooting.
These new developments allow it to be utilized to check: Connection loss or optic loss.
Transmission quality of fiber link.
Power meters are devices that can determine the power intensity of fiber optic equipment or signals passing through cables. These meters are mainly used to measure and test power loss or the amount of energy being transmitted at one time.
A Light Source Power Meter (LSPM) is a measuring device consisting of two elements: the light source and the power meter. It is used to measure the amount of light intensity passing through an optical-fiber system which creates an important baseline for fiber optic installations.
Optical loss test sets are absolutely necessary when measuring a link's total attenuation because they are the most accurate and reliable form of testing. After all, you wouldn't want to spend thousands of dollars on equipment that won't work properly or give you false readings when making such large investments, right?
Testing for this is done by using optical power meters which analyze light over distance to measure how much power remains when the light reaches its destination. You see, both TIA and ISO standardize optical power meters for their own purposes - both allowing them in Tier 1 measurements.
The fiber optic cable is an essential part of every data transmission because it transmits data over long distances. The Optical Time Domain Reflectometer, which creates a virtual picture of the cable route, provides insight into problems within existing cables or when designing new ones. The only thing better than having this knowledge is knowing you won't lose any data with OTDR testing.
A visual fault locator, or VFL for short, will pinpoint where there are any issues along the length of your fiber optic cables to troubleshoot them before they become major issues down the line. Using these specialized tools, you'll save time and money while decreasing downtime - all without needing to pull up part of your cable system to investigate further, learn more about visual fault locators vs optical power meters.
Before you can buy a fiber optic cable tester, you need to make sure that it will support whatever type of cable or transmission line you&#;re hoping to test. A good place to start is by downloading a list of what specific models are compatible with which types of cables.
Every tester works differently and even different versions of similar testers won&#;t work with all cables. So, before you spend your money on a cable tester, be sure it&#;s compatible with any particular type of fiber optic cable you want to test.
Good for low to mid-range testing, ideal for first-time users and professionals on a budget. The low cost makes it easier to get started with fiber network installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting.
The device comes with a standard AC power supply and has an auto-range function that is great for quick testing. Includes Mini Optical Power Meter NF-908 along with optical loss test cables, universal PC interface cable, and carrying case.
In the box, you will find all you need to get started. Advanced functions include OTDR functionality, which allows you to check if there are any breaks in your line or splices that could be interfering with signal quality.
This product offers all basic functions necessary for everyday use at an affordable price point. If you are looking for an entry-level tester, then look no further than MINI Optical Power Meter NF-908.
This tester can provide a visual fault locator and fiber continuity test, suitable for one-time testing of fiber breakage and winding before installing fiber. And it can do fiber loss tests, including core and cladding loss, connector loss, and stripped fiber plug with adapter loss.
Adopt superior CCD technology to find out breakage or winding position through light reflection on the core surface. After that, a VFL module is used to locate breakage. With an optional DQA (Digital Loss Measurement Algorithm) interface card added on NF-904, you can perform digital testing of optical signals as well as display information about optical parameters such as power level.
Optical fiber installation technicians use VFLs to check for fiber breaks during splicing work. By locating wherein a strand of fiber has been broken by visually inspecting where light from its endpoint isn&#;t being reflected back down towards its source, they can quickly assess if they need to remove more length from their working cable, or if they&#;re ready to move onto joining up their splice pieces.
Using a reflective target at their endpoint allows them to see exactly how much of their signal has returned back down their cable&#;if there&#;s no return signal then they know that something further along in their cable has been damaged, so they need either take more length off or get ready to begin splicing.
Advantages
The NF-907C, the 2-in-1 optical multimeter, could be used to measure the optical power of the sender and check fiber breakage, winding, and so on. Which is a perfect combination for testing cables in the field or at room temperature.
This meter uses an LED source with a 635 nm wavelength. It can also be used as a regular optical power meter. And it&#;s very convenient to carry and use when you need to test cables, especially for technicians and administrators in all kinds of industries.
A single measurement can replace many steps which will save your cost and time. In addition, it&#;s an indispensable tool that all field engineers should own. As an optical power meter, the NF-907C measures both long-distance attenuation of an optical transmission line and send/receive a loss.
The dedicated relay outputs provide an easy-to-use DUT termination function. All functions are controlled by front panel pushbuttons for ease of operation. An internal microprocessor controls all instrument functions independently from user inputs.
This product is designed to measure the optical sensor power, and at the same time can check fiber breakage, winding, etc. It uses convenient test procedures and can be easily operated by non-professionals.
Widely used in 3C testing, fiber optic network cable construction, and maintenance. Check fiber integrity and faults for network cables that are not accessible for test using an endoscope.
The high-quality 3in1 multifunctional optic meter NF-911C provides solutions for online monitoring of all types of optical transmission systems including networks and/or FTTx/FTTH networks.
Online use monitor with sufficient alarm points as well as a clear LCD display, any abnormality problems could be recognized immediately. Customized connector plugs design makes different connectors independent operation without affecting others.
Other electrical parameter measurements such as voltage, current, and resistance are optional. The user will easily identify broken ends on light guide fibers during the installation and maintenance of telecom systems through the use of a 1:1 visual comparison between the actual test result(line loss)and recommended characteristic value.
Noyafa manufacturer produces a variety of different types of patrol instruments, Is the leading brand in China.
Products are good quality, cheap, and quality assurance. A full refund is guaranteed if you are not happy with your purchase.
In the future, there may be a requirement for continuing education to renew your FOA certifications. That can be almost any fiber optic training you have received in the last 3 years, e.g. certification classes, Fiber U courses, manufacturer's training on their products, etc..FOA is testing a short online course option for renewals where you take a short Fiber U online course. If you would like to help FOA test this option, you can save 1/3 the cost of your renewal. Go here to take the Fiber U CFOT Renewal Course
FTTH has always been the most popular application for FOA's knowledge base. We've been working overtime to update FOA materials covering FTTH adding and updating information important for network owners and managers, designers, installers and operators to be familiar with, as they can help build FTTH networks that are better, cheaper and easier to design, build and operate.
Now the basic fiber optic course is available in Spanish, using the FOA textbook in Spanish, the online Guide section in Spanish and the ability of YouTube to translate video captions into Spanish . The course works exactly like the English version with 10 lessons, each with quizzes, and an option to take a Certificate of Completion exam.
When FOA was founded in , fiber optics had already been in commercial use for about 15 years, long distance OSP networks were still being replaced by fiber optics, metro networks were just beginning to be converted to fiber optics and fiber-to-the-home was a distant dream. Premises applications were limited to a multimode LAN backbones where speeds or distances were too much for Cat 5 as well as some video links to remote security cameras.Over its first two years, a group of FOA advisors met to create the requirements for technician certification that became the CFOT, Certified Fiber Optic Technician. Those requirements became the KSAs , the knowledge, skills and abilities required to be a certified fiber optic technician. The KSAs in turn became the basis of developing curriculum for training and CFOT certification testing.In , a technician was expected to be able to work with both singlemode and multimode fiber. They needed to be familiar with loose tube and armored OSP cables as well asipcord and distribution indoor cables. Splicing skills in both mechanical and fusion splicing were needed. Termination of singlemode fibers was done by splicing singlemode fibers to factory-made pigtails. Multimode termination was mostly done using adhesives and polishing, using heat-cured epoxy, anaerobic adhesives or the 3M Hot Melt connectors. Testing involved connector inspection and cleaning, power measurements and optical insertion loss with a light source and power meter. Long distance networks would also be tested with OTDRs.At that time, some tools and instruments like visual fault locators, fusion splicers and OTDRs were less common and quite expensive, often too expensive to be included in a school&#;s training equipment inventory, so they were often described in class, maybe with a video, and demonstrated by the instructor or a salesperson.Classroom training in with pandemic rulesOver the last 25 years much has changed in fiber optics. Network speed, driven by the growth in Internet traffic, has become thousands of times faster, wavelength-division multiplexing has become mainstream, FTTH (fiber-to-the-home) enabled by PON (passive optical network) technology has become one of top applications for fiber optics, along with connecting wireless cell sites. The expansion of wireless networks, traffic control systems, utility grid management, data centers, etc. has led to lots more fiber applications.Virtually all this growth is in singlemode fiber. Ribbon cables, microcables and high-fiber count cables are being used extensively. Even data centers which utilize some of the fastest networks and have changed to singlemode to avoid replacing cables frequently when equipment speeds are upgraded. LANs are adopting PONs, joining DAS (cellular networks inside buildings) to convert many premises cabling systems to singlemode. Multimode fiber is not extinct, but certainly an endangered species.Installation techniques and components have changed too. Few techs terminate multimode with adhesive/polish connectors in the field anymore. First it was replaced by mechanical splice connectors in the field, what we called prepolished/splice connectors, but now it&#;s fusion SOCs &#; splice-on connectors &#; that are becoming the termination method of choice. They were first seen in data centers where it&#;s not unusual to have 100,000+ terminations in the cable plant. Now we have low-cost fusion splicers and SOCs that make it the logical &#; and often lowest cost &#; termination choice.For testing, instruments like visual fault locators (VFLs) have become really cheap so everyone can have one for troubleshooting. Power meters are more automated and lower cost, as are laser test sources. Interestingly, multimode test sources with LEDs are in short supply as the 850 and nm LEDs they need are become harder to get because the market for them in fiber optics has disappeared; they have been replaced by VCSELs which are not good as test sources.When FOA started, OTDRs were very expensive and primarily limited in use to long distance OSP networks. Now OTDRs are not only less expensive and capable of testing most networks, but they are highly automated. Manufacturers tout the ability of their OTDRs to use AI (artificial intelligence) to set up the instrument and interpret traces. That&#;s a logical approach, since the instruments are highly complex and hard to understand, therefore few techs ever learn how to properly use one.FOA believes that fiber optic technician training courses need to reflect the real world, and as technology and applications change, training must change also. Today&#;s CFOT needs to be competent in working with singlemode fiber, fusion splicing, SOCs and the equipment used today for installation and testing. Hands-on labs should focus on this current technology to ensure competent techs.FOA is creating new course guidelines for approved schools to follow to ensure their training fits current technician needs. These new guidelines will be ready for use in .
how about this article from the LA Times about Mark Zuckerburg's plans to turn Facebook into the "metaverse." Does he not realize what the distopian novel Snowcrash - the origin of the term metaverse - was all about?Or maybe he wants everyone to live in the
"That engrossing novel &#; beloved of sci-fi fans and serious critics alike &#; is set mostly in a corporate-sponsored Los Angeles in the 21st century, when the city is no longer part of the U.S., the currency is in free fall (people carry quadrillion-dollar bills) and human avatars rampage through a virtual reality simulation that&#;s far more like an unfun game than like life as we know it."
A few years ago while researching artificial intelligence (AI), we discovered the story of "Norman," an AI created by MIT that was frankly frightening. Since everybody wants to tout AI for everything from self-driving cars to fiber optic instruments, we thought Halloween was a good time to tell you about Norman. Norman the AI was named after Norman Bates from the Alfred Hitchcock move Psycho, which should give you a hint about it.
To keep your FOA certifications active, you need to renew them when they expire. Now we have a new more convenient way to renew - an online store at Paypal - where you can quickly and conveniently use your PayPal account or your credit card to renew your certifications.
Note we have changed the format to place articles in sections on one topic and all articles are dated so you know if we repeat one - which we often do when we think it's very important!
Note we have changed the format to place articles in sections on one topic and all articles are dated so you know if we repeat one - which we often do when we think it's very important!
An interesting data point is the material points out that 80% of all cell site work in the future will be small cells for 5G service. &#;NATE&#;s 5G-Small Cell Deployment Training Courses were a great success for hundreds of technicians and industry professionals. Through these complimentary training sessions, NATE was able to contribute to our industry&#;s reputation of promoting safety first and safety always. We thank all of the attendees and contract trainers who made these courses a success,&#; said NATE Project Manager Kimberly Elliott. To view NATE&#;s full library of Harwood Grant Training Course Resources, including Rigger Awareness Training, Advanced Rigging Principles Training, Wireless Rooftop Deployment Training, and the 5G-Small Cell Deployment Training, visit https://natehome.com/safety-education/susan-harwood-grant-courses/.&#;
The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association announced today that it provided complimentary training sessions to more than 350 workers across the country in . NATE&#;s 5G- Small Cell Deployment Training Courses were funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor&#;s Susan Harwood Training Grant (SH--SH0) for the - program year. NATE&#;s 5G-Small Cell Deployment Training Courses addressed fall prevention in the construction industry, with an emphasis on small cell deployment safety practices to keep workers safe while building and maintaining next generation wireless sites within high traffic areas near city roads and pedestrian pathways. The courses were taught at 13 different locations across the U.S., including Bloomington, Minnesota; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Omaha, Nebraska; Anchorage, Alaska; Indianapolis, Indiana; Salt Lake City, Utah; Tampa, Florida; Arlington, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Bellevue, Washington; Denver, Colorado; Portland, Maine; and Charleston, West Virginia. Shared Training Materials The 5G-Small Cell Deployment Instructor Manual, Training PowerPoint and Student Workbook resources are now available for use by NATE members and industry stakeholders on the Association&#;s website at the following links:
"Some Americans fled from cities during the pandemic, some went the opposite way. Will cities start competing for footloose workers instead of factories and sports teams?" Of course, as the article points our, "anywhere" needs first class broadband so people can work at home, so rural areas are going to be left out. Unless they build their own brodband systems. Read in POLITICO:
After those dates, your older will not work - for voice calls, texting, Internet, etc. on the cellular network but should still work on WiFi networks if it is so configured. Those older phones include iPhone 5s or earlier or Samsung Galaxy S4 or earlier. If you are still using an older , go to your service provider's website or manufacturer's website to determine its status. Phones are not the only devices affected. Older Kindle units only have 3G, many home or office alarm systems use 3G, even truck and school bus dispatchers are still using 3G. Most carriers are offering new phones to subscribers, often free ones, so the conversion for users may not be so bad, but the upgrades for other systems can be problematic, especially with the problems we currently are seeing in the supply chains for new tech products. Best to start investing your systems now. Read more:
Millions of people still use older smartphones (or just plain cell phones) that only work on 3G networks, not newer 4G/LTE and certainly not 5G networks. Many other services that use cellular services like home alarm systems and many sensors on utilities use 3G services introduced over a decade ago. According to the Washington Post , next year most service providers in the US will drop 3G service to free up radio spectrum for new 5G networks. The schedule announced is:
With competitive price and timely delivery, Wirenet sincerely hope to be your supplier and partner.
FOA has written many articles about loss budgets, something everyone involved in fiber optics needs to know and needs to know how to calculate. We've created a online Loss Budget Calculator that does the work for you. Just input your cable plant data and it calculates the loss budget. It works on any device, especially smartphones and tablets for field use and even allows printing the results.
Mate two fibers with connectors and you expect to see some reflectance or return loss. Reflectance and return loss at a fiber joint are actually nearly the same thing but with opposite signs, which, like some other fiber parameters that are expressed in dB, can be quite confusing. Sometimes return loss for a cable plant includes reflectance from joints plus the integrated backscatter from the fiber, another source of confusion.This paper goes into great detail at what happens at a fiber joint and includes a much more comprehensive analysis than a typical explanation. It's a very interesting paper for those who enjoy the really in-depth explanation of simple topics.
Through genius-level accomplishments, multimode fiber evolved to support speeds of 100 Gbits/sec.Eric Pearson in CI&M Eric Pearson , a co-founder of FOA and one of the most experienced and respected teachers of fiber optics, has written an interesting article in Cabling Installation & Maintenance magazine on the early history of fiber optics. Eric focuses on the development of multimode fiber. The article includes this amazing table that shows how fiber has evolved in its ~45 year history:
From a training program instructor guide:Duh, light can only travel at the speed of light, of course, but the speed of light depends on the material the light is traveling in, e.g. glass or air. And the core of the fiber is not a tube, it's not hollow!And you might remember FOA's many articles about how drawings of optical fiber on the Internet have left too many techs with the opinion that you strip the cladding off the fiber core when you strip fiber, a misconception that causes 25% to miss the questions about stripping fiber on the FOA certification exams. Well, some companies still show fiber like this slide below:Please, let's all change these diagrams to look like this FOA drawing below so techs know the core and cladding are just one solid strand of glass!
FOA President and editor of this newsletter Jim Hayes has also been writing a column in Electrical Contractor Magazine for almost 20 years now. Electrical contractors do lots of fiber work and this column has covered some topics they are interested in including installation processes, network design, fiber applications and a lengthy series on dark fiber - what it is, how's its used and how it benefits the growth of communication. A recent web site redesign makes it easier to browse all these articles - just go to http://www.ecmag.com/contributing-authors/jim-hayes and you can see all of them.
A history of the development of low loss fiber, a fascinating story by Jeff Hecht on the OSA (Optical Society of America) website.Interesting YouTube video on how fiber is made. Perhaps a little too much "show biz" but fascinating. If you have ever seen fiber manufacture, look at this video. You will be amazed at how big preforms have become!- compare the process to fiber - don't most of the machines look similar?
Besides the FOA reference materials, two JDSU/VIAVI textbooks, Reference Guide to Fiber Optic Testing, Volumes 1 and 2, were used as references for some of the FOA courses and are recommended for instructors and students. The books are available from VIAVI as eBooks and the everyone should download them and recommend them to others.
If you are interested in restoration - aren't we all? - you should also read this article in dpPro magazine by FOA President Jim Hayes: Damage Protection Requies Looking Overheas As Well As Underground - dpPRO Magazine - about the problems with aerial cables. His previous article for the magazine was N ew Techniques for Fiber Optic Installation.
This long and well-researched and annotated article in American Affairs Journal should be mandatory reading for every high level manager in a telecom company - or any other company for that matter. To summarize the article, today, America has no major telecom equipment company and fears the major suppliers of equipment who are all foreign, especially the Huawei from China. This article explains how America got into this deplorable state.
As part of celebrating 25 years of serving the fiber optic industry as its primary source of technical information and independent certifying body, FOA thought it appropriate to create a short history of the organization and how it has developed to help the fiber optic industry. We also wanted to recognize the contributions many people have made to the organization over the years that made FOA what it is today.
Eric Pearson sent us some links to US Bureau of Labor Statistics data on the US Workforce. Granted it was updated in May , but has lots of useful and interesting information on where the work is and what workers are paid.
TeleGeography's new Submarine Cable Map is packed with new cables and stats. Not to mention the new graphics and FAQs! This edition is loaded with trivia on cable suppliers, content providers, deployments, fiber, and more. The Submarine Cable Map depicts 464 cables and 1,245 landing stations; 428 cables are active and 36 are planned. Of the planned cables, 19 were not depicted in our edition. (The combined length of those 19 new planned cables is 103,348 km!)
have topped PCMag's annual " Fastest ISPs in America " analysis for three years running, poking holes in arguments that modern network infrastructure is too complicated or costly for local communities to build and operate successfully.as the lawmakers turn down an amendment to the state budget that would ban municipal broadband networks. Community Networksfrom the Communications and Information Technology Commission of Saudi Arabia. Very thorough, easily understood. Courtesy FOA instructor Tom Collins.
Q&A
Tech Questions/Comments From FOA Newsletter Readers Worth Repeating
Good
Question!
Questions
From FOA Newsletter Readers
October
Fusion Splicing Regular And Bend-Insensitive Singlemode
Fiber
Q:
Would
fusion splicing single mode bend insensitive to standard
fiber with same core cause a numerical aperture mismatch? We
are seeing loss but it&#;s hard to tell from what. Going from
a drop to BI inside cabling. Any direction is appreciated!
A:
There is a lot of controversy in this area and has been for some time. The issue is mode field diameter(MFD) differences between regular and bend-insensitive (BI) fiber caused by the low index trenches around the core that are used to limit bend insensitivity.Some (maybe most) manufacturers make BI SMF to match MFD of their regular SMF, since a common use is splicing BI SMF pigtails onto regular SMF. With so much BI SMF fiber being used in microcables and high fiber count cables, the opposite situation could be an issue also.Another factor at play here is the fusion splicing program. The different structures of the fiber may need special programming in the fusion splicer to get heat and feed right for the two different fibers.FOA hopes to have some independent data on this topic soon. FOA Master Instructor Joe Botha has done tests before on splicing dissimilar fibers when BI fiber first became available ( read the report here ) and has planned a more extensive set of tests to update that data for more recent fibers soon.
Connector
Mating Adapter Loss
Q:
A:
Technically, a single connector or mating adapter does not have any loss. It&#;s not &#;connector loss&#; but &#;connection loss&#; defined as the insertion loss when two connectors are mated, and for most connectors that requires a 3rd component, a mating adapter to align the ferrules. (Some connectors like MPOs have their own alignment mechanism so the mating adapter merely holds the two connectors - one with pins and one with holes - together.)
August
Height
Of Aerial Fiber Optic Cables
Q: Is there a code standard for how high from the
ground a for a fiber optic cable running through a
residential yard? if yes, please provide the standard or
point me to the standard.
A: If we go by NEC , the height is 8 feet,above
roofs. with this qualifier. No driveways just over
grass. Art /section 770.44 B. Also 800.44 A 4 states 12
inches between electric service and Fiber optic cable. But
service has to be 12 feet at house so I would say 11 feet
above grass. If driveway is there, Residential 15 feet for
service, electrical, so fiber at 14 feet.
Identifying Users On A PON Network
Q: How or what testing tool or technique can I use to
verify whether there is a live customer w/ONT working on any
fiber i may select @ a splice enclosure prior to getting
further down the cable and to the MST service
terminal. All our fibers have light on them leaving the CO
so when we go into a splice enclosure to pick a fiber to
connect a drop to, to service a home, they are usually all
lit up in that enclosure.
A: The simple answer for a tool or technique that can
tell you if a customer is connected on an output of a PON
splitter is &#;documentation.&#; If you know where each fiber is
connected going downstream. Then the IT person who programs
users into the system can tell you if that fiber is
connected to a customer. There is a possibility that there
is a test solution. Have you ever heard of a &#;fiber
identifier&#;? It&#;s a gadget that can tell if there is signal
in a fiber and some can identify the direction it comes
from. What I don&#;t know if the unit can somehow indicate
bi-directional traffic. Nobody we contacted seems to know
either.
June
I've been working in this industry since October . Started as a Field Service Engineer fielding aerial and underground. I have since become a Project Engineer working with aerial OSP and ISP. What is the catch? This is just an amazing platform to continue with for me. It's been all about the OJT, but this is just a great resource for me now and the YouTube videos allow me to watch your videos from today as well as 10 plus years ago.How can I use the website to benefit me? Where should I start? I just want to watch every YouTube video before I focus on your website, but maybe I want to do both, Suggestions?FOA has three options to get information: FOA Guide is the FOA knowledgebase, ~ pages of technical material generated by the FOA technical advisors around the world. The link is to the Table of Contents where you can find pages on just about any topic in fiber optics from fiber to coherent communications. Every year about 1/2 million users download about 4 million pages!Linked from the Guide above is the FOA YouTube channel which you have found. It&#;s over 100 videos, about 60 lectures on tech topics, where you can get very familiar with my voice - I&#;m the lecturer. The FOA videos are listed here: https://foa.org/tech/ref/contents.html#YTYou can also go to the FOA channel on YouTube: go to the FOA Channel &#;thefoainc" Fiber U is our free online learning site. We started online learning at Fiber U in . Today it has over two dozen free online self-study courses that lead to a Fiber U Certificate of Completion. Courses include Basics of Fiber Optics with an accompanying Basic Skills Lab, where many people start, especially if they are aiming at FOA CFOT certification, the primary certification from FOA.We also have basic courses on premises cabling, OSP construction and installation, splicing, termination, testing, network design and about a dozen that cover specific applications. The FTTH course was developed when Verizon approached FOA in /6 to help with the rollout of FiOS - training and recruiting installers.FOA&#;s problem is we have too much &#;stuff&#;! It&#;s so much it can be confusing on where to start. We generally recommend going to Fiber U and picking courses that are important to your work. Those courses will lead you to the appropriate pages in the FOA Guide and videos on YouTube.But we are always here to help. Tell us what you are interested in and we can point you to the right places (often including websites of manufacturers of products who also have immense amounts of applications information.)
We&#;re
now working on a &#;Roadmap&#; to help people find their way,
but that will take time, there are a lot of paths to
connect!
Slow
Internet After Conversion From DSL To FIber
Q: Could you please help me understand why I am
getting a slow connection (the same as when I was using
anADSL box and sometimes even a bit slower) while having a
fiber optic connection to my home (FTTH then RJ45 between
wall & iMac)?
I am using an old iMac from early but the cable needed
is a regular RJ45, so I do not see why it should not take
the high speed connection...
As a matter of fact, it still takes several seconds (3 to 6
or even 12) for some pages to load...
A:There are several possible reasons your Internet is
slow loading pages.
The fiber optic link to your residence may have little or
nothing to do with the speed you see. If you use a speed
test to check the speed of the connection, it&#;s probably
going to show faster speeds, but it generally only tests the
connection to your ISP - Internet Service Provider - not to
the Internet or a remote data center. The actual
connection to the data center sending you the pages you
request may be hundreds or thousands of km long and through
many switches, so that could affect the speeds.
The major problem we see is the speed of the connection of
your ISP to the Internet. If they have many subscribers, the
&#;traffic jam&#; is at their connection. This is generally easy
to see over the time of day. In the evening when many people
are streaming TV or movies, it sends to get much slower,
just like automobile traffic during rush hour. At times when
fewer people are online, speeds will be faster.
We have exactly the same problem here in Santa Monica. Our
Internet over a cable modem tests at 100-200 Mb/s but pages
are slow loading because so many people are on the network
at once.
However, I also suspect your 12 year old iMac. The
typical web page is more complex than a decade ago and may
contain hundreds of files including graphics that have to be
downloaded and assembled for you to see the page.Newer
computers are much faster and software is more efficient at
handling large pages.
Seal End Of Cable
Q: For aerial OSP cable, are there any problems with
leaving the end of the cable open or should it always be put
into a closure of some kind?
A: The open end of the cable allows moisture to get
into the cable and can be a problem.
I see several scenarios here. If the cable is installed and
waiting for splicing, it could be a matter of time. If the
work is to be done soon - a week or two - leaving it open is
OK, but if the time is longer or you prefer being careful,
just seal the end of the cable by wrapping it with plastic
electrical tape. The end will be opened up for
splicing; about 2m of cable needs to be stripped to
splice it, so a few days exposure is OK, but long term we&#;d
recommend a simple tape seal, the way manufacturers do when
shipping cable on a reel.
And the one to download and hand out:
The word on the "Dig Once" program is getting out - FOA is getting calls from cities asking us for information and advice. Here are some links:The DoT page on the administration&#;s Executive Order: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/otps/exeorder.cfm From the Council of State governments: http://www.csg.org/pubs/capitolideas/enews/cs41_1.aspx From the city of San Francisco: http://sfgov.org/dt/dig-once An article about Dakota County, MN: https://muninetworks.org/tags/tags/dig-once A &#;How To&#; Guide from The Global Connect Initiative: https://share.america.gov/wp-content/uploads//04/6.-GCI-Dig-Once.pdf
Is There A Standard For Fiber Optic Installation?
Another
question we get often is "Is there a standard for fiber
optic installation." The answer is yes, but not from the
usual standards groups you might expect. Over 20 years ago,
the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) asked
FOA to help create a standard for installation. That
standard, ANSI/NECA/FOA-301 has been updated three times
already and is about ready for another update.
Unlike most of those groups who charge you a fortune for
standards, FOA covers the cost so
ANSI/NECA/FOA-301 is available free from FOA.
ANSI/NECA/FOA-301
here (PDF)Older questions are now available here.
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