Cabling Chronicles
Choosing the Best Fiber Optic Scope for Today’s Fiber Inspection
Contaminated connections remain the number one cause of fiber related problems and failures in data centers, campus, and other enterprise or telecom networking environments. But it’s not enough to just clean every fiber end face—there is no way to know if the end face is clean unless you inspect it.
January 4, 2022
Fiber vs. Copper to the Edge: Why Fiber is a Growing Choice for Smart, Sustainable Buildings
For years, we’ve heard about FTTX making its way into the horizontal LAN — fiber to the desktop, fiber to the office, fiber to the enclosure, fiber to the zone, etc. Often referred to as “fiber to the edge” or FTTE, most of these deployments have traditionally been for high-security government environments or specialty applications or devices. Now, as bandwidth requirements continue to increase and the commercial real estate industry is trending towards smarter and more sustainable buildings, the question of using fiber vs. copper is more relevant.
December 8, 2021
December 1, 2021
Are your fiber optic cables and testers ready for 400G Ethernet?
Driven by large hyperscale and cloud data center providers, advancements in signaling and transceiver technology have led to the development of next-generation transmission speeds. There are now multiple options available for 400G Ethernet applications over multimode and single-mode fiber with more on the horizon. And it doesn’t stop there—big players like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are driving innovation to support 800 Gig and 1.6 Terabit applications, and the IEEE Beyond 400 Gig Ethernet Study Group is already defining objectives.
September 28, 2021
Insertion Loss
What is Insertion Loss?
Insertion loss is the amount of energy that a signal loses as it travels along a cable link. It is a natural phenomenon that occurs for any type of transmission—whether it's electricity or data. This reduction of signal, also called attenuation, is directly related to the length of a cable—the longer the cable, the greater the insertion loss. Insertion loss is also caused by any connection points along a cable link (i.e., connectors and splices).
Insertion Loss Formula
August 25, 2021
The Metal LC Connector: say goodbye to broken latches on fiber test reference cords
虽然根据所使用的组件类型，有许多不同类型的光纤连接器，但LC连接器已广泛应用于整个网络行业。
塑料LC连接器
塑料连接器用于插入后很少反复插拔的连接时，效果会很好。但是，当需要反复建立和断开连接，例如使用光纤测试参考跳线时，外壳上的柔性锁扣经常会因为反复弯曲而断裂。
塑料LC连接器上损坏的锁扣示例
August 23, 2021
PoE Load Testing: Advanced Troubleshooting for Your PoE Systems
Since the original IEEE 802.3af Type 1 power over Ethernet (PoE) standard that delivered up to 15.4 Watts (W) was first introduced in 2003, the technology has evolved to include Type 2 (up to 30 W), Type 3 (up to 60 W), and Type 4 (up to 90 W). That means PoE voltage now supports everything from phones, Wi-Fi access points, and surveillance cameras, to laptops, digital displays, and even facility-wide LED lighting—all requiring various levels of PoE power.
July 27, 2021
Cross Connects and Interconnects in the Data Center
In the data center space, cross connects and interconnects via patch panels are commonly used between active equipment purely for management and flexibility, typically residing between switch tiers or between switches and servers. Some scenarios even call for using multiple cross connects or interconnects within the same channel, or a combination thereof.
July 14, 2021
June 22, 2021
How to clean your cable and fiber network tester
Cleanliness has long been a best practice in fiber optic installation, but it’s not just the fiber end faces you need to worry about. If you think about how often your cabling tools and testers are touched by you and others on the job site, it’s clear that they too need to be cleaned.
While a fiber end face and your Fluke Network tester are cleaned for two different reasons, the goal in both instances is to clean without causing any damage.
June 11, 2021
