Cabling Chronicles
Gain 3 CECs at Our BICSI Pre-Conference Seminar on Testing High Speed Fiber Links
High speed applications are driving the deployment of multifiber MPO/MTP architectures in the data center, and it’s not just cloud and hyperscale data centers that are deploying these solutions.
As the de facto interface for 40 Gig and 100 Gig switch-to-switch backbone data center applications that use parallel optics, MPO/MTP links are rapidly becoming commonplace in today’s enterprise data centers.
January 31, 2018
2018 - Smack-Dab in the IoT Revolution
At this time of year, every industry tends to reflect on the past twelve months and make predictions about what 2018 will bring – it’s just what we do. So why should this year be any different?
January 3, 2018
A Few of Our Favorite Blogs
In the spirit of the season and that “Sound of Music” favorite by Julie Andrews (that some have dubbed a holiday classic), we thought we’d take a moment to wish everyone Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for a Prosperous New Year and share with you a recap of some of this years’ favorite Cabling Chronicles (yes, it is sung to the tune of “My Favorite Things.”)
December 27, 2017
CPR - A Not-So-Ridiculous Regulation
There’s no doubt that the European Union has a lot of rules and regulations—something frequently pointed out by those who campaigned for a Brexit vote in the United Kingdom. And many joke about some of the more ridiculous ones, like the law that prohibits people from eating pet horses, or the one that prohibits manufacturers of bottled water from labels suggesting that consumption could fight dehydration. (Since when didn’t water fight dehydration?)
December 20, 2017
Troubleshooting Fusion Splices
A fusion splice is when two fibers are fused together using an electric arc. Often used with pigtails for connecting 250-micron outside plant fiber to 900-micron inside plant fiber at the building entrance, fusion splicing is achieved with a fusion splicing machine after the fiber is properly cleaved with a precision cleaver. Fusion splicing can be done for a single fiber or for 12-fiber ribbon cable via mass fusion splicing that splices all 12 fibers at once.
December 13, 2017
The Next Big Step for PoE
The much-anticipated higher levels of PoE have been quite the buzz in the industry. Now that the 802.3bt standard for PoE that includes Type 3 and Type 4 PoE is expected to be ratified early next year, we will start to see more devices forego their AC power connection for PoE.
December 7, 2017
Fun with Automagical OTDR Trouble-shooting
I had a fun tech support call the other day that I think you will find interesting. A customer sent one of the ugliest traces we had seen in a while. “Help! What is going on here?” This came with the usual, it is urgent, his boss will kill him, the network is down, and he saw a dog and a cat making friendly on the way home from the job site.
November 22, 2017
Smart Testing for Fiber to the Desk
Fiber to the Desk (FTTD) applications have long been lumped in with other FTTX applications with the “X” signifying a variety of fiber optic access points, including Fiber to the Home (FTTH), Fiber to the Premise (FTTP), Fiber to the Curb (FTTC) and Fiber to the Building (FTTB). But it’s important to remember that FTTD is a premise application while many of the others are considered outside plant.
November 8, 2017
The Rise of the Hyperscale Data Center
While the number of hyperscale data centers in the world is only estimated at around 300, with half of these belonging to U.S.-based companies (Think Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Ebay and Twitter) and another 100 hyperscale data centers expected by the end of 2018, we are constantly hearing rumbles about these unique spaces.
Plus, hyperscales tend to be key drivers behind data center technologies, trends and applications—not to mention standards development. Would the IEEE really be working on 400 Gig if it weren’t for these giants?
October 25, 2017
