Fiber Optic Tester–An Important Tool for Your Network Installation

Fiber optic testing is necessary in optical installations. Accurate testing result can’t be got without high quality fiber optic testers. And there are various kinds of fiber testers available in the market. Today, this article mainly focuses on introducing several common types of fiber optic testers.

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What Should Be tested?

When it comes to fiber optic installation and termination, fiber optic testers cannot be ignored. After the cables are installed and terminated, it’s time for testing. But what should be tested with fiber optic testers? Here are some common parameters which need to be tested.

Power Measurement

Power in a fiber optic system is like voltage in an electrical circuit. It’s important to have moderate power. Because too little power may not distinguish the signal from noise and too much power can cause errors too. So it’s important to measure power.

Loss Testing

Loss testing is the difference value between the power coupled into the cable at the transmitter end and what comes out at the receiver end. In fiber optic system, many things can result in loss such as dirt, connectors and breaks.

Optical Return Loss (ORL)

Optical return loss is the total accumulated light power reflected back to the source from the complete optical span. It includes the back scattering light from the fiber itself and the reflected light from all the joints as well as terminations. Generally, ORL is expressed in decibels (dB). And a high level of ORL will affect the performance of transmission systems.

In addition, some optical testers also can be used for troubleshooting.

Common Types of Fiber Optic Tester

Having known what should be tested in fiber optic testing. Now it’s time to know something about fiber optic testers. Generally, the common types of fiber optic test instruments are visual fault locator (VFL), OTDR (Optical Time Domain Reflectometry), optical power meter, optical multimeter, etc. Following is a brief introduction to the usual types of fiber optic tester.

OTDR

OTDR comprising a laser source and an optical detector operates like radar. It generates short pulses of light and then samples the light scattered back by fiber segments and reflected by connections and other events. OTDR is the main piece of test equipment that is used to analyze a fiber optic link. In addition, as it is possible to calibrate the speed of the pulse as it passes down the fiber, the OTDR also can measure time.

otdr

VFL

VFL is an essential tool for testing cable continuity and locating visual faults. As is known to all, when light encounters a break or sharp bend, it scatters, and scattered light can be observed emerging from the cable. By emitting a laser beam of red light, the VFL can quickly illuminate fiber breaks, damaged connectors, detective splices and tight fiber bends. It even can locate the breaks in a short patch cord, which an OTDR cannot detect. Therefore, VFL is a helpful assistant to the dead zone of DTOR. And it also a basic maintenance tool for fiber network, LAN (Local Area Network) and telecommunication network system.

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Optical Power Meter

Optical power meter is a device to measure the power of an optical signal. Its function is to display the incident power on the photodiode. When testing the signal, optical power meter is connected to different places. When testing transmitted power, t is connected directly to the optical transmitter’s output, but it will be connected to the fiber system while testing the received power. In a word, optical power meter is a the primary test instrument for fiber optic networks, as measuring optical signal power is a necessary task for any fiber technician.

optical-power-meter

Optical Multimeter

Optical multimeter, also called optical loss test set, is an instrument that measures several optical parameters such as optical power and wavelength. It adopts an optical laser source and an optical power meter into one handheld instrument, which makes it easy to measure the optical loss of optical fiber links, optical components and fiber networks.

optical-multimeter

Conclusion

In summary, choosing a good quality and high performance fiber optic tester not only can avoid unnecessary problems but also can improve your testing efficiency in fiber optic installation. FS.COM offers a wide range of cable testers and tools to meet any of your demand on copper or fiber installation, termination and troubleshooting. Welcome to visit www.fs.com for more information.

Things to Know About Fiber Optic Media Converter

With the expected growth of today’s communications, network operators must meet the continuing growth in data traffic and the increasing demand for bandwidth while making full use of the investment in the existing network infrastructure. Instead of costly upgrade and rewiring for fibers, fiber media converters provide a cost-effective solution by extending the life of the existing structured cabling. How fiber optic media converter can achieve this? And how much do you know about it? Today, this article will tell you something about fiber media converter.

What Is a Fiber Optic Media Converter?

Fiber media converter is a simple network device that can connect two different media types such as twisted pair with fiber optic cabling. Its function is to convert the electrical signal used in copper unshielded twisted pair (UTP) network cabling into light waves that used in fiber optic cabling. And fiber media converter can extend transmission distance over fiber up to 160 km.

As the fiber optic communication evolves quickly, fiber media converter offers a simple, flexible, and economical migration to future-proof fiber optic networks. Now it has been widely used in in-house areas, location interconnection and industrial applications.

Types of Fiber Optic Media Converter

Today’s converters support many different data communication protocols including Ethernet, PDH E1, RS232/RS422/RS485 as well as multiple cabling types such as twisted pair, multimode and single-mode fiber and single-strand fiber optics. And they are available with different designs in the market depending on the protocols. Copper-to-fiber media converter, fiber-to-fiber media converter and serial-to-fiber media converter are only part of them. Here is a brief introduction to these common types of fiber media converter.

Copper-to-Fiber Media Converter

When the distance between two network devices exceeds the transmission distance of copper cabling, fiber optic connectivity makes a big difference. In this case, copper-to-fiber conversion using media converters enables two network devices with copper ports to be connected over extended distances via fiber optic cabling.

Supporting the IEEE802.3, fiber to Ethernet media converter can provide connectivity for Ethernet, fast Ethernet, Gigabit and 10Gigabit Ethernet devices. And they can be used in a variety of networks and applications. The common types of this media converter are fast Ethernet media converter, Gigabit Ethernet media converter and 10 Gigabit Ethernet media converter.

copper-to-fiber-media-converter

Fiber-to-Fiber Media Converter

Fiber-to-Fiber media converter can provide connections between single-mode and multimode fibers, and between dual fiber and single-mode fiber. Besides, they support conversion from one wavelength to another. This media converter enables long distance connection between different fiber networks.

fiber-to-fiber-media-converter

Serial-to-Fiber Media Converter

Serial-to-fiber media converters allow RS232, RS422 or RS485 signals to be transmitted across a fiber optic link. They provide fiber extension for serial protocol copper connections. In addition, serial-to-fiber media converters can detect signal baud rate of connected full-duplex serial devices automatically. RS-485 fiber converters, RS-232 fiber converters and RS-422 fiber converters are the usual types of serial-to-fiber media converters.

serial-to-fiber-media-converter

Tips for Choosing a Fiber Optic Media Converter

We have got familiar with the common types of fiber media converters, but how to choose a suitable one is still not an easy work. Here are some simple tips on how to choose a satisfying fiber media converter.

  • Make clear whether the chips of the fiber media converter support both half-duplex and full-duplex systems. Because if the media converter chips only support half-duplex system. It may cause serious data loss when it is installed to other different systems.
  • Make clear which data rate you need. When you choose a fiber media converter, you need to match the speed of the converters on both ends. If you need both speeds, you can take dual rate media converters into consideration.
  • Make clear whether the media converter is in line with standard IEEE802.3. If it doesn’t meet the standard, there will be compatibility issues absolutely, which can cause unnecessary problems for your work.
Conclusion

Fiber media converters play an important role in today’s multi-protocol, mixed media local area networks. And it is also a critical component of the data networks. A suitable fiber optic media converter can reduce the overall networking cost and extend transmission distance. Fiberstore provides a broad range of media conversion devices adapting to all kinds of working environments. Welcome to choose the ideal one for your networks.

Related Article: Fiber Media Converter: What Is It and How It Works?


MPO Cabling high-density and high-port count fiber equipment

As networking equipment becomes denser and port counts in the data center increase to several hundred ports, managing cables that are connected to these devices becomes a difficult challenge. Traditionally, conneting cables directly to individual ports on low-port-count equipment was considered manageable. Applying the same principle to high-density and high-port-count equipment makes the task more tedious, and it is nearly impossible to add or remove cables that are connected directly to the equipment ports.

Using fiber cable assemblies that have a single connector at one end of the cable and multipe duplex breakout cables at the other end is an alternative to alleviate cable management. Multifiber Push-On (MPO) cable assemblies can achieve these goals. The idea is to pre-connect the high-density and high-port-count Lucent Connector(LC) equipment with and MPO to LC Breakout cable (shown in Figure 6-1) to dedicated MPO modules with a dedicated patch panel. After the panel is fully cabled, this patch panel functions as through it were “remove” ports for the equipment. These dedicated patch panels ideally should be above the equipment whose cabling they handle for easier access to overhead cabling. Using this strategy drastically reduces equipment cabling clutter and improves cable mangament.

As an example, the MPO module that is shown in Figure 6-1 is housed in a modular patch panel that is installed above a Fiber Channel director switch at the EDA. MPO trunk cables are used to link this patch panel to another moudular patch panel at the HDA. The patch panel at the HDA converts the MPO interface back to the LC interfaces by using MPO cassette. MPO trunk cables an accommodate up to 72 individual fibers in one assembly, providing 36 duplex connetions.

Choose the fire-rated plenum type. These cables might not be as flexible as the patch cords because they are meant for fairly static placements, for example, between the EDA and the HDA. For fiber, high density involving 24-strand to 96-strand cables is adequate. Fiber breakout cables provide more protection, but add to the diameter of the overall cable bundle. For fiber, MPO fiber trunk cable(up to 72 fiber strands can be housed in one MPO connetion) can be installed if you are using MPO style cabling.

Fiberstore offers a broad selection of high density connectivity and high capacity cable management. Here are just a few:

High Density MPO Cassettes

Using high density angled panels, this system allows users to mix and match fiber copper and fiber snap in cassettes. The MPO cassette is available in 1RU and 4RU configurations, support up to 48 copper ports or duplex fiber channels per 1RU (192 copper or 192 fiber in a 4RU space).