The Importance of Cleaning and Maintaining Fiber Optic Cables

by Fiber-MART.COM

Fiber optic cables can be incredibly useful, fast, and efficient.  When you switch to fiber optic cables for your network, it means you’re taking one more step closer towards the future.  High speed and instantaneous success are what run our world; this means that one misstep regarding fiber optic cables could ruin their entire ability to function.  How do you prevent this?  The most important thing to keep in mind is that your cables need to stay clean.  Here’s why it’s so important to clean and maintain your fiber optic cables.

 

 

Simple Mistakes, Big Consequences

 

Even just a little oil from your finger, or a speck of dust can cause a failure of the entire system.  While fiber optic cables produce a great amount of speed and power, they also require care and precision.  A dust particle that isn’t even visible could block the light that travels through the cables.  If it doesn’t cause the entire system to break down, this kind of interruption will, at the very least, lower productivity of the connection.

 

 

Cleaning Process 

 

There are several ways to clean fiber optic cables, from dry cleaning to wet cleaning, and each have their benefits and specific uses.  Each cleaning process follows the same general outline of steps; clean, inspect, clean, inspect, and repeat.  There are a few things to remember, though.  For instance, wet cleaning should not be conducted on bulkheads and receptacles.  Dry cleaning should be your first plan of action.  The connectors of the cables are just as important as the rest of the cable, in terms of transmission.  If your fiber optic network is running slowly, and you’re not sure why, you might want to clean each component thoroughly until you find where the problem is.

 

 

General Tips

 

Turn off all systems when you’re cleaning.  The laser radiation is dangerous, and you should never look into these beams.  Even if you can’t see any kind of light, the emissions are still  there.  Do not scrub vigorously at the cables; rather, use a lint free swab and gently wipe.  Your swabs should stay clean.  Ideally, use a new one after each use.  Never touch the connectors with your bare fingers, or else you’ll have to clean all over again!

 

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How Does POE Work?

Network cables, such as Cat 5e and Cat 6, comprise eight wires arranged as four twisted pairs. In 10 and 100BASE-T Ethernet, two of these pairs are used for sending information, and these are known as the data pairs. The other two pairs are unused and are referred to as the spare pairs (Gigabit Ethernet uses all four pairs).

 

Because electrical currents flow in a loop, two conductors are required to deliver power over a cable. POE treats each pair as a single conductor, and can use either the two data pairs or the two spare pairs to carry electrical current.

 

Power over Ethernet is injected onto the cable at a voltage between 44 and 57 volts DC, and typically 48 volts is used. This relatively high voltage allows efficient power transfer along the cable, while still being low enough to be regarded as safe.

 

This voltage is safe for users, but it can still damage equipment that has not been designed to receive POE. Therefore, before a POE switch or midspan (known as a PSE, for power sourcing equipment) can enable power to a connected IP camera or other equipment (known as a PD, for powered device), it must perform a signature detection process.

 

Signature detection uses a lower voltage to detect a characteristic signature of IEEE-compatible PDs (a 25kOhm resistance). Once this signature has been detected, the PSE knows that higher voltages can be safely applied.

 

Classification follows the signature detection stage, and is an optional process. If a PD displays a classification signature, it lets the PSE know how much power it requires to operate, as one of three power classes. This means that PSEs with a limited total power budget can allocate it effectively.

 

The differences between power delivered by the PSE and power received by the PD account for power that is lost as heat in the cable. If a PD does not display a signature, it is class 0 and must be allocated the maximum 12.95 watts.

 

POE Plus equipment has a power class of 4. If a regular 802.3af POE source detects this class it will simply enable power as if it was a class 0 device. However, an 802.3at PSE will not only recognise the PD as a POE Plus device, it will also repeat the classification stage, as a signal to the PD that is connected to a power source with full POE Plus power available. (In theory the PD should also be able to request the extra power by communicating across the network link.) POE Plus PSEs can supply up to 30 watts and available device power is 25.5 watts.

 

The final stage after detection and classification of a newly connected device is to enable power: the 48V supply is connected to the cable by the PSE so the PD can operate. Once enabled, the PSE continues to monitor how much electrical current it is delivering to the PD, and will cut the power to the cable if too much, or not enough, power is drawn. This protects the PSE against overload, and ensures that POE is disconnected from the cable if the PD is unplugged.

What Can Limit the Data Transmission Distance?

What Can Limit the Data Transmission Distance?

by Fiber-MART.COM

In the optical network, except the speed, data transmission distance is another important thing that we care. What can limit the transmission distance? At first we may think of fiber optic cable. Compared with copper cable, it can support longer transmission distance, high speed, high bandwidth, etc. However, not everything is perfect. Fiber optic cable still has some imperfections that influence the transmission distance. Besides, other transmitting media like transceivers, splices and connectors can also limit the transmission distance. The following will tell more details.

Fiber Optic Cable Type

Fiber optic cable can be divided into single-mode cable and multimode cable. The transmission distance supported by single-mode cable is longer than multimode cable. That’s because of the dispersion. Usually the transmission distance is influenced by dispersion. Dispersion includes chromatic dispersion and modal dispersion (as shown in the following figures). Chromatic dispersion is the the spreading of the signal over time resulting from the different speeds of light rays. Modal dispersion is the spreading of the signal over time resulting from the different propagation mode.

 

For single-mode fiber cable, it is chromatic dispersion that affects the transmission distance. This is because, the core of the single-mode fiber optic is much smaller than that of multimode fiber. So the transmission distance is longer than multimode fiber cable. For multimode fiber cable, modal dispersion is the main cause. Because of the fiber imperfections, these optical signals cannot arrive simultaneously and there is a delay between the fastest and the slowest modes, which causes the dispersion and limits the performance of multimode fiber cable.

 

Optic Transceiver Module

Like most of the terminals, fiber optic transceiver modules are electronic based. Transceiver modules play the role of EOE conversions (electrics-optics-electrics). The conversion of signals is largely depend on an LED (light emitting diode) or a laser diode inside the transceiver, which is the light source of fiber optic transceiver. The light source can also affect the transmission distance of a fiber optic link.

 

LED diode based transceivers can only support short distances and low data rate transmission. Thus, they cannot satisfy the increasing demand for higher data rate and longer transmission distance. For longer transmission distance and higher data rate, laser diode is used in most of the modern transceivers. The most commonly used laser sources in transceivers are Fabry Perot (FP) laser, Distributed Feedback (DFB) laser and Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting (VCSEL) laser. The following chart shows the main characteristics of these light sources.

 

Transmission Frequency

As the above chart mentioned, different laser sources support different frequencies. The maximum distance a fiber optic transmission system can support is affected by the frequency at which the fiber optic signal will be transmitted. Generally the higher the frequency, the longer distance the optical system can support. Thus, choosing the right frequency to transmit optical signals is necessary. Generally, multimode fiber system uses frequencies of 850 nm and 1300 nm, and 1300nm and 1550 nm are standard for single-mode system.

 

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is another important factor that influences the transmission distance. Usually, as the bandwidth increases, the transmission distance decreases proportionally. For instance, a fiber that can support 500 MHz bandwidth at a distance of one kilometer will only be able to support 250 MHz at 2 kilometers and 100 MHz at 5 kilometers. Due to the way in which light passes through them, single-mode fiber has an inherently higher bandwidth than multimode fiber.

 

Splice and Connector

Splice and connector are also the transmission distance decreasing reasons. Signal loss appears when optical signal passes through each splice or connector. The amount of the loss depends on the types, quality and number of connectors and splices.

 

All in all, the above content introduces so many factors limiting the transmission distance, like fiber optic cable type, transceiver module’s light source, transmission frequency, bandwidth, splice and connector. As to these factors, different methods and choices can be taken to increase the transmission distance. Meanwhile, equipment like repeater and optical amplifiers are also useful to support the long distance transmission. So there must be some ways to help you increase the transmission distance.

SUNMA AFCM-1000 0.9mm Fiber Cable Cutting Machine

SUNMA AFCM-1000 0.9mm Fiber Cable Cutting Machine

by Fiber-MART.COM

Automatic Opical Fiber Cutting Machine is applied for producing fiber optic patchcord, and it is a professional equipment with measuring length / cutting and winding fuctions. It could cut different indoor optical fibers into required length and wind cable into circularity.

AFCM-1000Fiber Cable Cutting Machine

Description and Features:

 

Automatic Opical Fiber Cutting Machine is applied for producing fiber optic patchcord, and it is a professional equipment with measuring length / cutting and winding fuctions. It could cut different indoor optical fibers into required length and wind cable into circularity.

 

This equipment integrates the advantages from China and oversea factory’s cutting machines, and increas an automatic feedback function for data groups. It makes the measuring accuracy impove better. It includes automatic winding and automatic cutting functions to protect the optical fiber.

 

Flexible for length and speed setting, High efficiency.

Friendly touch screen interface, compact window, self-defined language: Chinese / English / Korea.

Easy to handle, High precision, High speed, Low noise. It is the best machine for cable cutting and winding.

 

Place of Origin: Wuhan in China 

Technical Parameters: 

 

Tehnical data:

1. Voltage 220-240V
2. Frequency: 50/60Hz
3. Power: 300W
4. Weight: 25Kg
5. Cable cutting length: ≤999mtr
6. Cable laying speed: 1-9 grad
7. Driving method: step by step
8. Length tolerance: 3‰
9. Cable spec: 0.9mm 12 colors ribbon cable