[Wolves] Optical fibre

[chris procter]

> >> We need to link switches over some longer distances at school - about

> >> 200 m - and have recently put some ducts in for the job. It probably
> >> needs optical fibre. But I wondered about us putting our own fibres
> >> in, buying the appropriate kit, and terminating them ourselves.
> >>
> >> Presumably we'll have to buy a kit to do the termination.
> >>
> >> Is it easy? Does anyone have any experience or advice?
> > Mark, as you know we can do that work and we are 2 minutes walk away
> > from you. Would you like a quote?
> 
> As the price of termination kits is quite high (£600 - £1400 see 
> http://www.minitran.co.uk/pages/products/list.mhtml?ct=4&sc=22), it is 
> unlikely that it would be economic to do the termination yourself. 
> Puting the cable in place is a different matter, provided you treat the 
> cable with the care & respect it needs. So no sharp bends - nothing 
> tighter than 12" radius, keep the ends sealed, run about a metre more 
> than needed - for cutting off and pull it very, very gently as you do 
> not want the fibre to break in the middle.

12" RADIUS??? you'd hate our data centre :)

The advice we had was "about the curvature of a dinner plate" which is about 12" *diameter* you can get away with tighter turns then that but much tighter then that you start degrading the signal and getting transmission errors, causing slow data rates and weird faults. If you bend the cable even tighter then that you can break the glass strand and then you get to throw it away and buy a new one.  Make sure you have plenty of slack and don't pull it tight.

Oh and I wouldn't recommend standing on it or dropping heavy objects on it either, it might be ok but you really don't want to find out.

Don't let any of this scare you off from laying your own though optical fibres are pretty robust, just not as robust as copper. Treat it like its made of glass and you'll be fine.

chris