[Gllug] Fibre cabling

[Christopher Hunter]

On Tue, 2009-07-28 at 11:29 +0100, James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
> 2009/7/28 Chris Bell <chrisbell at 3966.ukfsn.org>:
> > Hello,
> >   Is there a good source of information about best practice for fibre
> > covering local installations, including termination, jointing, repair, and
> > testing? I understand that even BT speeds might increase enough to make
> > local fibre worthwhile before the end of the century.
> >
> 
> Working with optical fiber requires specialist tools due to the fact
> that accurate alignment is so important. I would generally recommend
> avoiding the "joining" and "repair" options if you can. Each join or
> repair degrades the fiber. People tend to just lay extra spare fibers,
> and if one breaks, just use another. Where I work, optical fiber is
> generally used between cabinets, but this is probably overkill for
> local installations, where normal CAT5e is enough for most needs.
> 
> Optical fiber is expensive compared to CAT5e cables, so I would
> recommend only using them if you have to.


On the other hand, optical fibre has much more capacity than coaxial
cables (and many more times than twisted pair), so it's to be preferred
in many instances.  It's also MUCH cheaper than the equivalent copper
when the distances get more than a few metres.

Manipulating, joining and repairing fibre require specialist tools and
expensive test equipment to verify operation after repair.  My work
involves the maintenance of an extensive fibre network, and we hire in
specialist contractors to repair or terminate fibre...

C.

-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug