The Secret Of Successful Fiber Optic Cable
Management
Author: Colin Yao
Why is proper fiber optic cable management so critical?
Service providers have deployed more and more fiber optic
cables for their high bandwidth, low costs, greater reliability
and flexibility. But just deploying is not enough; a successful
fiber network also requires a solid infrastructure based on a
professional fiber optic cable management system.
Fiber optic cable management affects a network's reliability,
performance, cost and maintenance. It provides the ability to
reconfigure network, restore service and implement new services
quickly.
Four goals to achieve with professional fiber optic cable
management
1. Protect fiber optic cable from microbends and macrobends
loss
Microbends are small deformities in the optical fiber and
macrobends are larger bends of the fiber cable. Fiber bends
beyond the specified minimum bending radius can cause signal
loss or even break the fiber, causing service disruption.
As a rule of thumb, the minimum bending radius should be bigger
than ten times the outer diameter of the fiber cable. Telcordia
recommends a minimum 38mm bending radius for 3mm fiber optic
patch cords.
Fiber optic cable management system should provide bend radius
protection at all points where a fiber optic cable makes a bend.
This helps ensure the network's long-term reliability; thus
reduces the network operation cost by reducing network down
time.
2. Well defined fiber optic cable management routing paths
The leading cause of fiber optic cable minimum bend radius
violation is improper routing of fibers by fiber installation
technicians.
In a proper fiber cable management system, routing paths are
clearly defined and easy to follow; such that the technician has
no other option but to route the cables properly.
Well defined routing paths reduce the training time required
for technicians and increase the uniformity of work done. It
also makes accessing individual fibers easier, quicker and
safer.
3. Easy access to installed optical fibers
Allowing easy access to installed fibers is critical in
maintaining proper bend radius protection. The system should be
designed to ensure that individual fibers can be installed or
removed without inducing a macrobend on an adjacent fiber.
Accessibility is critical during network reconfiguration.
4. Physical protection of installed optical fibers
Well defined fiber optic cable management system physically
protects the fibers from accidental damage by technicians and
equipment throughout the network.
Fiber optic cable management system procurement
When making the decision on purchasing your fiber optic cable
management systems, the goal is getting the most cost-effective
system that provides the best cable management, flexibility, and
growth capabilities.
Going with the cheapest approaches for fiber optic cable
management can cost more money in the long run. A strong fiber
cable management system will enable you to extract the maximum
value from your installed optical fiber networks.
Specifying Fiber Cable Management Systems: Cost and Value
As a means of keeping operational costs down, service providers
around the world are increasingly turning to systems integrators
to install their networks.
This practice allows the service provider's technicians to
focus on operations and maintenance, rather than network
installation. There is, however, an inherent risk in this
practice.
As the purchasing decision for the fiber cable management
system moves from the service provider's engineering group to
the systems integration prime contractor, the cable management
features of the distribution system are generally not specified.
What can happen, then, is the equipment installed may lack key
features and functionalities. In light of the importance of
proper cable management within the ODF, the service provider
needs to specify the basic requirements for the cable management
system.
There are several industry-standard specifications that can
assist service providers in writing specifications for their
cable management systems. Two of these specifications are:
• Telcordia Generic Requirements for Fiber Distribution Frames
GR-449-CORE, Issue 2, July 2003
• Network Equipment Building System (NEBS) Generic Equipment
Requirements, TR-NWT-000063
About The Author: Colin Yao is the sales manager at Fiber
Optics For Sale Co. and specializes in Fiber Optic Cable
Management System. We also carry many more
http://www.fiberoptics4sale
