Advanced Fiber Characteristics
The primary phenomenon, besides absorption, that causes attenuation in a fiber by scattering light off molecular structures in the glass.
What is Rayleigh Scattering?
A basic tool that uses a bright laser to visually locate breaks or tight bends in a fiber cable.
What is a VFL (Visual Fault Locator)?
The maximum permissible pulling tension, or load, that can be applied to a cable during installation.
What is Maximum Pulling Tension?
The central office equipment in a PON architecture that connects the access network to the core network.
What is the OLT (Optical Line Terminal)?
The process where a liquid turns into a gas.
What is Evaporation (or Vaporization)?
This property of single-mode fiber relates to the change in pulse width due to the light components traveling at slightly different speeds at different wavelengths.
What is Chromatic Dispersion?
The purpose of performing a two-jumper reference before measuring channel loss with a light source and power meter.
What is to zero out the loss (or attenuation) caused by the test jumpers?
The recommended term for the location where all campus backbones, horizontal cables, and main equipment are terminated and interconnected.
What is the Main Distribution Area (MDA) (or Telecommunications Room)?
The type of fiber connection where the fiber optic cable runs all the way into the end-user's living space.
What is FTTH (Fiber To The Home)?
The Roman numeral for the number 50.
What is L?
The typical range of power loss in dB expected for a well-executed fusion splice.
What is 0.05 to 0.1 dB?
This instrument is used to create a fiber trace by injecting light and analyzing the backscattered signal over the length of the cable.
What is an OTDR (Optical Time Domain Reflectometer)?
The component used to prevent a cable from being twisted during a pull, especially in outside plant (OSP) installations.
What is a Swivel?
The acronym for the small box or device installed at the customer premise to convert the optical signal to a usable electrical signal (usually Ethernet).
What is the ONU (Optical Network Unit) or ONT (Optical Network Terminal)?
The common name for the star at the center of our solar system.
What is the Sun?
The three-letter acronym for the cable jacket material designed to burn cleanly and not emit toxic smoke.
What is LSZH (Low-Smoke Zero-Halogen)?
The measurement that checks the physical quality and cleanliness of the connector's end-face, often using a specialized microscope.
What is End-face Inspection?
The specification that must be strictly followed during installation to prevent signal degradation caused by kinking or excessive stress on the fiber.
What is Bend Radius?
This general class of component is used to either combine multiple wavelengths or separate them.
What is a Multiplexer (or WDM)?
The name of the ancient wonder of the world that was a colossal statue of the Greek sun-god Helios.
What is the Colossus of Rhodes?
The four-letter acronym for the North American standard that specifies the minimum requirements for a commercial telecommunications cabling infrastructure.
What is TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association)?
The term for a power loss reading that is significantly lower when measured from the A end versus the B end, indicating a non-reciprocal fault.
What is Non-reciprocal loss (or directional fault)?
This design strategy involves installing more fibers than immediately needed to accommodate future growth and technology upgrades.
What is Dark Fiber?
This PON technology uses time-division multiplexing (TDM) to share a single fiber among multiple users by allocating specific time slots for transmission.
What is GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network)?
The smallest unit of digital information, represented by a 0 or a 1.
What is a Bit?