Why Not Consider Splice-On Connector for Field-Termination?

There is no question that the demand for network capacity is accelerating dramatically as data traffic has proliferated. Hence, a great amount of optical fibers are deployed in the field in order to cope up with the requirements. Which inevitably exerts more work stress when polishing and terminating these massive fibers. Field-installable splice-on connectors, which can be terminated at the end of the cable in field by fusion splicing, can resolve this issue. This article will shed light on the functions and benefits of splice-on connector, and explain why we should consider it seriously.

What Is Splice-On Connector?

A splice-on connector uses a fusion splicer to permanently join a fiber stub inside the connector with a fiber cable. The splice is protected within the boot of the connector. Splice-on connector features a factory pre-polished ferrule that eliminates the need for polishing and adhesives so they can be crimped in the field. Splice-on connectors significantly enhance the effectiveness of the termination and installation, which allow for unsurpassed performance and flexibility in the field. Moreover, splice-on connectors are easily assembled that requires minimal skill or training, and it presents the same high quality as the factory terminated one.

The diagram above typically illustrates the SC type of the field-installable splice-on connector. It generally consists of 8 parts. In addition to stub, which is a ferrule with a short fiber, and heat shrinkable sleeve, all housing parts are almost the same design as the standard connector.

How to Assemble Splice-On Connector?

The process for splice-on connector assembly is fairly easy, and SC or LC version simply has the same procedures. Here we take SC splice-on connector for example, just follow these steps:

Why to Consider Splice-On Connector?

Splice-on connectors generally expand our options for field-termination, technicians nowadays incline to embrace the splice-on connector for OSP environment, data center installation and multi-dwelling unit (MDU) networks. Here are six reasons why we should consider splice-on connector to network.

Fewer Components and Material Required

With a splice-on connector, the pigtail is eliminated since the fiber stub inside the connector is permanently joined with a fiber cable. The splice is protected within the connector boot. There is no need for splice tray, slack management of fiber strands, or other accessory.

Better Insertion Loss and Return Loss

Splice-on connector has better performance on insertion loss and return loss when compared with mechanical splice. By utilizing a fusion splicer, a splice-on connector creates a continuous connection in the glass by “welding” cores together. Which results in robust performance at the splice.

Installation Flexibility

Splice-on connector gives installer much more flexibility by combining fusion splicing with a field-installable connector. It allows you to run drop cables to an end-user, cut the length you need and then attach the splice-on connector and plug it in, with no shorts or excess slack. Splice-on connector makes it possible to achieve durable, high-performance connection with the same amount of time it takes to complete a mechanical splice.

Well-Suited for Outdoor Environments

Most splice-on connector can be used in outdoor environments, providing permanent, robust connections in outdoor enclosures. They can remain stable through a wide range of temperatures and other harsh conditions.

Notification for Successful Splice

When technician successfully completes the splicing task, most fusion splicer can notify them. This decrease the chance for installer skill that is required for mechanical splicing, making it easy to use splice-on connectors regardless of you are a beginner or expert.

Significantly Decreased Price

The cost of fusion splicing tools once has stood in the way for the spread of fusion splicing. However, the industry has experienced significant decreases in splice prices in recent years. One can even choose to rent those devices if needed. Fusion splicing gains in much popularity that enables more installers to benefit from splice-on connectors for deployments.

Conclusion

Splice-on connectors simply combine the quality of fusion splicing with the ease of a field-installable connector. It enables technicians to realize greater efficiency and improve fiber management especially in tight space and high density environments. They have been extensively used in FTTx networks, cable TV backbone networks, outside plant and MDU FTTP cabling, as well as data center installation and connector restoration in the field. So why not consider splice-on connectors for your project?

Source: http://www.china-cable-suppliers.com/consider-splice-on-connector-field.html

An Overview of Fiber Optic Splicing

It is generally accepted that splicing is often required to create a continuous optical path for optical pulses from one fiber length to another. Thus, relevant skills and knowledge of fiber optic splicing methods have become increasingly essential to any company or fiber optic technician specialized in telecommunication or LAN and networking projects. Under some circumstances, fiber optic cables may need to be spliced together to ensure better performance, such as to achieve a connection of a certain length, or just to repair a broken cable. For example, the maximum lengths of a fiber optic cable is up to about 5 km, then two fiber optic cable need to be spliced together to achieve 10km lengths of data transmission. This article aims to describe some basic elements related to optical fiber splicing thus to provide useful information about it.

What Is Fiber Optic Splicing

Just as the name indicates, fiber optic splicing serves as a method to join two optical fiber together due to some necessary reasons. Fiber optic splicing typically lead to lower light loss and back reflection than termination, making it a relatively preferred method when the transmission distances are too long for a single length of fiber or when one have to joint two different types of cable together, such as a 48-fiber cable to four 12-fiber cables. Besides, splicing is also used to restore or repair fiber optic cables when a buried cable is accidentally broken or damaged.

The Types of Fiber Optic Splicing

Basically, there exist two fiber interconnection methods: one is fusion splicing and the other is mechanical splicing. If you are just beginning to splice fiber, you might need to look at your long-term goals in this field in order to choose which technique best fits your economic and performance expectations.

Fusion splicing remains to be one of the most widely adopted permanent technique to joint optical fibers, which contains the process of fusing or welding two fibers together usually by an electric arc. The popularity of this kind of splicing method is resulted from the lowest loss and least reflection it offers. Moreover, it also provides the strongest and most reliable joint between two fibers. Fusion splicing can be achieved by a specialized equipment called fusion splicer that generally involves two functions: aligning the fibers and then melting them together.

Mechanical splicing, on the other hand, is simply aligned and designed to hold in place by a self-contained assembly. Two fibers are not permanently joined, just precisely held together to enable light to pass from one fiber into the other. Mechanical splicing are especially popular for fast, temporary restoration or for splicing multimode fibers in a premises installation. Meanwhile, they are also used as temporary splices for testing bare fibers with OTDRs or OLTSs.

Mechanical splices generally have higher loss and greater reflection than fusion splices, but they do not need an expensive machine to fulfill the splicing tasks. All needed are just a simple cleaver and some cable preparation tools. Sometimes, a visual fault locator(VFL) may help to optimize some types of splices.

The Procedures of Fiber Optic Splicing
Both of fusion splicing and mechanical splicing consist of four basic steps, and for the first two steps, these two splicing methods are relatively the same. They only differ from each other in the last two steps.

Four basic steps to achieve a proper fusion splicing:

Step 1: Preparing the fiber- Striping the protective coatings, jackets, tubes, strength members, etc. leaving only the bare fiber and keeping it clean.

Step 2: Cleaving the fiber-Using a good fiber cleaver is essential to ensure a successful fusion splice. The cleaved end must be mirror-smooth and perpendicular to the fiber axis to obtain a proper splice.

Step 3: Fusing the fiber-Two steps involves in this step: alignment and heating. Alignment can be manual or automatic depending on what equipment you have. Once properly aligned the fusion splicer unit then uses an electrical arc to melt the fibers, permanently welding the two fiber ends together.

Step 4: Protecting the fiber-Protecting the fiber from bending and tensile forces will ensure the splice not break during normal handling. A typical fusion splice has a tensile strength between 0.5 and 1.5 lbs and will not break during normal handling but it still requires protection from excessive bending and pulling forces. Using heat shrink tubing, silicone gel and/or mechanical crimp protectors will protect the splice from outside elements and breakage.

Four basic steps to complete a mechanical splicing:

Step 1: Preparing the fiber -Striping the protective coatings, jackets, tubes, strength members, etc. leaving only the bare fiber and keeping it clean.

Step 2: Cleaving the fiber-The process is identical to the cleaving for fusion splicing but the cleave precision is not as critical.

Step 3: Mechanically join the fibers-No heat is needed in this method. Simply position the fiber ends together inside the mechanical splice unit. The index matching gel inside the mechanical splice apparatus will help couple the light from one fiber end to the other. Older apparatus will have an epoxy rather than the index matching gel holding the cores together.

Step 4: Protecting the fiber-The completed mechanical splice provides its own protection for the splice.

Conclusion

From what discussed above, we can figure out that these two types of fiber optic splicing methods obtain their advantages and drawbacks. Whether to fusion splicing or mechanical splicing in fact depend greatly on several elements, such as transmission distance, signal loss and reflection requirements. For most telecommunication and CATV companies, they incline to invest in fusion splicing for their long haul single-mode network. While in terms of shorter, local cable runs, they still prefer mechanical splicing. However, since signal loss and reflection are minor concerns for most LAN applications, either of these two methods can be equally employed in the LAN industry.

First published:http://www.china-cable-suppliers.com/an-overview-of-fiber-optic-splicing.html

What Is Fiber Optic Loss?

Fiber optic transmission has become the backbone of networking in the majority of companies nowadays. Serving as the trend of data transmission in this information age, it does obtain some advantages when comparing with other transmission medium like copper. With lighter weight, smaller size and more flexibility, fiber optic enables data to transmit at a higher speed and over longer distances, which in turn helps to enhance the work efficiency greatly. However, there exist some elements that could affect the performance of fiber optic. So, in order to achieve stable and excellent performance of the fiber, we should take these factors into consideration. Among which fiber optic loss is easy to be neglected sometimes, but it is of significant importance for engineers when selecting and dealing with fiber optics. This article aims to provide some useful information about fiber optic loss in detail.

It is universally known that Fiber optic cable transmits data as pulses of light go through tiny tubes of glass. During the process the light travels through the core of fiber optic, and the strength of it surely becomes lower. Naturally, the signal strength becomes weaker. This loss of light power is generally called fiber optic loss or attenuation. While in power lever, this decrease is described in dB. Something happened during the transmission of data and caused fiber optic loss. Therefore, to transmit optical signals smoothly and safely, it is essential to decrease fiber optic loss. So, firstly we should try to figure out where the loss comes from. The fiber optic loss falls into two aspects: internal reasons and external causes, which are also known as intrinsic fiber core attenuation and extrinsic fiber attenuation.   

Intrinsic Fiber Core Attenuation

Internal reasons of fiber optic loss are caused by the fiber optic itself, which is also known as intrinsic attenuation. Basically, there are two main causes of intrinsic attenuation: light absorption and scattering.

Light absorption is the major cause of fiber optic loss during optical transmission, which means the light is absorbed in the fiber by the materials of fiber optic. Thus light absorption is also known as material absorption. Actually the light power is absorbed and transferred into other forms of energy like heat because of molecular resonance and wavelength impurities. Besides, atomic structure in any pure material may absorb selective wavelengths of radiation. Since it is impossible to manufacture materials that are totally pure, fiber optic manufacturers choose to doping germanium and other materials with pure silica to optimize the fiber optic core performance.

Scattering is another main cause of fiber optic loss. It refers to the scattering of light caused by molecular level irregularities in the glass structure. When the scattering happens, the light energy is scattered in all directions. Some of them keep traveling in the forward direction, but the light that doesn’t scatter in the forward direction could be lost in the fiber optic link as shown in the following picture. Thus, to reduce fiber optic loss caused by scattering, the imperfections of the fiber optic core should be removed, and the fiber optic coating and extrusion should be carefully controlled.

Extrinsic Fiber Attenuation

What we have mentioned above just serves as one aspect that causes fiber optic loss, the other one which is extrinsic fiber attenuation also plays an essential role in the loss of fiber optic. Extrinsic fiber attenuation is usually caused by improper handling of fiber optic. Thus, there are two main types of extrinsic fiber attenuation: bend loss and splicing loss.

Bend loss is a common problem generated by improper fiber optic handling that causes fiber optic loss. Literally, it is caused by fiber optic bend. There are two basic types of bend loss: one is micro bending, the other is macro bending (shown in the following picture). Macro bending refers to a large bend in the fiber (with more than 2mm radius). To reduce fiber optic loss, the following causes of bend loss should be noted:

• Fiber core deviate from the axis;
• Defects of manufacturing;
• Mechanical constraints during the fiber laying process;
• Environmental variations like the change of temperature, humidity or pressure.

Fiber optic splicing can also result in extrinsic fiber attenuation. As it is inevitable to connect one fiber optic to another in a fiber optic network, the fiber optic loss caused by splicing cannot be avoided. However, it can be reduced to minimum with proper handling. Using fiber optic connectors of high quality and fusion splicing can help to reduce the fiber optic loss effectively.

Conclusion

The picture above shows the main causes of loss in fiber optic of different types. Since efficient transmission of light at the operational wavelengths is the primary function of fiber optics needed for a range of applications, the fiber optic loss and the potential for its minimization are of great importance in the efficient and economic use of fiber optics. For the purpose of reducing the intrinsic fiber core attenuation, it is necessary to select the proper fiber optic and suitable optical components for the applications, while for reduction of extrinsic fiber attenuation, it would be better to handle the fiber optic properly and splice it with cautious.

From: http://www.china-cable-suppliers.com/what-is-fiber-optic-loss.html