What types of equipment are available?
Equipment is mainly required to connect (=splice) fiber optic cables using splicing devices and test equipment (OTDR) to check an existing fiber optic cable for function and possible faults.
With a precision splitter the optical fiber is precisely shortened or straightened beforehand. This is the only way to avoid reflection problems.
What are splicing devices?
Such a device is used to connect two ends of an optical fiber.
What characterizes the different types?
- Apart from automatic splicing by means of fusion via an arc - as in the case of Saluki's FTTX - fibers can also be spliced mechanically. Here, the ends are simply broken straight and directly held together mechanically. To do this, the break point must be highly clean. This splicing technique is also known as NENP (no-epoxy no-polish). Here, however, the attenuation in the joint is 5 to 10 times as high as with splicing.
- Likewise, the fiber ends can also be bonded together by means of an adhesive splice.
What are relevant device criteria?
Important characteristics of an OTDR, which must be checked when purchasing and can also vary depending on the application, are of course the resolving power and the dynamic range, but also the possible distance between event dead zones (EDZ) or attenuation dead zones must be considered. The shorter the distance, the better.