7 Commandments

Fiber Optic Professionals Take Heed

After years of training and working with fiber optic professionals, I have learned that a few practices can help teams become more effective at implementing and maintaining their optical networks. Many of these require little effort, and can significantly improve the quality and performance of your network. Some of these practices will also help keep you safe while they promote professionalism and high standards among fiber professionals.

1st Commandment
Inspect Connectors and Keep Them Clean
The number one cause of fiber optic network problems is dirty connectors. Dirt can cause problems like damage to a connector’s end face, misalignment, and attenuation. Grease, like the one from your fingers, can cause future problems in networks as high output lasers can end up burning it, causing charring and clouding to connector end faces.

Make sure to inspect all connectors before plugging them in. Whenever possible, include an end face inspection probe image for each connector with your test and characterization records. Protect your eyes by testing with a power meter for verifying that fibers are not active before testing with microscopes.

2nd Commandment
Be Careful With the Fiber Scraps
The number one cause of injuries when working with fibers are mishandled fiber scraps. To begin, you should always, protect yourself by always wearing safety glasses. Use appropriate sharps dispensing containers, handle and collect the fiber scraps with tweezers or black electrical tape, and dispose of those materials appropriately.

Believe it or not, tiny fragments of glass can easily find their way into your skin and clothes if you are not careful. Even worse, if you mistakenly touch your eyes with fiber scraps on your hands, you could end up inflicting a potentially painful eye wound to yourself.

Working on black surfaces will help you spot these fragments more easily due to the color contrast. But, still, you could unknowingly take fiber scraps home with you if they are on your clothes. So take care before and after you finish the job.

3rd Commandment
Treat Your Splicing Machine Like a Baby
Your fusion splicer is akin to a soldier’s rifle. Without a good working splicing-set, it is hard to be effective in the field. Faulty equipment can cause you to find high attenuations and bad splices after you’ve spent days of work doing what you thought was your best work.

Safeguard and protect your splice-set from bumps, dirt, and humidity. Keep it clean, dry, and isolated from dust. Frequently clean the v-grooves with non-abrasive materials or tools. Clean the electrodes and change them as needed, according to manufacturer’s recommendations. Keep the batteries charged. Avoid connecting it directly to power plants, and use power conditioners to protect it from current peaks that could potentially damage the circuit boards. Instead, opt for using the equipment battery whenever possible.

4th Commandment
Use Appropriate Tools for the Job
There are arrays of specialized tools for tasks like prepping mid-entries, distribution breakouts, opening flat drop cables, etc. All of these can save you time, keep you safe, and protect the fibers (and your fingers).

I have seen, more than once, punctured or cut loose tubes, cut fibers, and damaged cables, due to technicians not using the appropriate tools or simply preferring to use their pocket knives. Use the best quality cleavers available to ensure good splices and connections.

5th Commandment
Don’t Guesstimate. Test it
I see many guys using Visual Fault Locators (VFLs) for checking short distance links. That is not the right practice. Every link, regardless of its length, should be tested with an Optical Loss Test Set (OLTS) for optical loss/attenuation.

When verifying continuity, identifying fibers, checking polarity, or looking for faults close to the source you can use VFLs. When checking for distance, specific events such as splices, and troubleshooting, you can use an Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR). Nevertheless, when conducting acceptance tests, for any link of any type, use a light source and power meter to verify that the cable plant is working within specified optical budgets. This will ensure that your optical equipment has a clean and useful optical path. VFLs are a good start, but they do not tell you the appropriate information you need for link verification.

6th Commandment
Use and Produce Useful Documentation
Nothing is worse than completing an installation and not finding your fiber paths as expected, due to wrong fiber mapping and crossed splices. In order to avoid this, network design and planning documentation must be developed accurately and shared effectively from the start.

After installation, be sure to create appropriate "as built" documentation. Then, share and apply it in order to maintain accurate records. These documents will be your best friends when conducting maintenance operations, such as troubleshooting and restoration.

7th Commandment
Get Trained and Certified
There is much to know about designing, installing, and maintaining optimal fiber networks. Some professionals take the time to learn only after they find their networks do not work. Appropriate network design and planning are foundational in implementing fast, future-proof, and reliable networks.

And equally as important, good fiber field practices help gain and keep happy customers as well as securing your company’s investment, and keeping your job.