Is Pre-Terminated Fiber Cable A Better Choice?

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While
installing fiber optic cables, you will come across such questions. Should I
choose to field terminate fiber optic cables or just turn to pre-terminated
fiber optic cables? Which choice is better for the installation? Before jumping
to a decision, you need to take a few things into consideration. In this
article, we will discuss what cable construction type you need and understand
why a pre-terminated fiber option is a better choice for you.

 

What
May Pre-Terminated Fiber Cables Bring to You?

Pre-terminated
cabling systems have been in use for a number of years. Nowadays they have been
regarded as the “norm” for Data Center applications. There are
reasons for it.

 

Time
saving: Without doubt, pre-terminated
fiber cables can help you save a lot of time. As the products are
terminated in a factory environment and delivered to site, minimal engineering
or assembly work is required on site. Pre-terminated solutions also save
testing time. The pre-terminated solutions can be tested at the factory and transported
to site, which minimises the occurrence of faulty connections.

 

Space
Saving: Pre-terminated fiber cable is much higher in density. And, installers
need space to store the components and work areas to make terminations. Using a
pre-terminated solution can be space saving as the pre-terminated links are
“made to measure” and they don’t need to be stored when delivered as
needed and can be put to use immediately.

 

Pre-terminated
cables or fiber optic patch cables assemblies eliminate time-consuming
field-termination processes and provide a factory-tested and certified endface.
But they also have disadvantages. Prepolished connectorized fibers can cost
much more than epoxy-style field-polish connectors. And cable length needs to
be precisely measured. If pre-terminated cables are too short, you will have to
install a replacement; if they are too long, you will have to deal with
installation issues associated with managing the extra cable length, which will
also cause additional expense.

 

What
May Field Termination Bring to You?

As
you know, optical fiber, mainly made of glass, is very fragile and difficult to
install. Termination of installing optical fiber cables has always been
perceived as a difficult, expensive, and time-consuming process, whether the
termination is done in the field or it is an in-house operation, which
discourags a lot of installers. And now, with the development of new high speed
systems, termination is becoming more and more difficult. For example,
multi-mode fiber networks for 40Gbit/s and 100Gbit/s applications use parallel
transmission with 8 or 20 fibers per link utilizing 12-fiber MTP/MPO
connectors, making it harder to terminate than a single fiber connector.
Instead, a pre-terminated MPO cable would be much easier. Why not choose to
field terminate fiber optic cabling systems? Here are several troubles that a
field termination may bring to you.

 

Polishing
process: Polishing the fiber is one of the most critical step in the
connectorization process. Polishing is the process of creating a smooth surface
by rubbing it or using a chemical action, leaving a surface with a significant
specular reflection. Polishing finalizes the connector endface and cleans the
surface, which has a direct impact on such optical performance parameters as
insertion loss, return loss, and bit-error-rate for overall network
performance. Reliable polishing processes rely on proper training and a
well-equipped termination toolkit. Many installers fear connectorizing optical
fiber cable, mainly due to the delicate techniques of polishing.

 

Connector
protection: Another problem is how to protect the connectors. We know that
optical fiber connector is a high-precision device with tolerances on the order
of microns, it is crucial that the fiber should not only be formed perfectly to
align with a mating connector, but that it should be free of any dust or dirt.
Failing to do so can cause high insertion loss and high reflection, and can
contaminate the equipment to which the connectors and patch cords will be connected.
In a field termination process, extra attention must be paid to the handling of
the collectors. Bad environment may increase the possibility of a connector
failure.

 

Cost:
Besides, fiber termination involves a heavy investment into the proper tools
and test equipment to make a proper fiber connection at the location. For
example, you need a cable stripper to remove the tight buffer, a ruler and a
marker to measure the length and mark on the fiber jacket, and some fiber optic
cleaning fluid to clean the bare fiber, and so on. The most costly part of
field termination kit is going to be your cleaver. Some only cleave multimode
fibers and some do both multimode and singlemode fibers. So if you decide to
field terminate fiber optic cables, you must prepare all those termination
tools that you need, which is a big load for field termination.

 

How
Do You Make A Choice?

Pre-terminated
fiber cable is relatively a much easier way to install fiber cable. The
connectors you specify are pre-terminated for you, and the fiber cable you
specify is cut to the proper length that you need. When the installation is
over, you can just plug and play fiber optic system. It is perfect for
beginners and also convenient for professional fiber optic installers. Many
cable and patchcord manufacturers offer a cable termination service. If you
have a good cable plant layout design and can accurately calculate cable
lengths between termination points, all you have to do is specify what kind and
number of fibers, the fiber types and connector types and the cable length that
you need. Then the manufacturer would supply a completed assembly, and the
cable is terminated with connectors, fully tested and fitted with protective
sleeving at each end. Pre-terminated fiber cable is an excellent choice.