Troubleshoot Faults in Fiber Optic Cables
When it comes to the information transmission, three ways are usually discussed. For landline telephone, a wire cable is used to carry the sounds from voice into a socket in the wall, where another cable takes it to the local telephone exchange. As to cellphones, information is traveled through invisible radio waves, a technology called wireless. The third way utilizes the fiber optics, which sends information coded in a beam of light down a glass or plastic pipe. Fiber optic cable is made up of incredibly thin strands of glass or plastic known as optical fibers, whose ends are often capped with the same (SC SC) or different connectors (LC SC) to form fiber optic patch cable , or called fiber optic jumper.
Nowadays, fiber optic cable has been praised for their high-performance capacities. But in practical use, it also troubles installers and users. Not only does the fiber installation process need great care and attention, but also the troubleshooting process is a little tricky. Today, this text will discuss some common problems with fiber optic cables and how to troubleshoot these faults.
Common Causes of Malfunctions
To diagnose and repair faults quickly and efficiently, it’s necessary to know some common fiber optic cable problems with the possible causes:
- Broken fibers owing to physical stress or excessive bending;
- Signal signal loss because of a contaminated connector or a cable span that’s too long (faulty splices or connectors also lead to excessive signal loss);
- Faulty connection of fiber to the patch panel or in the splice tray;
- Insufficient transmitting power;
It’s known that the fiber break causes a dead connection. But if there occurs intermittent connection, then what causes it? Here are some possible causes. The cable’s attenuation may be too high because of poor quality splices or too many splices. Or connectors are contaminated by such things as dust, fingerprints, scratches, and humidity. Besides, low transmitter strength and bad connections in the wiring closet all bring about intermittent connection.
Troubleshoot Faults in Fiber Optic Cables
While working on fixing this fault problem, the first thing to do is to gather information as much as possible, about the problem’s symptoms and possible causes. Then you can start from the following points.
- Information Collection
It’s imperative to know if the PC has been disconnected or has moved recently. If the fiber optic cable has been disconnected from the PC, it could be that the cable was never reconnected, was reconnected incorrectly, or was contaminated during the time that it was disconnected.
Any changes to the PC’s hardware also cause problems, so it’s important to find out whether the PC’s hardware has been upgraded or not. It’s possible that the cable was never disconnected during the hardware upgrade. If so, there’s a chance that the cable could have been overextended when the PC was moved, or the PC could have been accidentally smashed against the back of the desk or the wall, damaging the connector.
In addition, there is a chance that the cable was never damaged or hooked up incorrectly, but rather that the new hardware is preventing the NIC from working correctly. The exact method by which you’d determine whether or not the NIC is having problems varies with your operating system.
Before repairing fiber optic cable problems, it’s also of great importance to keep in mind that fiber cable can be destroyed if stepped on or bent too sharply, or if a chair is rolled over it.
- Fault Testing
After gathering enough information, now goes to problem diagnosis process.
One way is to disconnect both ends of the fiber cable and hold a laser pointer (image left) up to the cable to see if the light comes out the other end. Or if a laser pointer is unavailable, a bright flashlight (image right) works just as well.
- Testing Results
If no light comes through the cable, then the cable is broken and needs to be replaced. If light does come through the cable, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the cable is good; it just means that the fiber inside the cable hasn’t been completely destroyed. However, if the light comes through the cable and the cable run is shorter than a hundred meters, then the cable will often be good enough to use.
Certainly, there exist other diagnostic techniques, like to disconnect the troubled computer from the fiber optic cable and connecting a PC or laptop to the cable. If the good PC is able to function, then the cable is free from the problem. And the problem could lie in the damaged NIC, or a configuration that could be preventing the computer from recognizing the NIC properly.
Conclusion
If you’re familiar with copper wires, then you may discover that fiber optic cable is totally different, and it’s very fragile. When running fiber optic cable for different applications, there is high chance that problems will occur. In this case, understanding what are possible causes and how to deal with them is helpful in solving problems easily. Of course, although problems exist, the fiber optic cables themselves chosen for project should be of high quality. As a professional fiber patch cord manufacturer, Fiberstore supplies many fiber cable types for various applications, test-assured and cost-effective, like SC SC fiber cable. A good place for your cable choice.
