Whether you are an experienced technician or a fiber optic novice, training can benefit all levels of technicians. There are many different aspects of training that can help fiber optic technicians master the ever-changing technology, obtain the credits required for certification, or train people who don’t know anything about fiber optic technology.
In the fiber optic world, training is an important part of learning the changes that have occurred over the years, and even learning new technologies that are emerging, so you can stay ahead of the game. In the world of fiber optics, if you do not learn new methods and keep up with the pace of new technologies, then you have not pushed yourself or your company to where you should be. Let us discuss the different reasons why training is good for you, not only through training but also to ensure that you have the right training to meet your needs.
1. BICSI certification
BICSI is the abbreviation of Construction Industry Consulting Services International. It is an organization that helps support education, is a source of information, and a respected leader in knowledge assessment for people in the information and communication technology (ICT) community. One of the reasons why people should participate in regular training and the actual need to participate in regular training is that it is well known that BICSI certification and the continuing education provisions of certified technicians require a certain number of BICSI annual continuing education credits for them to obtain certification.
One of BICSI’s main certifications is the RCDD (Registered Communication Distribution Designer) certification. To quote the BICSI website: “Those who have received the RCDD title have demonstrated their knowledge in the creation, planning, integration, execution and/or detailed project management of telecommunications and data communication technologies.” In addition to this certification, you will also see that BICSI provides external plant designers (OSP), data center design consultants (DCDC), and several other certifications to assist in the fields of communication and information technology.
Some courses have BICSI credits added, which will help ensure that BICSI-certified fiber optic technicians can keep their status registered and active. The BICSI credits obtained for participating in the training course depending on the type of training and the depth of the topics covered by the training. BICSI has several different levels of certification. Each level of certification has its own requirements to follow. For more information about BICSI, please visit their website www.bicsi.org.
2. Improve technology
Training is not only good for improving yourself; it will also help you keep up with the constantly changing and improving technologies in the information technology and communications fields. In fiber optics, one thing that people are trying to improve is the bandwidth that is transmitted through the fiber each time. We see it from 10 megabits to 100 megabits, and then 1 gigabit. Now we see the speed is as fast as 10g.
There are 40g, 100g, and even 400g transmissions at work. All these changes will bring new methods of running optical fibers and different technologies, allowing us to achieve higher bandwidth and faster speeds. One way of this change is the introduction of OM5 multimode fiber. It is called broadband multimode fiber and allows the fiber to increase the support of higher bandwidth by four times. This means that this type of fiber allows you to run four different wavelengths on multimode fiber.
Before the introduction of OM5 broadband multimode fiber to achieve higher bandwidth, you must run four different pairs of fibers, a total of 8 individual fibers, four of the fibers are used to transmit signals, and the other four fibers receive signals from another. direction. So now the optical fiber has a wider wavelength range, usually from 850nm to 953nm, and 1300nm. In the past, the multimode fiber used a shorter wavelength span and could run on the fiber effectively. When looking at the new technology of optical fiber, you will often figure out how to accommodate more bandwidth on a single optical fiber, or try to have a higher density in a smaller space. Because of providing higher density in a smaller space, LC connectors are being widely used.
3. New fiber
Generally speaking, an obvious need for training is when you have to hire new employees because of company expansion or replacement of retired employees. Although you will try to find an experienced fiber optic technician, there is not always an employee with the required experience. Therefore, you must hire new people in the industry.
These new fiber optic technicians must be properly trained through courses and practical work experience. There are several different types of courses that will help you easily enter the world of fiber. There is some basic knowledge in the course, introducing the concept of optical fiber and how the concept of using light on optical fiber (glass) started. There are also some expert courses covering topics such as optical fiber characterization. When a new employee enters the job and gains some knowledge, the level of training experience needs to be improved as needed.
4. Different levels of training
There are many different types of fiber training. You have basic classes and specific classes that go deep into individual topics. The basic course will learn the concept of light spreading on glass. Other topics may include the history of fiber optics, as well as mining a wide range of knowledge, such as different cable jacket grades and the difference between single-mode and multi-mode fibers.
Expert-level training may be about the fiber characteristics of the fiber link and the content required to certify the fiberlink. The two most popular training topics are related to fiber splicing and how to use optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR) and fiber testing. These training are very popular because they are two key activities for installing and maintaining fiber optic networks. If you can use fusion splicers and OTDRs in this industry, it can open up a wide range of career paths, and you can work anywhere in the world because fiber optics are indeed all over the world.
