In today’s era, we are more closely connected than ever before. We look forward to it. In the workplace, we participate in virtual training on the latest technology, and we can have real-time meetings with colleagues from all over the world with the click of a button.
When we get off work, we use app-based scooters and bicycles to go home, just swiping them with our mobile phones. If you take the highway home, you no longer find change at the toll gate, but pass through a toll lane, and when you drive under it, it scans your account and charges a fee.
And it will not stop at home. We reply to emails, play ultra-high-definition videos on our smart TVs, and download the latest superhero movies on our tablets to watch on our upcoming business trips.
As the demand for bandwidth continues to grow, today’s expectations need to be met; the way we design, install, and maintain fiber optic networks must meet the same needs. In particular, the methods used to connect fiber optic network terminals have undergone tremendous changes in the past 20 years; starting with manual polishing of ferrules with film and epoxy resin to reach the final terminal. Manual epoxy polishing gives you a good, epoxy cured connection, but can be time-consuming, and it requires a certain skill set to achieve good snap ring polishing.
Epoxy resin termination leads to mechanical termination, which uses specific hand tools, v-groove alignment, and index matching gel to mechanically fit the fibers to bridge the air gap between the fibers. The advantage of using factory-polished ferrules and mechanical terminals is that it saves time for traditional manual polishing and even allows some up-to-date technicians to install high-quality connectors on site. With the improvement of optical fusion splicers and splicing technology, technicians can now splice a pigtail (the length of the cable factory termination) to a newly pulled field cable or an old cable that needs to be repaired.
However, more important than any ease of use is the performance of termination. In order to enjoy some of the luxurious connections mentioned earlier, we need a stronger optical signal that is farther and farther than before. Insertion loss (IL) is the measured value of optical power loss after a pair of pairs, in decibels (dB). In order to compare the performance of the three main terminal modes, manual epoxy resin is usually in the range of 0.20 dB-0.75 dB depending on the installer.
The typical mechanical terminal IL is 0.50dB, and the loss comes from the air gap of the paired pair and the alignment of the fiber stub and the field fiber. Fusion splicing braids or connectors will give you the lowest light loss through the terminal. The average fusion splicing terminal IL is a loss of 0.02 dB-0.05 dB, a typical 20 dB IL from your terminal. By fusing and splicing a connector in your network, your signal will perform better from source to a receiver.
Another important factor in terminating an agreement is how much light it reflects. You don’t want to terminate the agreement to be reflective. Reflectance is measured by how much light (dB) returns to the link. The lower the number (the farthest from 0), the better. The sheath of the terminal is the main factor of reflectivity, which is divided into three main stages: physical contact (PC), super physical contact (UPC), and angular physical contact (APC). APC polishing is usually -65dB or better, UPC polishing is usually -40dB, and PC polishing usually has a reflectivity of -30dB. Remember, the lower the value, the less the amount of reflection, so an APC of -65dB is a very good performance for optical terminals because it returns the least amount of light at each terminal.
Hand-polishing connectors do depend on skills, an experienced technician will be able to give you the best results, but it can still be an imperfect science. Mechanical connectors allow anyone to use specific tools and simple termination procedures to install the connector, but due to the reflectivity of the matching gel and the matching of the ferrule, you will reach the -40dB quoted above. By splicing the factory-terminated pigtail fiber to the field fiber, due to the low reflection splicing technology, the maximum performance of sleeve polishing can be achieved.
The -65dB return loss on the APC terminal is possible because a typical core-aligned fusion splicing is actually considered a non-reflective event. As the optical fiber is getting closer and closer to the home, 400gB of data can be transmitted through the optical fiber in the laboratory environment, and we cannot bear the light that the past network allowed us to return.
With fusion splicing becoming the end method of performance choice, it is now about installation and how we can make it easier. Although pigtail pipe joints are practical, they may be troublesome due to cable management and may require more rack space for management. You prepare your field fibers, you prepare your braids, you stitch them together and manage the slack, and you have a high-performance terminal.
Due to cost, space, and time savings, the industry is currently viewing Splice on Connectors as a popular terminal choice, rather than a traditional braid. Now you can use a factory-terminated connector to splice your trunk cable at the end so that cable preparation saves time, there is no extra space to save the length of traditional braids, or you can connect an insertion loss as low as 20dB, and a The minimum return loss is as low as -65 decibels. It can be said that splicing on the connector is the termination method with the lowest cost, the easiest installation, and the best performance.
