Five Steps to Consider When Designing A Fiber Optic Network

Designing fiber optic network is a specialized process for a successful installation and operation of a fiber optic network. It requires working with higher level network engineers usually from IT departments and cable plant designers as well as contractors involved with building the project. Actually, the fiber optic network design involves many complicated steps, such as determining the type of communication system, considering requirements, making actual component selection, testing, troubleshooting and network equipment installation and start-up, etc. Generally there are five basic steps to consider when designing a fiber optic network. The following article will introduce them one by one.

Step One: Select Optic Fibers

When deciding which type of optic fibers you need, you should take the range of the link into consideration. Most fiber optic products offer several versions that cover different ranges. Usually, short links use multimode fibers and LED sources, while long links use single-mode fibers and lasers. Alternately, if you already have fiber optic cable plant installed, select a product that will operate over your fiber optic cable plant, considering both fiber type and distance.

Step Two: Select Fiber Optic Cables

The working environment of the fiber optic cable plant affects the selection of fiber optic cables. Whether your application is in office environment, on factory floor, above ceiling or in the outdoor, the fiber optic cable must be appropriate for the application. For example, loose tube armored cables can provide superior performance in outside plant applications such as ducts, conduit and aerial lashed. So they are ideal for use in telecommunications, data trunk, and long haul networking. While tight buffered distribution cables are water-blocked, UL rated and ready for indoor/outdoor use. So they are recommended for applications such as campus backbones, inter building installations, data centers and ducts between buildings.

Step Three: Choose Fiber Optic Connectors 

As fiber optic cables need terminations to interface with other fiber optic equipment, connectors or patch cords compatible with the other fiber optic equipment will be needed. Actually, there are various types of fiber optic connectors and the connector type on both ends of a fiber optic patch cable can be the same or different, such as SC to SC fiber cable, or ST to LC patch cable, etc. Besides, fiber optic connectors have several termination methods, some using adhesives and polishing, some using splicing, which have tradeoffs in performance. Before making your choice, you’d better discuss connectors with both manufacturers and installers.

Step Four: Plan Ahead on Splicing Requirements

Generally, long lengths of cables may need to be spliced, as fiber optic cables are rarely made in lengths longer than several kilometers due to weight and pulling friction considerations. If fibers need splicing, you should determine how to splice the fibers, either fusion or mechanical, and what kind of hardware like splice closures are appropriate for the application.

Step Five: Calculate Link Loss

Once the basic design of the network is done, the next step is to do a “Link Loss Budget”. Loss budget analysis is the verification of a fiber optic system’s operating characteristics. This encompasses factors such as routing, circuit length, fiber type, number of connectors and splices, wavelengths of operation and communications optoelectronics specifications. You can compare the link loss to the link margin for the communications products you have chosen.

Conclusion

Fiber optic technology has revolutionized worldwide communications by increasing bandwidth and distance requirements in carrier and enterprise fiber optic networks. With the improvement of technology, the fiber optic network design continues to find a home in mobile backhaul, cloud services, data center, and other high-speed network applications. Proper design of fiber optic network will not only lead to highly reliable systems, but also save money. These five basic steps may guide you when you are designing your fiber optic system.