Product category:
Power supplies and plant cabling
News Release from: Exfo | Subject: FiberFinder
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 20 September 2006
FiberFinder identifies live and dark
optical fibre
The Exfo LFD-300 Live Fibre Detector and TG-300 Tone Generator are the only products on the market that can locate end-to-end segments of a specific live optical fibre section
Exfo Electro-Optical Engineering has launched the LFD-300/TG-300 FiberFinder for the efficient and safe management of live and dark optical fibres When carrying out a network upgrade or characterising an optical network, field technicians must first isolate the specific live fibre segment in patch panels or central offices that often contain high fibre counts
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 16 Nov 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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Pinpointing the right end-to-end connection can be a tricky proposition due to faulty labeling, poor record keeping, or large numbers of fibres and connectors.
Disconnecting the wrong fibre, for example, can cause significant network downtime, which could cost up to US$160,000 per hour for a 16-channel wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) system, while impacting thousands of customers.
The Exfo patented FiberFinder technology, including both the LFD-300 Live Fibre Detector and the TG-300 Tone Generator, represents an industry first by taking out the guesswork in fibre identification.
Installed at the transmitter site, the TG-300, a non-intrusive clip-on device, adds a 0.1dB signature to the live signal by applying a soft low-frequency modulation pressure to the fibre.
If it's a live fibre, the signature will be detected by the LFD-300 at the other end in a matter of seconds, thus taking away the risk of disconnecting the wrong fibre.
"The introduction of our FiberFinder technology eliminates guesswork for field technicians who are often under time constraints to disconnect a particular fibre," said Etienne Gagnon, Exfo Vice-President of Optical and Protocol Product Management: "Not only does this remove any possibility of costly network downtime, but it has little or no effect on a link's loss budget.
This advantage is particularly important for large central offices and FTTx applications where the number of fibres at any given point is high and rapidly increasing.
Disconnecting the wrong fibre is one of the most common causes of system outages but, once again, Exfo has come up with a highly innovative solution to help customers deliver the most advanced and trouble-free network services".
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