Troubleshooting Fibre Cable Issues

Being a network professional, one may face innumberable issues related to Fibre Connections. Let us discuss these issues and the ways of troubleshooting the following subsection.

 Attenuation

Fibre optic may have some loss of signal strength from one end of the connection to the other due to imperfections in the structure of the glass Fibre and in the smoothness of the core.

This can be tested using an optical source and optical power meter.

Distance Limitations

Attenuation affects the maximum length of a Fibre optic connection. Greater distances can be achieved using active repeaters.

Wavelength Mismatch

Various transceivers work on different wavelengths. One can check documentation for ensuring that the interfaces used are compatible.

Bad Fibre Cable

It may happen that the cable is broken. If break is identified, locate the location of the break using an Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR). This device sends light down the cable and tells the time for any reflections to bounce back from the break.