Fiber Construction

Fiber Construction at the Speed of Light

Heavy equipment digging miles-long trenches while simultaneously dropping endless spools of fiber conduit into position reminds us of an undeniable fact: fiber construction has changed. While the basic machinery, materials, and skill sets needed to deploy long-range underground or aerial fiber runs have remained constant, increased demand for bandwidth and speed have placed heightened importance on fiber construction speed, execution, and testing – and getting it right the first time.

With customers in their homes and businesses depending on these vital arteries so that FTTx drops can be installed with confidence and services can be activated, margins for error are slim and time allocated for fiber rework can be non-existent. Fiber testing during construction ensures all links are installed correctly, required standards and specifications are met, and rework and troubleshooting are minimized.

As fiber construction teams employ the latest technology and practices to meet the unprecedented demand for new fiber networks, fiber testing remains the key to efficient and reliable performance throughout the network lifecycle. Backed by an unmatched heritage of technical proficiency and collaboration that spans nearly 100 years, VIAVI has established the industry's premier suite of fiber testing solutions. 

Fiber Construction Solutions from VIAVI  

Advanced fiber testing tools expedite deployment, activation, and maintenance while cutting edge OTDR devices support the uninterrupted integrity of sensitive fiber optic networks. Collectively, these tools provide the means to deploy and sustain fiber optic networks and keep them performing optimally.  

• Fiber Inspection: Contaminated fiber ends and connections are leading causes of network degradation and can be time-consuming and expensive to correct after deployment. VIAVI provides a selection of handheld, automated fiber inspection tools to expedite the fiber end face inspection process and effortlessly export test results using built-in WiFi or USB connectivity. Automated PASS/FAIL analysis helps techs to get the job done quickly and correctly every time. 

• Fiber Certification: VIAVI offers a fully integrated portfolio of cloud-enabled fiber test instruments. Portable, multi-purpose fiber optic testers ensure correct polarity and fiber integrity. Optical power meters verify insertion loss (IL) and optical return loss (ORL) are within specified budgets and bit error rates (BER) are minimized.  
• Bidirectional OTDR: VIAVI offers industry-leading rack-mounted and handheld optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) solutions to identify the position and cause of any breaks, bends, connector defects, or excessive insertion loss (IL) events. Unidirectional OTDR test results are used to assess overall link and splice quality. 
  Highly accurate optical return loss (ORL) measurement can be obtained through bidirectional OTDR testing. Bidirectional OTDR pinpoints the position and cause of loss events while minimizing erroneous results that can occur when splices are only tested in one direction. 

• Test Process Automation: To improve fiber construction efficiency, the fiber test process should compare plan to actual as-built network inventory and performance characteristics, including distance, optical budget, and attenuation from end-to-end and at each connector or splice.

  VIAVI test process automation (TPA) is the key to establishing automated workflows for fiber inspection, testing, and certification to accelerate test and reporting cycles, reduce training requirements, and improve alignment between teams.