The Secret Of Successful Fiber Optic Cable Management

Why is proper fiber optic cable management somaintaining proper bend radius protection. The
critical?system should be designed to ensure that individual
Service providers have deployed more and morefibers can be installed or removed without inducing a
fiber optic cables for their high bandwidth, low costs,macrobend on an adjacent fiber. Accessibility is critical
greater reliability and flexibility. But just deploying isduring network reconfiguration.
not enough; a successful fiber network also requires4. Physical protection of installed optical fibers
a solid infrastructure based on a professional fiberWell defined fiber optic cable management system
optic cable management system.physically protects the fibers from accidental damage
Fiber optic cable management affects a network'sby technicians and equipment throughout the
reliability, performance, cost and maintenance. Itnetwork.
provides the ability to reconfigure network, restoreFiber optic cable management system procurement
service and implement new services quickly.When making the decision on purchasing your fiber
Four goals to achieve with professional fiber opticoptic cable management systems, the goal is getting
cable managementthe most cost-effective system that provides the
1. Protect fiber optic cable from microbends andbest cable management, flexibility, and growth
macrobends losscapabilities.
Microbends are small deformities in the optical fiberGoing with the cheapest approaches for fiber optic
and macrobends are larger bends of the fiber cable.cable management can cost more money in the long
Fiber bends beyond the specified minimum bendingrun. A strong fiber cable management system will
radius can cause signal loss or even break the fiber,enable you to extract the maximum value from your
causing service disruption.installed optical fiber networks.
As a rule of thumb, the minimum bending radiusSpecifying Fiber Cable Management Systems: Cost
should be bigger than ten times the outer diameterand Value
of the fiber cable. Telcordia recommends a minimumAs a means of keeping operational costs down,
38mm bending radius for 3mm fiber optic patchservice providers around the world are increasingly
cords.turning to systems integrators to install their
Fiber optic cable management system should providenetworks.
bend radius protection at all points where a fiberThis practice allows the service provider's technicians
optic cable makes a bend. This helps ensure theto focus on operations and maintenance, rather than
network's long-term reliability; thus reduces thenetwork installation. There is, however, an inherent
network operation cost by reducing network downrisk in this practice.
time.As the purchasing decision for the fiber cable
2. Well defined fiber optic cable management routingmanagement system moves from the service
pathsprovider's engineering group to the systems
The leading cause of fiber optic cable minimum bendintegration prime contractor, the cable management
radius violation is improper routing of fibers by fiberfeatures of the distribution system are generally not
installation technicians.specified.
In a proper fiber cable management system, routingWhat can happen, then, is the equipment installed
paths are clearly defined and easy to follow; suchmay lack key features and functionalities. In light of
that the technician has no other option but to routethe importance of proper cable management within
the cables properly.the ODF, the service provider needs to specify the
Well defined routing paths reduce the training timebasic requirements for the cable management
required for technicians and increase the uniformity ofsystem.
work done. It also makes accessing individual fibersThere are several industry-standard specifications
easier, quicker and safer.that can assist service providers in writing
3. Easy access to installed optical fibersspecifications for their cable management systems.
Allowing easy access to installed fibers is critical in