Premises Cabling

By contrast, premises cabling- cabling installed in a building or campus - involves shorter lengths, rarely longer than a few hundred feet, typically with fewer fibers per cable. The fiber is mostly multimode, except for the enlightened user who installs hybrid cable with both multimode and singlemode fibers for future high bandwidth applications.

Splicing is practically unknown in premises applications. Cables between buildings can be bought with double jackets, PE for outside plant protection over PVC for building applications requiring flame retardant cable jackets, so cables can be run continuously between buildings. Today's connectors often have lower loss than splices, and patch panels give more flexibility for moves, adds and changes.

Most connectors are SC or ST style with LCs becoming more popular. Termination is by installing connectors directly on the ends of the fibers, primarily using adhesive or sometimes prepolished splice techniques. Testing is done by a source and meter, but every installer should have a flashlight type tracer to check fiber continuity and connection.

Unlike the outside plant technician, the premises cable installer (who is often also installing the power cable and Cat 5/6 for LANs too!) probably has an investment of less than $2,000 in tools and test equipment.

There are thousands of cabling installers who do fiber optic work. They've found out it isn't "rocket science," and their small initial investment in training, tools and test equipment is rapidly paid back.

November 30, 2011

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