I am in the market for a simple fiber tester. I have about 80 pairs running through my complex and we are running into some possible issues with some of the really old ones. The pen light to confirm that it's the right strand is going to require a little bit more insight to determine if there is an issue with fiber in conduit or patch.
I don't need something super fancy, just need something that gives a good, bad or "holy crap is that concrete you are testing on" for starters. I am also shooting for about $150-250 tops.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Blake
The keyword is Optical Power Meter. There are some all-in-one meters
and some simpler meters, it depends on exactly what sort of fiber
you're testing and so forth.
The more advanced tool is an Optical Time-Domain Reflectometer, which
can tell you where the splices, breaks, and their locations are, but
they are considerably more expensive and that's not what you're
looking for from the sound of it.
To follow up, all of this fiber is mm and all light is sx to sfp. Currently all 1gbit, but it will be repulled as 10gbit capable soon... I guess I'm going to have to be a little less cheap and shoot for something under $1000. I had an off list suggestion of the below listed fluke. Any other suggestions or reccomendations?
http://www.flukenetworks.com/datacom-cabling/fiber-testing/SimpliFiber-Pro-Optical-Power-Meter-and-Fiber-Test-Kits
Thanks,
Blake
(snip)
$1000
You might get a JDSU OLP meter for that sort of money...
I've used one of theirs (and a matching source) for buzzing out links at work. Simple enough to use, and can withstand my colleague dropping it off the top of a rack.
Fluke makes good stuff.
What flavor of multimode fiber are you dealing with? The answer and the distance you can run becomes substantially more important at 10G.
Hopefully you're at least dealing with OM3. OM1/OM2 imposes distance limitations and you'll likely need mode-conditioning jumpers to work at 10G.
jms
* blake.mailinglist@pfankuch.me (Blake Pfankuch - Mailing List) [Thu 26 Sep 2013, 05:28 CEST]:
To follow up, all of this fiber is mm and all light is sx to sfp. Currently all 1gbit, but it will be repulled as 10gbit capable soon... I guess I'm going to have to be a little less cheap and shoot for something under $1000.
I'm not aware of testers in your price range that will tell you "This fiber will/will not work for 10GbE" but can second the recommendation for an OTDR, especially if you have metro fibers.
If you're repulling (I'm unfamiliar with the word but assume you mean taking out current infrastructure and putting in new fiber through existing ducts), why not go singlemode? That will save you so much headaches with 10G, and SFP optics are only slightly more expensive.
-- Niels.
Welp. Not my duplicate (Received: headers show it happened inside
the nanog mailing list server). Already asked them to investigate.
-- Niels.
If you're looking for cheap then go for a RY3200C, it retails for around $140.
Kate
How about using the built-in Digital Optcis Monitoring (DOM/DDM) in
modern SFPs? Assuming your switches/routers and SFPs support it, you
can read the received power level right from your switches/routers.
The cost might be zero if you already have capabile equipment...
Combine that with a flashlight for identifying strands, and it might
be all you need...
I would also suggest you use a ferrule cleaner every single time you touch
an end
http://www.fiberoptics4sale.com/p/Fiber_Optic_Connector_Reel_Cleaners/SFM25
0.html
Carlos Alcantar
Race Communications / Race Team Member
1325 Howard Ave. #604, Burlingame, CA. 94010
Phone: +1 415 376 3314 / carlos@race.com / http://www.race.com
Excellent point. We have some over-a-decade old 62.5u MM that is
useless for 10G (practically useless at 1G). It was fine at the time
for 10Mb 10FL, but is now deprecated into oblivion.
New runs are SM between buildings, and 50u OM3/OM4 inside.
Another surprise that can vary by vendor... but "retail" Cisco LRM is
cheaper than their SR, and is made for MM fiber (granted, OM3/OM4 ideally).
Jeff