So you have had your fibre optic backbone links working well for several years. Then suddenly the network is going slow, dropouts are occurring and staff are complaining.
You suspect that either a switch is misbehaving or that the Fibre infrastructure has a problem.
After the usual “turn it off, wait a minute and turn it back on” hasn’t worked, it’s time to seek out a professional to test the optical fibre.
Choose the wrong company and it will cost you. Many say they test fibre but do they fault find correctly?
Recently we were called to a North Sydney business that had such an issue. Two techs had been onsite for 6 hours. They finally determined that the fibre link to one part of the building was “failing” and the testing company recommended that new fibre be installed.
They also suggested “upgrading” to Singlemode OS2, when the rest of the network was OM3. A quote was received for thousands of dollars to “fix” the problem.
Luckily we were called in for a comparative quote. I immediately asked for the test results – none has been issued to the client.
What part of the fibre was failing? Did it need a complete re-cable or were the fibre terminations only at fault? Was there some other issue like bend radius or vermin?
And why on earth would a company recommend Singlemode OS2 when it is incompatible when through patching onto OM3?
An Elam tech completed the fault finding in less than an hour. It was discovered that the original terminations on one end of the affected cable were failing – exceeding the Db loss across the mated connector.
Early one morning the fibre end is terminated correctly and the client now reports that the network is back up to speed.
So it’s about being able to correctly identify where, and what the fault is.
So for a speedy resolution to a suspect fibre optic cable issue, please call us on 02 98092999
