Tag Archives: Fibre Adapter Panel

Secrets of Choosing Fibre Rack Mount Enclosure

Fibre rack mount enclosures can provide a high-density solution for inter-connects or cross-connects between backbone horizontal cable and active equipment. Enclosures allow for easy field termination of connectors or installation of pre-terminated solutions, and are ideal for high-density fibre applications in data centres, equipment rooms, and central offices. Fibre rack mount enclosures come in different configurations. You may find fibre enclosures in the market with different sizes, slide-out or lid type, fixed front panel or removable front panel, splice tray or preterminated. Among so many types, you have to choose one that suits your application the most. So how to make the right decision? The following will tell you the method.

Which Size of Rack Mount Enclosure?

The rack mount units are designed for rack mounting in 19-in (48 cm) racks. They are available in rack space options of 1U (two panels, cassettes or modules), 2U (four panels, cassettes or modules), 3U (six panels, cassettes or modules) and 4U (twelve panels, cassettes or modules), etc.(See the following picture.) You should choose the most proper one depending on the space and port requirement of your project.

rack-sizes-rack-units

Slide-out Type or Lid Type?

The rack mount enclosures include two kinds. One is the slide-out type, and the other incorporates a removable lid. The slide out type is more expensive while the lid type is less expensive but requires the user to remove the whole enclosure from the rack to gain internal access. If your budget is sufficient, I will recommend you to use the slide-out type. Then you may get more benefits during installation and maintenance, as they respectively feature a convenient slide-out support tray and a integrated swing-out tray so that you don’t need to remove the whole enclosure from the rack to gain internal access.

Fixed Front Panels or Removable Front Panels?

As we know, fibre optic adapters are the key part of an enclosure to accept the various fibre optic connectors. Thus, to choose a proper front panel option is also important. For general rack mount enclosures, there are mainly two types—one type uses fixed 1U High 19” front panel, and the other type incorporates three, or even up to five removable front panels. The latter is now becoming more popular with users, because a plug & play fibre adapter panel solution assures flexibility and ease of network deployment and MAC (moves, adds, and changes).

Splice or Pre-terminated?

Pigtail splicing and pre-terminated assemblies are the two basic way to do fibre termination. Depending on which method you choose, there are some differences in the rack mount enclosure selection. For pigtail splicing, you may need a rack mount panel with fibre splice tray, which are used for efficient management and storage of the spliced optical fibres. Splice tray is used for efficient management and storage of the spliced fibre optic cables. Fibre optic adapters are installed into the cut outs in the enclosure to accept the various fibre optic connectors. Fibre optic pigtails mate with the adapters and the fusion-spliced tails are stored on the splice tray.

But if you apply pre-terminated assemblies, the inner configuration of the rack mount panel is only the spools that are used to organize the cables. Obviously, the pre-terminated solution will help you save more installed time and labor cost.

Conclusion

In this article, you are advised to select the best fibre rack mount enclosure suitable for your own application from so many types. FS.COM offers a wide range of rack mount enclosures, which is good for interconnect and cross-connect in building your data centres. It’s ideal for the organization and protection of optic backbone terminations. Any service need, please contact us via sales@fs.com or call 24/7 Customer Service: 1 (718) 577 1006.

Purchase Fibre Adapter Panels

Because the laser light is dangerous, and the ends of every fibre optic cable (have a small core) must be encased in some kind of enclosure. So, the fibre enclosure not only protects humans from laser light but also protects the fibre from damage. Fibre wall plates and fibre patch panels are two main types of fibre optic enclosures.

As previously mentioned, fibre optic cables have a very small core that can be easily damaged if not protected properly. Also, to be consistent with the minimum size of a fibre optic loop and not violate the critical angle, we need to have a way to keep excess fibre optic patch cables, as well as terminated building fibre, neat and protected from damage. Fibre optic wall plates and patch panels allow the cable installer to protect the delicate fibre cable from damage, while still making it usable for the network administrator.

Overview of Fibre Enclosure

A common device that is used as a fibre optic cable enclosure is called a Lightguide Interconnection Unit(LIU), as showed in Figure 1. The LIU provides a location to terminate individual fibre optic strands into a patch panel, which will be discussed in the next article. A LIU is generally made of galvanized steel that is then powder-coated to provide durability. Most major LIU manufacturers make their devices 19 inches wide so they can be installed in a normal communications rack, If the LIU is to be located in an environment where there is a risk of moisture or corrosives, the LIU can be sealed with gaskets to make it virtually waterproof. Most LIUs have swing out trays in the front and the back to provide easy access to the patch panel to ensure that all loops are a minimum diameter, so the cable will not get damaged and maximum light can traverse the cable.

LIU500x500

Figure 1. Lightguide Interconnection Unit(LIU)

What Is Fibre Adapter Panel (FAP) and How to Use It?

Patch panels for fibre optic cables also called fibre patch panels, which are usually installed into the LIU. Because the core and cladding of two fibre optic cables that are to be joined together must match perfectly, the fibre patch panel must be manufactured to exact specifications and some standard type connector must be used to ensure a good fit. (fibre option connectors are discussed in the next section.) Another fibre patch panel issue deals with attenuation. Remember from the previous article discussed that when you splice or join a fibre optic cable, you can introduce additional light loss or attenuation. The same holds true for the fibre optic patch panel. The connectors on the patch panel should identify the total loss at various wavelengths, and these losses should be added to any other cable loss on that particular cable to ensure compliance with the standard and good operation of the fibre optic cable. Figure 2 is an LC adapter panel.

lc fiber adapter panel

Figure 2. LC fibre adapter panel

Fibre Adapter Panel (FAP) is used for patching a fibre cable to the enclosures like fibre wall cabinets, rack mounts fibre cabinets or rack mount fibre shelf. It allows you to make quick and easy fibre patch panel connections as they can snap into the fibre optic enclosures easily. Fibre adapter panel is designed to fit fibre optic blank patch panel, rack and wall mount enclosure. To purchase this kind of fibre adapter panel, please visit www.fs.com.

The Conventional Fibre Adapter Plates Need to Improve

Optical fibre has been used as a medium for telecommunication as well as networking because it’s flexible enough and could be bundled as cables. Optical fibre has been especially advantageous for long-distance communications because light propagates through the fibre with little attenuation compared to electrical signals carried by conventional wire cables. Over short distances, for instance networking within a building, optical fibre interconnect cables save space in cable ducts because a single fibre can carry more data than a single electrical cable.

Interconnect cables are generally used as intra-equipment jumpers or patch cords. For example, some typical applications include patching active electronics to nearby patch panels, cable cross-connection on distribution frames, and connecting work area outlets to terminal equipment. Fibre optic patch cords comprise a length of cable with a plug or connector on one, or both ends, and can also be referred to as connectorized fibre optic cables. A patch panel typically comprises a connecting hardware system (e.g., racks, adapter plates, arrays of adapters, etc.) that facilitates cable termination and cabling administration via the use and administration of standard-conforming adapters. (The following figure is a 12 port fibre patch panel)

12 port fiber patch panel

Various fibre optic cable connector and adapter designs can be used to meet the requirements of corresponding Fibre Optic Connector Intermateability Standard (FOCIS) documents. Note that the term adapter, when used in reference with optical fibre, has been defined by the optical fibre industry and standards organizations as a mechanical termination device designed to align and join two like optical connectors.

In some designs, fibre adapter plates provide the means to support and align the interconnection of connectorized fibre optic cables in structured voice or data cabling networks. Conventionally, fibre adapter plates use a metal or plastic plate or support panel having a number of cutouts to accept discrete fibre optic adapters which are typically linked to the adapter plate by screws or clips. Therefore, these adapter plates use a removable attaching mechanism (e.g., screws, clips, latches, etc.) to attach the adapter plate to an enclosure or patch panel.

However, such conventional adapter plates suffer from drawbacks due to the assembly of so many discrete parts. For example, alignment of the connecting optical fibres is crucial to minimize loss across the adapter. While internal fibre optical interface details (e.g., alignment, cable separation, etc.) are specified by rigid standards, the adapter to adapter plate connection is more springy. As a result, excessive tolerances can result in additional mechanical play between the adapter and the adapter plate which can, sometimes, to enable excessive stresses and bend radii of the connecting fibre optic cables.

As a further example, such conventional assemblies by their nature require costly assembly steps. As a cost saving measure, some of the assembly steps can be passed on to the end user. However, this can lead to increasing set up time, having costs of its own, and can result in end user frustration. Furthermore, conventional adapter plate panels are often unlabeled or stamped with labels that are hard for the end user to ascertain, specially when the adapter plate is fully outfitted with adapters and cabling.

It is thus desired to provide fibre adapter plates that improve upon these and other deficiencies of conventional fibre adapter plates.

Fibre adapter panels provided By FS, loaded with LC, SC, ST, FC, MT-RJ, MPO and unloaded blanks. With products compatible for trusted brands including Black Box, Wirewerks, Mr-technologies, Corning, Leviton, Panduit Opticom adapter panel and more.