Latest FOA Book - Fiber Broadband
New Fiber U MiniCourse - Project Management
Beyond IIJA/BEAD - Market Saturation?
Can Wireless Compete With Fiber - And Why?
Satellites As A Wireless Alternative
Understanding Apprenticeships
Myth of "Standardize It And They Will Come"
Workforce Development Requires Cooperation
More Translations Of FOA Textbooks
Cross Reference To FOA Tech Materials
Newsletter Sections
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on any link to jump to that section
News FOA School News
Senate Bill Promotes Electric Grid Broadband
New ILSR Initiatives For Local Broadband
Detroit Starting Program in Underserved Area
Orange France Chooses Passive Optical LAN
NDIA Grants To Rural And Tribal Areas FOA School in KY Needs Help After Floods
Using Spider Silk As Optical FIber Sensor
Google Fiber Is Back!
Starlink And WIreless Provider Lose Funding
Fiber Optic Cable Shortage Threatens Projects
Technical Managing Projects - Gantt Charts
Guidelines For Patch Panels
SOC or Short Pigtail
100G On One Fiber With PAM4
FOA Color Code Guides FOA Online Loss Budget Calculator
Where
Are The Jobs In Fiber Optics? FOA talks about
all the applications for fiber optics, what jobs
involve and the qualifications for the workers in
the field in this YouTube video.
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Trademarks:
The FOA CFOT® (Certified Fiber Optic Technician) and
Fiber U® (the FOA online learning site) are
registered trademarks of the FOA.
Want to know more about fiber optics?
Looking for specific information? Here's the largest
technical reference on the web: The
FOA Online Fiber Optic Reference Guide.
Free online self-study programs
on many fiber optics and cabling topics are
available at Fiber U,
FOA's online web-based training website. FOA
Reference Books
Available Printed or eBooks The fiber book is
available in Spanish and French
Lennie
and Uncle Ted's
Guides are now also available as free iBooks on
iTunes. Click on any of
the books to learn more.
To
keep your FOA certifications active, you need to
renew them when they expire. Now we have a new more
convenient way to renew - an online store at Paypal
- where you can quickly and conveniently use your
PayPal account or your credit card to renew your
certifications.
In less than half a century,
fiber optics has revolutionized communications and to a large extent,
society in general. Broadband, what many today call high speed Internet
access, has become a necessity for everyone, not a luxury. The
technology that makes broadband possible is fiber optics, connecting the
continents, cities, and just about everybody. Even fiber to the home
(FTTH) brings broadband to hundreds of millions worldwide.
How did we get from an era when communications was making a telephone
call or sending a telegram to today’s world where every piece of
information – and misinformation – is available at the click of a mouse
or touch on a screen? How did we get from a time when a phone was
connected on copper wires to being able to connect practically anywhere
on a handheld device with more computing power than was available to
scientists and engineers only decades ago?
How does broadband work? Without fiber optics it would not work.
This book is not the typical FOA technical textbook - it is written for
anyone who wants to understand fiber broadband or fiber optics or the
Internet. It's also aimed at STEM teachers wh want to include
communications technology in their classes. This book will try to
explain not only how fiber broadband works, but how
it was developed. It is intended to be an introduction to
communications technology
appropriate for a communications course at almost any level (junior
high, high school or
college,) for managers involved with broadband projects, or for anyone
who just wonders how all this stuff works.
Paperback available from Amazon or most booksellers. Kindle version coming soon.
Nobody knows more about fiber broadband than the Fiber Optic
Association. If you are working on an IIJA/BEAD program contact us for a
special package of educational materials for your staff.
New Fiber U MiniCourse - Fiber Optic Project Management
Managing
a fiber optic project can be the easiest part of the installation if
the design and planning have been done thoroughly and properly, or, if
not, it can be the the hardest. It's certainly important to understand
what managing a project entails.
This new Fiber U MiniCourse starts by defining a fiber optic project
then explains what's involved in managing it from concept to operation.
As usual with Fiber U online learning courses, the course is free and like the Fiber U FTTH course, the Fiber U Certificate of Completion is free also.
With so many new fiber optic projects starting up and so
many new managers, FOA decided this MiniCourse should also offer the
Fiber U Certificate of Completion free.
Can Wireless Really Compete With Fiber? Should It? Who Cares - We Need Both!
There seems to be a constant stream of claims
that wireless is a "better" choice for broadband, usually based on the
claim that it is "cheaper" than fiber, quicker to install and offers
similar performance.
But I wonder how many people arguing for wireless have FTTH or cable modems at home? 99% maybe?
The FTTH people tell you that wireless can't deliver the
bandwidth or have the potential for upgrades, but every person - 100% -
involved in FTTH uses a cell phone, laptop and probably a tablet with
cellular and/or WiFi connection for mobile communications.
I'll bet that most of these people are also not fully aware of the details
of the competing technologies. And I'll bet that they can't live without the other technology.
We need to get everybody to stop arguing and agree that both
technologies are needed. One thing is certain and everyone will agree on
- both need a robust fiber backbone. We need cellular coverage
everywhere. FTTH is preferable to connect users, but where geography
dictates, cellular or line of sight WiFi is a solution.
The BEAD program in the US offers a potential - cost effective -
solution. The money goes to the states to identify programs for funding.
If they focus on first building the backbone and middle mile networks
with one important condition - the networks are open source - we can
have both wireless and FTTH networks where they make sense and save the
cost of redundant networks. Local projects to connect cell sites in
underserved areas, FTTH to most subscribers and line of sight WiFi to
remote users would be the second round.
Open source backbones and middle mile is the key. Decide locally what makes the most sense. Just quit the #$%^&* bickering.
Satellites As A Wireless Alternative
Last month we reported that the FCC had rejected the RDOF (Rural Digital Opportunity Fund) applications
from SpaceX and LTD Broadband. Space X's Starlink service is provided by thousands of satellites while LTD is primarily fixed wireless. Remember satellites are another wireless technology. The two organizations had been tentatively selected for ~$1billion in RDOF awards for rural broadband projects. Here is the FCC comments on the rejections:
“After careful legal, technical, and policy review, we are rejecting
these applications. Consumers deserve reliable and affordable high-speed
broadband,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a press release.
“We must put scarce universal service dollars to their best possible
use as we move into a digital future that demands ever more powerful and
faster networks. We cannot afford to subsidize ventures that are not
delivering the promised speeds or are not likely to meet program
requirements.” Read more in Telecompetitor.
Where do satellites fit in the wireless technologies? Now is a good point to do some explanations.
Wireless is a term used for several types of communications that uses
radio waves to connect devices. Cellular systems (4G/LTE, 5G) connect
from cell towers or small cells to smartphones or tablets over medium or
large distances (miles or kilometers) such as in a city, suburbs, along
highways, etc. and supports relatively large numbers of mobile users.
WiFi connects from local access points to smartphones, tablets or
laptops typically very close and not moving, e.g. sitting in a coffee
shop or home. Another option is line-of-sight WiFi which is used in
rural areas or cities where it connects with a dedicated antenna aimed
at user who may be close or somewhat far away.
Both cellular and OSP WiFi wireless depend on fiber optic backhaul, so to
have good speed, they will be connected on fiber optics and the wireless
link only provides the final link to the user.
Satellite connections are more complicated, especially for the Internet.
Remember that millions of people subscribe to satellite TV usually
because they don't have CATV service available. We know areas of
California where many people have satellite TV but no phone service!
Likewise, if you do not have Internet service, you can get satellite
Internet from Hughes, VIASAT and SpaceX Starlink.
There are two types of satellites, geostationary satellites (Hughes and VIASAT) and low
Earth orbit (LEO) satellites (SpaceX Starlink.)
Geostationary satellites are very large satellites placed in orbit at
22,000 miles (36,000 km) above the equator. At this altitude they
maintain position above a single point on the Earth because their orbit
period is the same as the rotation of the Earth. They can communicate
continuously with devices within the coverage of the satellite’s
antennas.
The
first geostationary satellites were used for telephone conversations
between continents instead of using undersea cables. The downside of
synchronous satellites is the latency. It takes about 240 milliseconds
for the signal to get from Earth to the satellite and return, which made
voice conversations with the delay extremely annoying. That delay also makes the
latency extremely high in Internet terms.
Geostationary
satellites have a network of earth stations (connected on fiber optics,
of course) that provide uplinks and downlinks to the Internet for the
devices connected to the satellite. Users must have their own antenna
and electronics for their uplink/downlink to the satellite.
Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are very small
satellites that orbit at around 200 miles (320km) above the earth and
zoom over an Earth station at high speeds. Because the satellites pass
overhead quickly, the earth stations must track them continuously.
The user must be passed off from satellite to satellite continuously to
provide constant Internet service. This method requires thousands of satellites to provide useful coverage.
The lifetime of low earth orbit satellites is also generally not long
due to atmospheric drag.
These satellites require a complicated Earth-based communications
network involving many ground stations (connected on fiber of course) to
connect to the satellites and they sometimes even use satellite to
satellite links (using lasers in space in one proposal) to connect to
the Internet. Users must have their own antenna and electronics
for their uplink/downlink to the satellite but it is more complicated
than with geostationary satellites because it must track fast moving
satellites and jump from satellite to satellite as they pass overhead.
Now you understand how they work, who needs them? The answer is mainly
those in very rural areas where nothing else is available. The speed is
relatively low, especially on uploads and the cost depends on the setup
cost and amount of data used, making streaming video very expensive and
not capable of delivering the same service level expected of broadband.
Looking Beyond IIJA/BEAD - The Broadband Market After Saturation
Practically everybody has been focusing on the tsunami of money coming from the
IIJA/BEAD program and how to use it to build fiber broadband to
everyone. Interestingly, not everyone is focusing on how to get a piece
of that action; some are also looking at the long term effects. In our
reading industry newsletters this month, we found an interesting report
from a consulting company, Kearney, with some interesting forecasts of
what may happen as this building of broadband winds down in a few years.
Once the fiber optic gold rush in rural and suburban regions peaks, Economics 101 will take over. Over the next several years, we’re likely to see consolidation
among rural and suburban fixed broadband operators that will create a
relative handful of national and superregional operators in the US.
Government subsidies have fueled the growth of these operators, but the
long-term economics will not support profitability for such a highly
fragmented collection of companies. But we’re now entering a period of perhaps the largest rural
infrastructure investment since the Rural Electrification Act (REA) was
passed in 1936 and provided federal loans for the installation of
electrical distribution systems in isolated rural areas of the US for 58
years. While there isn’t a singular broadband act to match the REA,
massive public and private investments are being made, such as the $65
billion allocation for broadband in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment
and Jobs Act.
This focus and the accompanying subsidies to
deliver broadband to unserved and underserved Americans are creating a
gold rush for hundreds of operators ranging from municipal broadband
authorities to hybrid cable companies. But what will the world look like
on the other side of the gold rush? Given the economics, it’s highly
likely that we’ll see consolidation around three to five national or
superregional operators outside of the major metropolitan areas.
Operators need to reach
unserved or underserved customers, which is where subsidies and private
investments come into play. The central reason these customers are in
such a position is largely because the economics to deliver broadband
haven’t worked in the past.
The IIJA/BEAD programs focus on connecting unserved/underserved areas, but the program appears to be facilitating the DIY FTTH method that
FOA has been helping for years as well as allowing larger service
providers to participate. The possible outcome is we have thousands of
independent service providers with a few thousand customers each. Do
they remain independent, the way many rural phone companies and
electrical utilities and coops have or do they get rolled up the way
small CATV systems were, creating the giant CATV MSOs we have today?
The Kearney report explores that possibility. It's interesting reading.
Understanding Apprenticeships
Most people's understanding of apprenticeships seems to stem from watching kids learning how to forge steel in Lord of the Rings
videos or having learned in school about Ben Franklin being apprenticed
to his brother James to learn printing. The FOA has a different view,
having been a training partner with the IBEW/NECA/JATC union electrical
apprenticeship program for over 25 years. Today there are 35 JATC
apprenticeship programs using the FOA curriculum and certification to
train and certify one of the largest groups of techs anywhere. These
people have more than half a century experience running apprenticeships
and a budget to sustain it.
But as we have written before, most of the fiber optic workforce is not
so organized. To have an apprentice, you need an employer, and most of
the fiber optic workforce are contractors jumping from job to job.
Recently, the US Department of Labor set up a website for interested
parties to comment on apprenticeships. Since the FOA has worked with the
US Department of Labor for more than 20 years to define the fiber optic
workforce, we felt obligated to contribute our experience.
Only 4% of the respondents intend to use Cat 8. That certainly indicates that Cat 8 has not gained much support.
OM5 - Wideband Multimode Fiber
Only 7% indicate they may use OM5 now, and 25% say maybe within a few
years. Don't give much credence to the 2-5 years results since the only
use we see for OM5 would be replacing parallel optics and singlemode is
getting more acceptance and will not need upgrading. So neither has the
multimode fiber aimed at short wavelength WDM gained acceptance.
Both these designs were proposed as alternatives to parallel optics and
singlemode fiber in the data center, but neither gained much interest
from either the manufacturers or users. Meanwhile singlemode fiber has
already been chosen for most of the applications with cheaper
transceivers due to their higher volume and the new PAM4 encoding scheme
that can replace WDM in many links.
Cat 8 and OM5 join Cat 4 and Cat 6 as standardized cabling components
that failed to gain market acceptance due to timing or just not being
the right product.
And then, a viewer questioned:
That's a good question. Today most data centers use
singlemode fiber for most connections, but for short connections between
servers and switches in a "top of rack" or "end of row" configuration.
multimode fiber might be a cost effective solution. More on Data Centers.
Workforce Development Requires A Cooperative Effort
In the August FOA Newsletter we talked about the need for developing a larger, more competent fiber optic workforce and linked you to the new FOA page on fiber optic workforce development.
Now we want to talk about something necessary for a successful
workforce development project, based on the FOA experience with these
programs.
A successful workforce development program requires the cooperation of a
number of parties, all of whom have a vested interest in its success.
These parties include:
The workforce development agency. They know how to create and operate programs and how to access funding from various sources.
The customers - network owners and developers. They need the
workforce to build their networks while meeting their time and financial
goals.
Employers - network owners and contractors. They can define the
jobs and the qualifications for the workers they need plus where and
when they are needed. They also pay the salaries so they define the job
benefits.
Training organizations. At the local level, they are generally
technical high schools and colleges that are experienced in teaching
trade skills and offering certifications with degree programs.
Professional training organizations that offer bootcamp training
sessions can be used when or where schools cannot.
The public. Once the program is underway, the public needs to be made aware of the programs and help recruit
people for the training, especially the young people who need
encouragement to pursue a career in the trades.
FOA looks at this as a basic requirement for developing a fiber optic technician
workforce, but cooperation of all these parties are necessary for successful workforce
development programs in any of the trades. The example of the FOA Kentucky Wired workforce development project
shows how bringing the relevant parties together ensures all those
involved understand the needs of everyone involved creates an
environment where everyone cooperates to meet their overall goals.
More Translations of FOA Textbooks
FOA is a very international organization and it works hard to
accommodate the language needs of everyone. We have been translating our
books and website into the languages most requested, and this month, we
add two more textbook translations. We also want to thank Jerry Morla,
FOA CFOS/I instructor and Director who has been doing the recent
translations into Spanish, his native language.
Here is a listing of all the FOA textbook Translations
Spanish Editions:
Guía de Referencia de la Asociación de Fibra Óptica (FOA) Sobre Fibra
Óptica: Guía de estudio para la certificación de la FOA Amazon
La Referencia de Cableado para Predios de la FOA: Guía para Certificación de la FOA Amazon
La Asociación de Fibra Óptica Manual de Fibra Hasta el Hogar : Para
Planificadores, Gestores, Diseñadores, Instaladores y Operadores De
FTTH Amazon
Guía de Referencia de la FOA sobre Diseño de la red de fibra óptica: Guía de Estudio para la Certificación de la FOA Amazon
And the FOA Reference Guide To Fiber Optics: French Edition: Le
Guide de référence de la FOA pour la fibre optique et et
guide d'étude pour la certification FOA: Guide d'étude pour
la certification FOA Amazon Portuguese Edition: Guia de Referência sobre Fibra Óptica da FOA : Guia de Estudo para a Certificação da FOA Amazon The subject matter of these books is also translated in the FOA Guide online.
Sitio web y manual de FTTH ahora en español - FTTH Website And Handbook Now In Spanish
Sitio web y manual de FTTH ahora en español
El Manual FOA FTTH se ha convertido en el libro FOA
más vendido y tiene una calificación de 4.7/5 por parte de los
compradores en Amazon.
Cross Reference To FOA Technical Reference Materials
With a dozen textbooks in 4
languages, almost 1,000 pages of technical information on the FOA Guide,
100+ videos and two dozen online courses at Fiber U, all this can make
it difficult to find the right information. To help this, we have created a cross reference guides: Cross Reference Guide to Textbooks, Online Guide and Fiber UFOA Videos Guide.
FOA's roster of approved schools is growing as
more organizations recognize our expertise in workforce development and
our comprehensive support for getting new schools started. FOA has over
25 years experience and nearly 90,000 certified fiber techs (with
~120,000 certifications). As a non-profit organization founded by the
industry specifically to develop a competent workforce, FOA provides the
consultation, curriculum and contacts to get schools started as a free
service to new schools.
Welcome School #5 in Ohio
This month FOA welcomes Washington County Career Center as our 5th
school in Ohio. Last year, the Governor's office held a formal ceremony
to announce the opening of a FOA school at Tri-County Career Center (FOA Newsletter September 2021.)
Washington County Career Center is the latest addition to the network
and two more are coming shortly. Soon Ohio will catch up with Kentucky
with 9 KCTCS schools in the FOA network.
Telecom Fiji
Andy Edwards of CommsLearning Limited emailed us as he was preparing to
head home to New Zealand that he had just spent time training personnel
at Telecom Fiji - 55 CFOT’s trained, 6 Designers and 4 instructors who
can deliver CFOT
internally with certifications going via
CommsLearning. Details coming in next month's newsletters - photos
promised!
Senate Bill Aims To Promote Electric Grid For Broadband
Remember how FOA has pointed out many times (e.g. FOA Newsletter 8/21)the similarities of the electrification of rural America and the ways to build broadband?
A bill introduced into the US Senate on August 3 called S. 4763: GRID Broadband Act of 2022
aims to support electrical utilities and transmission systems using or
building optical fiber middle mile networks for broadband, especially in
rural areas. The bipartisan bill, co sponsored by Senators Cantwell
(D-WA) and Capito (R-WV) aims to provide government support ($$$$) to
electrical utilities to both build a more robust electrical grid and
provide fiber for rural (and even urban) broadband.
The purposes of this Act are to—
(1)provide resilient and redundant middle mile fiber optic
infrastructure to provide more opportunity for last mile providers to
connect to unserved locations and underserved locations in rural and
remote areas and urban areas with high-quality, high-speed broadband;
(2)enhance the resilience, reliability, and
security of the electric grid in order to guarantee delivery of power to
critical facilities and electricity-dependent essential services and
reduce restoration time following power disturbances;
(3)permanently reduce the cost of high-speed
broadband across the United States, including for low-income households
and small businesses;
(4)expand interconnections and the communications
capacity of the electric grid of the United States to facilitate
deployment of more diverse and distributed generation resources and
smart-grid technologies;
(5)provide rural and remote areas and urban areas with new economic
growth opportunities and ensure equal access to education, healthcare,
telework, and e-commerce opportunities; and
(6)leverage assets such as tower facilities,
buildings, land, and rights-of-way to lower broadband buildout costs to
encourage private-sector companies to expand affordable
telecommunication offerings.
It is much too early in the legislative process to
determine the likelihood of this bill becoming law, but the fact it
exists indicates that Congress is thinking logically about broadband.
The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) Announces Two Initiatives to Foster Local Broadband Solutions
ILSR
is starting two new programs to help leaders and local government
officials address their community’s needs in practical, efficient,
clear-eyed ways. ILSR has nearly 20 years of experience working with
hundreds of communities from the smallest towns to the largest cities
and counties.
Neither of the programs below is intended to replace existing
specialized consultants. Rather, the aim is to help communities
understand what their options are before they engage with consultants,
so that they can be more efficient with their time.
The Urban Digital Equity Bootcamp
Communities need local champions to ensure that problems are resolved in
accordance with local goals. The Urban Digital Equity Bootcamps are
based on the framework that bottom-up approaches, based on trust and
local relationships, offer the best path forward. Modeled after the
Tribal Broadband Bootcamp, these two-day events are designed to develop
skills and relationships as well as the needed expertise and
partnerships to set and achieve digital equity goals.
Let’s Get Going Broadband Program
Community broadband planning and coordinating digital inclusion
ecosystems is complicated work. Cities and counties struggling to find
the best tools and methodologies needed to address infrastructure and
digital inclusion can find the solutions they need by participating in
ILSR’s Let’s Get Going Broadband Program. This eight-week program is
designed to help local governments, elected officials, nonprofits,
foundations, and digital equity advocates orient themselves and develop
solutions.
Detroit Starting $10 Million Pilot FTTH Project In Underserved Neighborhood
The city of Detroit is addressing digital equity with
a new $10 million fiber-optic pilot project. The pilot will be funded
by federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act and will take place
in the Hope Village neighborhood. The Pilot area is expected to be
between 2,500 and 3,500 residential and commercial addresses in the Hope
Village Neighborhood and some City and allied agency addresses.
Last September, the neighborhood experienced a devastating internet
outage. The outage lasted 45 days and included phone services too.
The city of Detroit’s Director of Digital Inclusion Joshua Edmonds said
having the pilot project in Hope Village is a direct response to what
happened.
“Digital equity for us is a commitment to residents who historically
have been on the wrong side of the digital divide. So this isn’t
something where we look at last year or the past five years,” said
Edmonds. “This is a historic understanding that we want to be able to
reach residents where they are and where they have been and giving them
that advantage to be able to say, ‘This is fiber optic internet, the
fastest internet in the country.’ We want to make sure you’re
prioritized instead of us going to other places and cities such as a
downtown and midtown first.”
The city will install the fiber. From there, more internet providers can
opt in to offer service. It’s an exciting new chapter for residents
like Jones.
(Ed. note: That's between $2850 and $4000 per address. We're
tracking these costs as a way to help other projects estimate reasonable
costs for a project.)
Orange France Deploys Passive Optical LAN Solution at More Than 20 Sites
Orange France recently committed to deploying a
Passive Optical LAN (POL) solution for more than 20 sites throughout
France, including Bridge, the company’s headquarters in Issy-les
Moulineaux, near Paris. Orange’s new POL solution replaces existing
copper-based LAN, connecting more than 5,000 end points, including Wi-Fi
and hard-wired terminals.
“Moving to POL for our intraoffice connectivity can save significant
energy costs and reduce emissions, which is essential to help Orange
meet its ambitious environmental goals,” said Philippe Gacougnolle,
Orange France director of the internal network domain.
.“Switching from traditional LAN to POL technology means a more compact
solution, with less energy consumption and much better performance
proving the best possible user experience,” said Stephane Azoulay, head
of the Orange France account for Nokia, Orange’s partner for POL
solution implementation.
NDIA Awards 18 National Digital Navigator Corps Grants in Rural & Tribal Areas. NDIA
The National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA)
announced today 18 grant recipient organizations, who will together
launch the National Digital Navigator Corps.
The grants are part of $10 million of support from Google.org, which
will go toward hiring community-based digital navigators alongside
programmatic and technical support to further develop NDIA’s digital
navigator model for rural and Tribal communities. Digital navigators at
the 18 selected sub-grantee organizations will help thousands of
residents to gain much-needed access to the internet, devices, and
digital skills training.
The FOA has a number of schools we work with in Kentucky and one is
Hazard Community College. Between July 25th and July 30th, 2022,
thunderstorms developed in Eastern Kentucky and brought heavy rain,
deadly flash flooding, and devastating river flooding brought upwards of
14-16" of rain during this 5-day period.
Keila Miller, Dean of Community, Workforce and Economic Development
reports that their college was mostly spared but many of their faculty
and students have lost everything. She says: “The devastation is
indescribable".
If anyone would like a donation, they can go to the following link:
Once in that link, they should select Hazard Community & Technical
College, and then select “HCTC Flood Relief Fund”. All donations go
directly to students and they apply for the relief dollars if they were
effected by the flood damage.
Using spider silk like fiber optics, researchers are examining its use as a biomedical sensor
An international team of researchers, led by National
Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) in Taiwan, has developed a
sensor and sensing technique that uses spider silk as optical fiber to
detect and measure small changes in a biological solution’s refractive
index in real time—including glucose and other types of sugar solutions.
Why spider silk? It’s a biocompatible material that can transmit light
in a manner similar to optical fibers, has elastic properties, and is
also quite sturdy. In the study, the researchers harvested the silk,
with a diameter of about 10 µm, from a type of giant wood spider,
Nephila pilipes, native to Taiwan. They coated the spider silk with a
fine nanolayer of metal to enhance its sensitivity. Then, they encased
it in a biocompatible, photocurable resin to create a 100-µm-diameter
fiber optic structure, inside which the spider silk acts as the core and
the resin acts as the cladding.
One end of the fiber structure was immersed in liquid resin and the
other end connected to a light source and spectrometer. The light
intensity spectra created by the new sensor was compared with refractive
index measurements, which allows the researchers to detect the type of
sugar and its concentration.
“In the future, we hope this silk-based fiber-optic sugar sensor can
exist as one of the medical devices in point-of-care diagnostics and
testing,” Liu says.
Head of Google Fiber Says They're Ready To Start Building New Cities
Google Fiber plans to bring its high-speed internet
service to multiple cities in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska and
Nevada over the next several years in its first big expansion since it
spun out as an independent unit of parent company Alphabet in 2015. In
his first media interview since becoming chief executive of Google Fiber
in February 2018, Dinni Jain told Reuters that his team was finally
prepared to "add a little bit more build velocity" after over four years
of sharpening operations.
The anticipated expansion to 22 metro areas across the United States
from 17 today includes previously announced projects to launch in Mesa,
Arizona and Colorado Springs, Colorado. The choices were based the
company's findings of where speeds lag.
"There was an impression 10 years ago that Google Fiber was trying to
build the entire country," Jain said. "What we are gesturing here is,
'No, we are not trying to build the entire country.'"
Fiber will continue to pursue wireless service, through its Webpass
brand, for multi-unit buildings, Jain added. In some cases, it will
lease local fiber networks from other providers.
Fiber optic
technology, standards, equipment, installation,
etc.
The FOA
Update Pagecovers the new technology
and applications we covered in this newsletter
recently. Now you can review all that new tech at
once.
Cross Reference To FOA Technical Reference Materials
The FOA has almost 1,000 pages of technical information on the FOA Guide,
100+ videos and two dozen online courses at Fiber U, all this can make
it difficult to find the right information.
Cross Reference To FOA Tech Materials
To help this, we have created a cross reference guide to the textbooks,
Online Guide and Fiber U courses, all the FOA technical information.
Besides the textbooks, online Guide and Fiber U, each section of the
Guide also includes links to the 100+ FOA videos available. Cross Reference Guide to Textbooks, Online Guide and Fiber U
FOA Videos
We have also rearranged the 100+ FOA videos in similar categories on the
Contents Page of the Online Guide, making the videos, especially the
lectures, much it much easier to find a video on a particular
topic. FOA Videos Guide.
Want to know more about fiber optics? Study
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The most common way to track projects is the Gantt Chart, a
chart of activities that tracks the progress of projects along a
timeline. each activity is represented by a bar and the position and
length of the bar represents the starting date and duration of the
activity. This allows you to see what activities are needed for the
project, when the activities start and end so it can be used to track
the progress of the project visually. Here is what a Gantt Chart for a
fiber project might look like:
You might remember an article in the FOA Newsletter in April 2022 or the FOA Guide page on Project Management about the timing of a fiber optic project where we showed the progression of steps in a project like this:
The Gantt Chart above is simply this list converted to a Gantt Chart
using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. You can download a copy of the FOA Gantt Chart spreadsheet (xlsx file - 16kB)
and use it to create your own Gantt Chart for any project. All you have
to do is to input your own data and change the activity names as
necessary. You can also follow the directions from Microsoft to create your own version.
Fiber Patch Panels - Routing Guidelines For Cables
The US National Electrical Code states “You
must install equipment and cabling in a neat and workmanlike manner. "
We've all seen patch panels that obviously violate that rule! Eric Pearson of Pearson Technologies,
a frequent contributor to this Newsletter, shares with us some
guidelines he has developed to ensure "a neat and workmanlike manner."
What do you call a component that is a spice on
connector made like a short pigtail? Perhaps a good idea. The Optix SOC
has a long pigtail that gives you 3 tries if you have problems splicing
it. It has a short spice protector and a long strain relief boot to
protect the splice.
The Optix SOC can be spliced on any fusion splicer since the long
pigtail fiber is just a fiber - you don't need a special connector
fixture for the splicer.
In applications like data centers, users always want
higher speeds but cost is an issue. As recently as a year or two ago,
100G in the data center required a transceiver with 4 lasers and WDM for
singlemode or 4 lasers and 4 fibers in each direction for multimode.
Most big data centers have already transitioned to all singlemode so
they will not have to update the fiber infrastructure when moving up to
400/800G or terabit speeds.
In long haul telecom, coherent transceivers dominate at high speeds and
long lengths, but coherent transceivers are complicated and costly.
Prices have been going down for coherent components, but are still
higher than 4 channel WDM.
Another solution has arrived and it promises to be much less costly than
either of those two options - a transceiver using PAM4 encoding. PAM4
encoding uses 4 signal levels so that each "bit" represents 2 bits of
data. The encoding looks like this:
In a binary coded link, each bit is on or off so each bit indicates a
"0" or a "1" which is what binary means. In a PAM4 encoded signal, the
bit has information in the pulse height, which means the bit can carry
two bits of information - "0, 1,2 or 3," twice as much information in
the same bit, doubling the information carrying capacity of the link.
A PAM4 transceiver needs only one laser to achieve 100Gb/s data rates,
making it less expensive than a transceiver that has 4 lasers and a WDM.
The same technology can be leveraged for 400G also.
PAM4 is not a fiber innovation. It has been used for years in electrical
communication circuits to increase bandwidth. But the implementation
requires some signal processing in the receiver which took some time to
implement in fiber optic transceivers.
More Help On Color Codes (Now Copper Cabling And Fiber Optics)
The FOA has created a pocket guide to fiber
optic color codes that we are sending to new and renewed CFOTs. It has
color codes for fibers and buffer tubes, connectors and premises cables
inside and on the back, QR codes to take you directly to the FOA Guide
and Fiber U.
Here's a do-it-yourself FOA Guide To Fiber Optic Color Codes card.
Just download the PDF file, print it on a color printer and fold it up
as shown. Then you have your own pocket guide to color codes. Make a
bunch for your co-workers too.
Then we realized that many of your also do structured cabling
work, so it was a natural to add a Color Code Guide for UTP copper
cabling in printable (below) and electronic (above) versions.
But we did not stop there. We know how many of you use your mobile devices on the job, so we created a version of the Color Code Guide you could download
and use on your smartphone or tablet. It's a PDF file, so you just
download it and save it on your device and it will be with you always.
FOA received an inquiry about whether techs
working on restoring OSP links should be concerned about eye safety if
the link used fiber amplifiers. To answer this question, we had to do some research on fiber amplifiers.
The short answer is YES, you should be concerned. The long answer is
more technical and includes details that every OSP tech needs to know.
FOA
has written many articles about loss budgets,
something everyone involved in fiber optics needs to
know and needs to know how to calculate. We've
created a online Loss Budget Calculator that does
the work for you. Just input your cable plant data
and it calculates the loss budget. It works on any
device, especially smartphones and tablets for field
use and even allows printing the results.
The First Transcontinental Telephone Line
began operation on July 29th in 1915 - 3400 miles between New
York and San Francisco - required over 100,000 telephone poles! Wonders
of World Engineering
FBA Broadband Infrastructure Playbook
The Fiber Broadband Association, the trade association of fiber optic
equipment suppliers and no relation to the FOA, has created a
comprehensive guide for organizations wanting to apply for US IIJA/BEAD
funding.
Building Broadband During Component and Worker Shortages
- Broadband Communities - Completing broadband builds requires
competent fiber optic techs, but training them requires understanding
how they learn - by Jim Hayes, FOA President.
Worth Reading - Magazines, Websites and Newsletters
Todo Fibra Optica is
a new digital magazine in Spanish for fiber optics
in Latin America. Jose Enriquez, editor of Todo
Fibra Opticmagazine has many years
experience in the fiber optic industry so he knows
the industry well. FOA will be working with him to
share our extensive technical materials in Spanish.
As
part of celebrating 25 years of serving the fiber
optic industry as its primary source of technical
information and independent certifying body, FOA
thought it appropriate to create a short history of
the organization and how it has developed to
help the fiber optic industry. We also wanted to
recognize the contributions many people have made to
the organization over the years that made FOA what
it is today.
The FOA history is now archived on the FOA
website where you can read it anytime or link to
it.Updated
info - dB, total internal reflection and science
projects,
Worth Reading - News
Summary - Past Links Worth Repeating
How
To Build Rural Broadband, Learning From History
In the August 2021
FOA Newsletter, we published a lengthy article on
rural broadband and compared it to rural
electrification in America in the last century.
Much of the comparison was based on an article
written in 1940 by a USDA economist, Robert Beall,
called "Rural Electrification."
If
you are interested in or involved in rural
broadband, we recommend you read the article "How
To Build Rural Broadband, Learning From History"
in the August 2021 FOA Newsletter and
read the Beall article also.
"Who Lost Lucent?: The
Decline of America's Telecom Equipment Industry"
This is a MUST READ for managers in telecom or any
industry! This long and
well-researched and annotated article in American
Affairs Journal should be mandatory reading
for every high level manager in a telecom company -
or any other company for that matter. To summarize
the article, today, America has no major telecom
equipment company and fears the major suppliers of
equipment who are all foreign, especially the Huawei
from China. This article explains how America got
into this deplorable state.
IEC 60050 - International
Electrotechnical Vocabulary - An
extensive dictionary for fiber optics in English and
French. Highly technical - this is one definition:
"mode - one solution of Maxwell's equations,
representing an electromagnetic field in a certain
space domain and belonging to a family of
independent solutions defined by specified boundary
conditions"
DIRT
Report On Damage To Utilities Common Ground
Alliance (CGA) annual DIRT report provides a
summary and analysis of the events submitted into
CGA’s Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT) for
the year 2018. The complete report is available
for download here. In addition,
there is an interactive dashboard that
allows users to filter the data more by
factors contributing to damages.
The Internet Master
Plan for New York City.
The New York City Internet Master Plan is a
comprehensive framework for the infrastructure
and services that provide connectivity to New
York City residents and businesses. This
Master Plan will guide City actions and
public-private partnerships to transform New
Yorkers’ access to this essential
infrastructure for generations to come. Fiber Trivia From
Corning. The
Future Of Work Is Skills - So Stop Worrying
About Degrees - The
reality is the future of work is about skills, not
just degrees. (FOA Newsletter Feb 2020)
Besides
the FOA reference materials, two JDSU/VIAVI
textbooks, Reference Guide to Fiber Optic Testing,
Volumes 1 and 2, were used as references for
some of the FOA courses and are recommended for
instructors and students. The books are available
from VIAVI as eBooks and the everyone should
download them and recommend them to others.Download
yours now. Volume 1. Volume 2. Viavi Books
Guidebook To MPO
Testing OptoTest
offers this complete guide to MTP®/MPO testing. In
this guide, you will learn all there is to know
about the different test methods, equipment
options, troubleshooting, and best maintenance
practices to ensure that you have the best testing
experience. Go here to download the book.
50th Anniversary of The
Development of Low Loss Fibers A history
of the development of low loss fiber, a fascinating
story by Jeff Hecht on the OSA (Optical Society of
America) website. How OFS Makes Fiber
Interesting YouTube video on how fiber is made.
Perhaps a little too much "show biz" but
fascinating. If you have ever seen fiber
manufacture, look at this video. You will be amazed
at how big preforms have become!
Clearfield-FOA Certification
TrainingClearfield is now offering
their customers an FOA
CERTIFICATION course. This course
provides a basic understanding of fiber optic
technology, as well as Clearfield product
knowledge and how Clearfield’s integrated product
systems work together in a fiber network.
FOA
President and editor of this newsletter Jim Hayes
has also been writing a column in Electrical
Contractor Magazine for almost 20 years now.
Electrical contractors do lots of fiber work and
this column has covered some topics they are
interested in including installation processes,
network design, fiber applications and a lengthy
series on dark fiber - what it is, how's its used
and how it benefits the growth of communication. A
recent web site redesign makes it easier to browse
all these articles - just go to http://www.ecmag.com/contributing-authors/jim-hayes
and you can see all of them.
Q&A
When readers ask us questions, we genrally refer them to FOA
resources where they can find the answer to their question and many
more. We first send them to the FOA Guide
which is the table of contents for the FOA technical resources. There
they can find pages indexed by topic and a search engine for the FOA
website. It also links them to FOA videos and courses on our free online learning site Fiber U.
The FOA
Fiber FAQs Page (FAQs = frequently asked
questions) gathers up questions readers have
asked us (which first ran in this newsletter)
and adds tech topics of general interest.
Good Question!
Tech
Questions/Comments From FOA Newsletter Readers
Also see the two important questions above in the Technical section.
October 2022
How Light travels In An Optical Fiber
Q: Is there a generalised ratio between
the length of an optic fibre and the length of the path actually taken
by a light pulse inside that fibre? If yes, do OTDRs factor in such
differences in any way? or they such sown the length of the actual path
of the light pulses?
A: Each optical fiber has an effective
independent of refraction. The index of refraction is the ratio of the
speed of light to the speed of light in the material: n=c/v where
n=index of refraction, c=speed of light in a vacuum and v=speed of light
in the fiber.
For an optical fiber, the manufacturer measures the index of refraction
which is usually in the range of 1.47. Corning SMF-28 singlemdoe fiber
for example is specified at 1.4670 @ 1310 nm and 1.4677 @ 1550 nm.
So if you use the equation above, the speed of light in SMF-28 fiber for
a 1310nm pulse is c/n or 300,000 km/s divided by 1.4670 = 204,500 km/s.
When an OTDR measures length, it actually measures the time its test
pulse takes to go to the end of the fiber and return, so the distance is
2X the actual fiber length. The distance is speed x time.
If a fiber is 1 km long and the speed is 204,500 km/s, the time
forlight to travel the 1km is 1/204500 = 0.00000489 seconds or about 5
milliseconds.
OTDR will measure that fiber as 10 ms becasue its pulse has to go both
ways, and it would calculate the length as i km, using that effective
index of refraction of 1.4670.
Back to your original question, the index of refraction is the generalized number based on how light travels in the fiber. Excess Cable In Ducts Q: Do you have any established characterization on the
ratio of the length of optic fibre to the length of its duct (to account
for twisting of the fibre inside the duct). A: The cable after pulling into the duct and no longer under
tension will be about 1-2% longer. And remember the fiber is about 1%
longer than the cable.
Slack/Service Loops In Manholes Q: What is the recommended percentage of slack left in manholes for longhaul transmission links? A: Not so much a percentage as actual length. If it includes a
splice, the fiber which will be stored in service loops need to be long
enough to conveniently do the splicing outside the manhole - typically
10-15m for each cable. If there is no splice but just provision to pull
the cable back down conduit to repair a dig-up during restoration, the
distances should be about the same or maybe a bit longer - say 20m of
cable..
Do APC Connectors Show Reflectance On An OTDR Trace?
Q: I was testing a 500meter cable with
1000m launch. In the first event the otdr sensed a splice loss instead
of a connector and reflectance. The connector is APC . Is it possible to
have no reflectance at all. Pulse at 10ns and duration of 15secs. A: A good APC connector can show no reflectance. One of our
instructors who wrote the OTDR training course when he was at AT&T
did some tests for FOA a few years ago. Here are two traces that show
the reflectance is so low it is in the noise of the trace.
September 2022
Splicing Pigtails On A Cable
Q: I seem to be having an issue finding fiber protection sleeves
that can slide over the 3mm patch cable. I bought a sleeve that said it
with made for “single fiber fusion” but the thru hole which I would
side the cable thru prior to fusion is too small for the patch cable.
When I try and look on-line for specifications for the thru-hole size,
prior to fusion final melting of the glue in the sleeve, all I find are
post-melting diameters, none which are even close to being able to
handle the 3mm patch cable. A: Splicing pigtails involves splicing the fibers only and the
cables are secured separately. The usual method of splicing on pigtails
is to splice the fibers and use the heat shrink tube to seal the splice
and the fibers from the outside air and protect it from stress. The
splice is placed in a splice tray. On either side, there is 2-3 feet of
fiber exposed from the cables being spliced. The splice tray has clamps
for all of the cables being spliced on the edges of the tray and the
fiber to the splice is coiled neatly on the splice tray. The jacket of
the pigtail is clamped at the edge of the splice tray but ends there,
so only fiber is coiled in the tray. If you try to coil fiber, the bulk
of the cable can get to be a problem where it’s coiled with the bare
fiber.You can get heat shrink protectors for fibers of 250 to 900 micron diameter buffers, but not for jacketed cables.
Important Questions From The Past
Managing And Maintaining a Fiber Optic Cable Plant During Its Lifetime. Q: Are there guides / recommendations for optic fibre cable
life cycle management? (outside plant) including rehabilitation /
replacement timelines together with factors that may alter those
timelines ( such as seismic activity, extreme weather, human
activity-induced fibre cuts etc) also including typical performance
deterioration over the life cycle, and the performance levels at which
replacement / rehabilitation happens. Or does it happen (and is it
normally expected) that operators replace entire sections of fibre (say
400 km) as part of routine maintenance?
A: There is a saying here in the US that in fiber optics “the most common cause of failure is “backhoe fade” in underground cables
and “target practice” for aerial cables.” In other words, damage
caused by humans. We know of many fiber optic cable plants that have
survived natural disasters like earthquakes - in fact there is a lot of
work today using regular cables used in communications to monitor for
seismic activity. Fire can be a problem in remote areas, but often it’s
because the poles are burned causing the cables to fall.
Over the years we have questioned cable manufacturers about the lifetime
of fiber optic cable. They don’t like to make definitive statements but
we have been told that based on the cables installed in the past that
40 years is a probable lifetime for most cables. There are certainly
cables in use today that are over 30 years old already. The glass fiber
is not a problem, it’s the protection from the cables that will
eventually fail. Installation techniques can have an effect on the
longevity. For example splice closures should be sealed properly to
prevent ingress of moisture or dirt. Cables should not be installed with
bends below the rated bend radius or with excess tension.
FOA has always told users that fiber optic cables do not need maintenance (https://foa.org/tech/ref/user/maintain.html),
a response to some people advocating periodic inspection and cleaning
of connections, for example. That’s just more likely to cause damage.
When an accidental break in a cable occurs, we have guidelines for restoration (https://foa.org/tech/ref/restoration/rest.html), and planning for restoration when building the cable plant is very important.
Someday you will certainly want to replace cables, often well before the
lifetime of the cable, but generally because you need more fiber or the
older fiber will not support the network speeds you want for upgrades.
Planning for more fiber by installing more cables can be eased by
installing spare underground ducts when first installing cables - here
in the US, we call this “Dig Once” (https://foa.org/tech/ref/OSP_Construction/Underground_Construction.html). Testing fibers for higher speeds is called "fiber Characterization” (https://foa.org/tech/ref/testing/test/CD_PMD.html) and is routinely done when speeds above 10G or certainly 100G are considered for older fibers.
Knowing that the lifetime of fiber optic cable plants are ~40
years, it makes sense to plan ahead for future applications, installing
lots of fibers, leaving lots of open duct space and choosing network
architectures that will not obstruct upgrades. See the article on
Netly's network above.
Fiber Optic Color Codes Reference Chart
Q: Has anyone made a fiber optic pocket reference chart that has cable
color orders, frequencies, or other commonly used info on it? A: The FOA has a page on its Online Guide that covers color codes
(https://foa.org/tech/ColCodes.htm). It is the most popular page in the
FOA Guide! It works great with a smartphone.
Another
question we get often is "Is there a standard for
fiber optic installation." The answer is yes, but
not from the usual standards groups you might
expect. Over 20 years ago, the National Electrical
Contractors Association (NECA) asked FOA to help
create a standard for installation. That standard,
ANSI/NECA/FOA-301 has been updated three times
already and is about ready for another update.
Unlike most of those groups who charge you a fortune
for standards, FOA covers the cost so ANSI/NECA/FOA-301
is available free from FOA.
Free online
self-study programs on many fiber optics and
cabling topics are available at Fiber U, FOA's
online web-based training website. Free online training at
Fiber U
FOA's roster of approved schools is growing as more organizations
recognize our expertise in workforce development and our comprehensive
support for getting new schools started. FOA has over 25 years
experience and nearly 90,000 certified fiber techs (with ~120,000
certifications). As a non-profit organization founded by the industry
specifically to develop a competent workforce, FOA provides the
consultation, curriculum and contacts to get schools started as a free
service to new schools.
Welcome #5 in Ohio
This month FOA welcomes Washington County Career Center as our 5th
school in Ohio. Last year, the Governor's office held a formal ceremony
to announce the opening of a FOA school at Tri-County Career Center (FOA Newsletter September 2021.)
Washington County Career Center is the latest addition to the network
and two more are coming shortly. Soon Ohio will catch up with Kentucky
with 9 KCTCS schools in the FOA network.
Telecom Fiji
Andy Edwards of CommsLearning Limited emailed us as he was preparing to
head home to New Zealand that he had just spent time training personnel
at Telecom Fiji - 55 CFOT’s trained, 6 Designers and 4 instructors who
can deliver CFOT
internally with certifications going via
CommsLearning. Details coming in next month's newsletters - photos
promised!
FOA Network Of
Approved Schools Continues To Grow
The
need for more fiber optic networks to support
broadband and wireless/5G networks has led to a
strong demand for more trained and FOA-certified
techs, and that has led to a demand for more
training organizations. FOA has been adding new
schools and certifying new instructors to meet the
demand. Here are two new schools this month and more
added recently.
New this month:
School 403: Washington County Career Center
School 402: Bossier Parish Community CollegeBossier City, Louisiana
Schools added
recently: School 774: Arrow For Engineering, Amman, Jordan
School #401: Western Wyoming Community CollegeSchool 399: Team Fishel, Virginia School 398, Telecom Tech, Colorado
School 396 Optconn, Boston, MA School 395 Fiber Wizards
(Knowledge on Demand LLC) School 393,
Carolina's Solution Group
School 394,
Tri-County Career Center, Nelsonville, Ohio
School
388: Global Com of Sterling, Virginia, USA
School 389. CWA-JATC Telecom Training Center, San
Jose, CA
School 390 Northern Allied Communications,
Nespelem, WA
School 391 Lewis-Clark State College,
Lewiston, ID
School 392 Wallace Community College, Dothan,
AL Complete listing of FOA Approved Training Organizations
Need A Fiber Optic Course Onsite? Invite an FOA School To Come To You
FOA often gets inquiries from an organization that
has personnel that needs training in fiber optics. Recent inquiries have
included contractors, a manufacturer of high-reliability products using
fiber optics and a cable manufacturer. In many cases, where there are
several people needing training, FOA can recommend a FOA Approved School
and Certified Instructor who will come to their location to teach a
class. The advantage is of course the savings in travel costs if
the class comes to you, but it also offers the opportunity to customize
the course to fit your needs, even use your equipment or work on your
components, so the training is more relevant to those taking the class.
Contact FOA to discuss the idea of a custom, on-site class to see if it will better meet your needs.
FOA/Fiber U
On-The-Job Training (OJT) Program
The
FOA Fiber U OJT program for novices combines online study at
Fiber U with OJT with mentoring by experienced
co-workers and their supervisor to help new employees
develop into FOA-certified technicians in only
one year.
The FOA Fiber U “OJT-To-Cert”
program includes both fiber optics
and premises cabling (copper, fiber & wireless),
so it covers techs working in both outside plant and
premises jobs.
Like other FOA
programs, the OJT-To-Cert program is free. If you
and/or your company is interested in the FOA
OJT-To-Cert program, contact FOA.
Experience Plus
Online Study At Fiber U = FOA Certification
Experienced fiber optic technicians can become FOA Certified using
their experience in fiber optics and study for the
FOA certification exams online at Fiber U.Thousands of
industry professionals have applied to the FOA
directly for certification without the need for
classroom training, based on their knowledge and
skills developed working the field. Since FOA
certifications are based on KSAs (knowledge, skills
and abilities), current techs can show the
skills and abilities required through their field
experience. FOA provides free online self-study courses at Fiber U for the knowledge
part to prepare you for FOA certification exams
which you can also take online.
If you are an experienced field tech interested in
certification, and FOA is the internationally
recognized certifying body for fiber optics, you can
find out more about the FOA "Work to Cert" programhere.
If you are already a CFOT, FOA also offers many
specialist certifications you can obtain based on
your experience as a field tech. See what's
available at Fiber
U.
Fiber U "Basic Fiber
Optics" Online Self-Study Course Now In Spanish
El curso de
autoaprendizaje en línea "Fibra óptica básica" de
Fiber U ahora en español
El sitio de
aprendizaje en línea de FOA, Fiber U, tiene más de
dos docenas de cursos de autoaprendizaje gratuitos
sobre fibra óptica y cableado de instalaciones.
Como era de esperar, el tema más popular es el
curso "Fibra óptica básica", que se utiliza para
iniciarse en la fibra óptica y como curso de
preparación para realizar el examen de
certificación FOA CFOT.
Ahora el curso básico
de fibra óptica está disponible en español,
utilizando el libro de texto FOA en español, la
sección de la Guía en línea en español y la
capacidad de YouTube para traducir subtítulos de
video al español. El curso funciona exactamente
como la versión en inglés con 10 lecciones, cada
una con cuestionarios y una opción para tomar un
examen de Certificado de finalización.
Para presentar el nuevo curso de
español Fiber U, el examen Certificate of
Completion es gratuito, así que dígaselo a sus
contactos.
New Fiber U Course: Fiber Characterization
FOA has added a new course at Fiber U on Fiber Characterization. Fiber
characterization is the process for testing long fiber cable plants for
its ability for carrying high speed communications. With so many
networks now operating at 100, 200, 400 or even 800 Gb/s, fiber
characterization is important, especially on older fiber optic cable
plants.The free Fiber U Fiber Characterization course is available in two forms, as a standalone Fiber U fiber Characterization Course with its own Fiber U Certificate of Completion and as a separate Lesson in the Fiber U Fiber Optic Testing course. This course is recommended for those studying for the FOA CFOS/FC Fiber Characterization certification.
Fiber U MiniCourses: Got An Hour Or Less?
Learn Something New About Fiber Optics.
FOA
has introduced a new type of Fiber U
course, the MiniCourse, a free online course you
could take in a short time, perhaps as you ate lunch
at your desk or took a coffee break. The
topics of these courses should explain what they are
about, and these are all very important topics to
fiber optic techs.
The courses have two components, video lectures and
readings, that are complementary. As usual there is
a self-test to allow you to check your
comprehension. As with other Fiber U courses if you
desire, you can take a short test for a Fiber U
Certificate of Completion that costs
only $10. All these free courses and many more
are available at Fiber U.
What Fiber Techs
Don't Know -
What We Learn From
FOA Certification Tests
As
FOA moves more testing over to our digital online
testing system at ClassMarker, we have access to
more data about our testing, including what
questions and topics on the tests are answered
incorrectly most often. Having this data gives us an
opportunity to evaluate the questions and how they
are stated, but more importantly it allow us to help
our instructors teach the subjects and us to change
our curriculum and online courses to emphasize these
particular topics. These are some of the topics that
we have noticed are answered incorrectly more often
in FOA and Fiber U tests.
Most of the questions missed are on testing.
1. OTDRs - particularly what information is in the
OTDR trace.
2. The difference between dB and dBm
3. Loss budgets - both the concepts and doing the
math
4. Insertion loss testing - single-ended or double
ended for testing patchcords or cable plants, how to
set 0dB references
5. Units of measure - fiber is measured in microns,
wavelengths in nanometers, etc.
At FOA, we're working to add Fiber
U MiniCourses on these topics and working with
our schools to emphasize these topics in their
classes.
If you are going to be taking a FOA certification
course or test in the near future, these topics
should be on your final exam study list.
What We Learn From Hands On Labs
We learn about students performance in hands-on labs
from the feedback of our instructors and our own
experiences too. One big problem is the use of hand
tools. Growing up today, you learn how to use
keyboards, mouses and touch screens, but decades
ago, you also learned how to use basic hand tools.
This is big enough of a problem that we're
considering adding some video lessons on basic hand
tools to prepare students for cable prep,
termination and splicing that require the use of
hand tools.
FOA Guide "Basics Of
Fiber Optics" Now Available Online in Portuguese
(6/2020)
FOA
has now translated the Basics of Fiber Optics
textbook in our Online Guide into Portuguese,
joining Spanish and French translations. For those
speaking Portuguese, we have the technical
information and for schools we also have curriculum
available.
Some
schools have been closed during the pandemic, so FOA
has been working with them to create new online
learning experiences that can in some cases lead to
certification online. FOA certifications are still
based on the KSAs - knowledge from the classroom,
skills from the labs and abilities judged by
instructors or proven by actual experience.
ZOOMing
Much of what we're doing benefits from the
capabilities of "Zoom." Others have created
videoconferencing apps, but none work so well,
especially with limited bandwidth. We've seen remote
labs that have an instructor showing students how to
use the tools they were sent then watching them
duplicate their actions. We have worked out methods
to use Zoom to proctor FOA's online certification
exams. Blended
Learning
While most FOA schools have suspended in-person
training during this period, some are offering a
"blended learning" option. That means that
students sign up for a FOA certification course,
take the classroom sessions on Fiber U with the
assistance of a FOA certified instructor. Now
online instruction can include reviewing the
labs using the Fiber U Basic
Skills Labs, then when it's possible to attend
classes at the school, complete the hands-on
labs and take the FOA certification exam.
Offline Fiber U
FOA has also created offline Fiber U modules
to allow students with poor or limited
Internet access to use the Fiber U Basic Fiber
Optics and Premises Cabling programs without
Internet access. Contact FOA for information
on using this option.
Online Remote Labs
Alternatively, some schools are experimenting
with "remote labs," where the students get
sent tool kits and components and labs are
conducted by videoconferencing. Before the
labs, the students may watch demos by their
instructor on videoconferencing and/or review
the relevant "virtual hands-on" lessons in the
Fiber U Fiber Optics Basic Skills Labs
so they will already know the steps in the
exercises. And Fiber U has
the new Fiber U
DIY Basic Skills Lab lesson
with directions on how to
purchase inexpensive tools
online and use them to learn
basic fiber optic skills. Videoconferencing
allows the instructor to remotely monitor
their work and provide help as needed. Contact
the FOA for more information.
FOA Zoom Exam Proctoring
Online
Certification Testing FOA has all its certification tests
available online, both for use by our
schools and by our direct "Work
to Cert" applicants. All FOA
certification tests require a proctor to
oversee the applicant taking the exam. In
this time of social distancing, getting a
proctor can be difficult, so FOA now has
procedures for online proctors
administering the exam. Contact
the FOA for more information.
OJT - On-The-Job-Training
Many novices get a job and learn on the job.
They usually have an experienced tech who helps
them gain the knowledge and learn the
skills they need to perform their job. Thinking
about this in relation to the FOA KSAs,
the knowledge, skills and abilities needed by a
fiber optic tech, the tech will learn
skills but not the basic knowledge that helps
them understand the processes involved. FOA can
offer help here with our FOA's
OJT-to-Cert Program,
using our Fiber
U online self-study programs. While the
tech learns on the job, they become a Fiber
U trainee, getting the knowledge they
need, while working under their "mentor" at
work. This is particularly good for
contracting companies who need techs but do
not have the usual training courses
available. Interested in OJT programs? Click
on the link below or contact FOA for
more information.
FOA offers free online self-study programs at Fiber U.
Many users are preparing for FOA certification
programs - taking courses at our schools or using
the "Work-to-Cert" program. Some of our
schools are requiring Fiber U programs as
prerequisites for their classroom courses so they
can spend more time on hands-on activities.
FOA School Offers
Toolkit With Online Training
Slayton Solutions
(FOA Approved School #156) is offering a simple
fiber optic tool kit that includes a 29-piece set
of fiber optic tools and a power meter along with
training videos and online instruction for only
$499. 29 Piece Kit includes all tools and devices
a technician needs to install fiber optic
connectors and test optical power. Information on the kit is
available on YouTube. You can contact them for
more information at slaytonsolutions@sbcglobal.net
or https://www.fiberopticsinstitute.com
Publications /
Resources
Cross Reference To FOA Tech Materials
FOA has so much technical reference material, we created a cross reference guide to the textbooks,
Online Guide and Fiber U courses, all the FOA technical information.
Besides the textbooks, online Guide and Fiber U, each section of the
Guide also includes links to the 100+ FOA videos available.
To help those new to fiber optic workforce development, FOA has created a web page we call "Fiber Optic Workforce Development."
In this page, we share what we have learned about the fiber optic
workforce, who they are and how they learn their trade. We discuss what
defines a fiber optic tech and how they should be certified.
Like all our YouTube lectures, they are
all short and easy to understand.
Did
you know YouTube will close caption videos in many
languages?
Sign in with Google to get translations for closed
captioning. Click on the settings icon (red arrow.)
Choose "Subtitles". English is the default
language. Click on the arrow after "English
(auto-generated) >". In the new window click on
"Auto-translate" and choose the language you
want.
FOA Loss Budget
Calculator On A Web Page 5/2020
FOA
has written many articles about loss budgets,
something everyone involved in fiber optics needs to
know and needs to know how to calculate. We recently
discovered how to get a spreadsheet ported to a Web
page, so we created this web page that calculates
loss budgets. We have an iOS loss budget app, but
with this web page, you can calculate loss budgets
from any device, smart phone, tablet, laptop, or
desktop computer that has web browsing capability.
We are continually updating the Online Reference
Guide to keep up with changes in the industry and
adding lots of new pages of technical information.
When you go to the FOA
Guide Table of Contents to see the latest
updates - look for .
Recent updates:
FTTH
Updates: Added a section on FTTH Network Design,
updated Architecture and PONs (10G)
NEW:
FOA's FTTH Handbook: We've
gathered all our information on FTTH from the FOA
Guide and past issues of the FOA Newsletter and
edited it into a 112 page "FTTH Handbook." We even
added a section on planning and managing FTTH
Projects. The Fiber Optic Association
Fiber To The Home Handbook is
available from Amazon in print and Kindle
editions.
Sitio web y manual de FTTH ahora en español
El Manual FOA FTTH se ha convertido en el libro FOA
más vendido y tiene una calificación de 4.7/5 por parte de los
compradores en Amazon.
FOA ha notado mucho interés en FTTH en otras áreas del mundo,
especialmente en América Central y del Sur, por lo que tradujimos el
sitio web de FTTH y el Manual de FTTH al español.
The FOA has it's own
reference books for everyone working in fiber
optics - contractors, installers and end users as
well as for use as textbooks in classes at
educational institutions. They are available as
printed books or Kindle at much lower prices than
most textbooks since we self-publish and sell
online, cutting out the middlemen. Click on the
book images for more information. The Reference
Guide To Fiber Optics is also available in
Spanish, French and Portuguese. The Design book is available in English
and Spanish.
Resources For
Teachers In K-12 And Technical Schools
Teachers in all grades can introduce their
students to fiber optic technology with some
simple demonstrations. FOA has created a page for
STEM or STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts
and math) teachers with materials appropriate to
their classes. Fiber Optic Resources For
Teachers.
Safety
On Safety
The FOA is concerned about safety! FOA
considers safety an integral part of all our
programs, curriculum materials and technical
materials. We start all our textbooks and their
online versions with a section on safety in the
first chapter, like this: Before
we get started - Safety First!
The US Department
of Transportation has a website called "National
Pipeline Mapping System" that allows one
to search for buried pipelines.
Why We Warn You To
Be Careful About Fiber Shards
Photo courtesy Brian Brandstetter,
Mississauga Training Consultantcy
Safety Leader
Magazine
Safety Leader, a new quarterly magazine, informs and
educates electrical contractors on safety from
various angles—electrical, workplace, PPE,
regulations, leadership, line work, NFPA 70E, and
more. Safety Leader is bundled with ELECTRICAL
CONTRACTOR in February, May, August and November. To
receive Safety Leader subscribe to ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR
magazine here or subscribe to the ELECTRICAL
CONTRACTOR newsletter here. 2023 Conference On
Damage Prevention In Tampa
The magazine, dp-Pro, sponsor of the conference,
has also published it's latest issue with an
article by FOA on "New Construction Techniques
in Fiber Optics" and a overview of the FOA. You can read the magazine here.
When You Bury Marker
Tape, Bury One That Will Work (July 2021)
Signaltape® provides a visual
warning by ensuring tape is brought to the surface,
alerting the operator to the presence of a buried
utility. It includes a 3,000-lb. tensile strength
aramid fiber membrane, which ensures the tape is
pulled to the surface to alert the excavation crew.
Signaltape
comes in two sizes: 12″ x 1000′ or 6″ x
1000′.
The FOA is a, international non-profit
educational association chartered to promote
professionalism in fiber optics through education,
certification and standards.
Founded in 1995 by a dozen prominent fiber optics
trainers and leaders from education,industry and governmentas a professional society for fiber
optics and a source of independent certification,
the FOA has grown to now being involved in numerous
activities to educate the world about fiber optics
and certify the workers who design, build and
operate the world's fiber optic networks.
Want to know more about fiber optics? Study
for FOA certifications? Free
Self-Study Programs are on "Fiber U®."
Looking for specific information? Here's the largest
technical reference on the web: The
FOA Online Fiber Optic Reference Guide.
Free online self-study programs
on many fiber optics and cabling topics are
available at Fiber U,
FOA's online web-based training website.
The
FOA has created a store on Zazzle.com offering lots
of new logo merchandise. It has lots of versions of
shirts and other merchandise with "FOA," "Fiber U,"
"Lennie Lightwave" designs and more so you should
find something just for you! See FOA on Zazzle.
Your
Name, CFOT® - It pays to advertise!
The FOA encourages
CFOTs to use the logo on their business cards,
letterhead, truck or van, etc. and provides logo
files for that purpose. But we are also asked
about how to use the CFOT or CFOS certifications.
Easy, you can refer to yourself as "Your Name,
CFOT" or "Your Name, CFOS/T" for example.
Feel free to use the
logo and designations to promote your achievements
and professionalism!
Contact
FOA at info@thefoa.org to get logos in file format
for your use.
Privacy Policy (for
the EU GDPR): The FOA does not
use cookies or any other web tricks to gather
information on visitors to our website, nor do
we allow commercial advertising. Our website
hosts may gather traffic statistics for the
visitors to our website and our online testing
service, ClassMarker, maintains statistics of
test results. We do not release or misuse any
information on any of our members except we will
confirm FOA certifications and Fiber U
certificates of completion when requested by
appropriate persons such as employers or
personnel services. Read
the complete FOA Privacy Policy here.