July, 2004
Previous Issues: June,
2004, May, 2004, April,
2004, March 2004, January,
2004, December, 2003, November,
2003 October 2003 September
2003, August 2003, July
2003, June 2003, March
15, 2003, October, 2002 , August, 2002, May,
2002
-
-
- FTTH Is On A Roll
- Fiber To The Home or Fiber To
The Premises, as it is sometimes called, is beginning to look
more and more real. It ws reported recently by Bloomberg News
that Verizon will spend $800,000,000 this year on FTTP, with
sites in Keller, TX, Huntington baech, CA, Tampa and Hillsborough,
FL and other localities around the US. Verizon has 55 million
local lines and says they have already connected large businesses
with fiber.
- Once fiber is installed to the
subscriber, Verizon will offer a new Internet service, FIOS,
that will be 4 to 15 times faster than DSL (sounds like 10Base-T.)
- Verizon recently made a presentation
on their plans to the New England Fiberoptic Council. Vincent
O'Byrne Director Technology
Verizon, presented technical details of the PON (passive optical
network) network which will use three wavelengths: 1490 nm for
data and1550 nm for videoto the premises, with 1310 nm used for
return to the CO. To see the Verizon presentation, download the
PPT at http://www.nefc.com/2004_Downloads/FTTP_NEFC_2004.zip
-
- The Fiber To The Home Council
http://www.ftthcouncil.org/
has updated their list of communities with FTTH projeccts,
now numbering 128 communities in 32 states. They also report
average subscriber rates (i.e. homes paying the higher costs
of FTTH services) at 40% with rates over 75% in some areas.
-
- Who Has Fiber To Their "Building"?
- A market research group, CIR,
reports that 37% of the 8000 downtown office buildings in the
US have fiber connections. Manhattan alone has 3200 office buildings
with a 55% connection rate. Most major cities have connection
rates of more than 35%.
-
-
- FTTH PON Networks Require
New Testing Procedures
-
- Passive optical networks (PON)
use splitters to allow networks to broadcast data or video and
combine incoming signals. But testing through a splitter, especially
with an OTDR, is not easy. Splitters can have up to 32 ports
and 20 dB loss per path. Each path needs to be characterized
with an OLTS. Shooting through a splitter toward multiple fibers
can be confusing to an OTDR, which sees all the subsequent fibers
overlapped. Knowing the network layout and understanding the
OTDR make it possible to use an OTDR to characterize PONs. A
good place for an overview is an EXFO application note at
- http://www.exfo.com/en/support/WaveReview/2004-June/WRarticle1.asp
-
-
-
-
- FOA Certification Top Choice
The FOA CFOT and CFOS programs continue to gain momentum in fiber
optics. Over 13,000 CFOTs have been certified by 114 schools
as the FOA completes its 9th year. Since our founding in July,
1995, we have dedicated ourselves to promoting fiber optics and
professionalism in fiber optics personnel, focusing on education
and certification. We are continuing to add new schools and more
CFOTs as users of fiber optics learn that a CFOT is the indication
of a professional, well-trained fiber optic technician. Now with
FTTH (fiber to the home) finally taking off, demand for CFOTs
is rising and schools are responding by expanding programs rapidly.
- The FOA now has approved programs
at 114 organizations, welcoming new additions like Corning Cable
Systems for their installation training programs and NASA's Goldstone
Tracking Station. The complete list of FOA-Approved schools is
at http://www.thefoa.org/foa_aprv.htm.
-
Tech Puzzler
- Which connector type would you
choose for high bandwidth analog video (CATV) over singlemode
fiber?
-
- Answer
below
-
-
New Tech Topics
- New PowerPoint Presentation
Introduces Fiber Optics
- The FOA has created a short
PowerPoint presentation that introduces you to fiber optics and
talks about job opportunities in the field. It was intended for
instructors to introdcue studnets to the field, but it's a good
introduction for anyone. It's about 3 meg file so it takes a
while to download and you need PowerPoint to view it. See http://www.thefoa.org/ppt/
How Optical Fiber Is Made
Singlemode Fiber Nomenclature
Plastic Optical Fibers (POF)
Wavelength-Division Multiplexing
Fiber Amplifiers
Don't miss Eric Pearson's Newsletters
- with some tests on connectors.
New sections of "Lennie Lightwave's
Guide To Fiber Optics" covers loss
testing of fiber optic cables and OTDRs.
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 on this site 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!
Remember To Renew Your Certification
!
Remember to renew your FOA certification.
All current CFOTs have a ID Card with their certification data
and we keep a database of current CFOTs to answer inquiries regarding
your qualifications if needed. If you forgot to renew, use the
online application
form or the FOA
online store to renew NOW!
Want To Get FOA Email?
We have been asked if we could send the FOA newsletter by email
or post it on the website. We are looking into that and will definitely
get one started soon. When you renew your certification, you will
be asked if you are interested in email newsletters and if so,
you will be asked to give your email address for us to use in
a mailing list. If you want to get started now, send an email
to info@thefoa.org with the
subject "eMail List"
Note that The FOA never releases its mailing lists for any
use! Your data is always safe with us.
-
- To
Contact The FOA:
-
- The
Fiber Optic Association
- 1119 S Mission Road,
# 355
- Fallbrook, CA 92028
-
- Office Hours 10AM-5
PM Pacific Time
- Telephone: 760-451-3655
- Fax: 781-207-2421
- info@thefoa.org
info@thefoa.org
- Officers and
- Board of Directors
- Jim
Hayes, President, Treasurer
- Eric Pearson, Director of Certification
- Tom Collins, Gateway Comm. College
- Van Ewert, AESA
- Bill Graham
- Karen Hayes
-
- FOA Staff:
Jim Hayes, newsletter, website editor
- Karen Hayes, Administration
Administration:
- The FOA is managed under contract by:
VDV Works LLC
- 1119 S Mission Road, # 355
- Fallbrook, CA 92028
- Telephone: 760-451-3655
- Fax: 781-207-2421
- email: info@vdvworks.com
|
|
- FOA Board of Advisors
Elias Awad, Clerk, Director of Education
Tony Beam
Dave Chaney
F. Douglas Elliot, Past President
William H. Graham
Jim Hayes, President, Treasurer
John Highhouse, Past President
Danny S. Lyall
Eric Y. Loytty
Bob Mason
Eric Pearson
Paul Rosenberg, Past President
Dan Silver
Richard James Smith
- Dominick Tamone
Tom Collins
- Van Ewert
Elias Awad
|
Want to write for the FOA
Newsletter? Send us articles,
news, anything you think might be interesting to the rest of the
membership!
Return
to Top
Return
to The FOA Home Page
(C)1999-2004, The Fiber Optic Association, Inc.
- Tech
Puzzler: Any type (e.g.
FC, SC, LC) with an APC endface polish. APC, which stands for
"angled physical contact," directs any light reflected
at the joint back at an angle which is too high for transmission,
so it will be immediately absorbed in the cladding. APC connectors
can have 60 dB of return loss - that means only 1/1,000,000 of
the transmitted light will be reflected back toward the source.