Maintaining NDR Connectors and Cables

The expanded use of optical links in NDR requires thorough and consistent maintenance procedures.

Optics Need Cleaning

All optical fiber cables as well as the transceivers ship with their connector faces protected by dust caps.

During installation it is imperative that you clean the MPO connector as well as the transceiver receptacle before cable insertion. This must be done every time that a cable is plugged in.

Should a cable be inadvertently detached, clean again before insertion. The active optical connection is only 9 μm in diameter and the signal can easily be degraded by dust.

Plugging the cable without cleaning may cause degradation of the transmission, thereby resulting in the loss of data.

The type of fiber cleaner needed for MPO connectors is shown in Figure 23.

Figure 23. Fiber cleaner for MPO connectors

Figure 24 shows examples of a connector getting contaminated if not cleaned for each insertion. The little bright spot in the center is the active area for a single mode fiber, which is only 9 μm across. It got covered after the second insertion.

Figure 24. Examples of connector contamination if not cleaned

The difference between how an MPO connector could look, but should look, is illustrated in Figure 25.

Figure 25. How an MPO connector could look and should look