Fibre optic testing

[Badaz52]

Hi everyone,

 

I am carrying out a 10gb feasibility study on our network and need to a) find out which type of OM cables are in use and b) what the accurate distance of these connections are.

 

I know I'm probably going to have to physically check the cables to see what OM version they are but in terms of measuring the distance surely I can do this accurately with a tester of some sort?

 

Does anyone know what sort of tester I'd need?

[supportman]

I'd be really interested in this as well. I need to do a fiber audit.

 

Anyone any ideas on how old OM1 and OM2 are so I could at least guess?

[Badaz52]

I'd be really interested in this as well. I need to do a fiber audit.

 

Anyone any ideas on how old OM1 and OM2 are so I could at least guess?

 

I know OM1 and OM2 are still widely available and will support 10GB but over really small distances. 33m for OM1 and 82m for OM2.

[mavhc]

https://www.fibercables.com/blogs/faq/12827525-what-do-om1-om2-om3-and-om4-mean gives suggested colours

[Badaz52]

https://www.fibercables.com/blogs/faq/12827525-what-do-om1-om2-om3-and-om4-mean gives suggested colours

 

Thank you, I think it might just be for patch cables as opposed to the cable itself.

[Warwick_Tech]

In my experience, yellow is 100mb, orange is 1GB and cyan is 10GB for patch cables;

 

However I was amazed when our old fibre (that I think is OM1 or 2) carried full 10GB lines to all our cabinets without any modification -

 

My suggestion would be to buy a cheap 10G switch (Unifi) and two GBICS to test; you never know, right? Our building was built around 2005

[mavhc]

Could measure it with a micrometer

[bald_pig]

For distance, you'll need a tool like this:

https://www.flukenetworks.com/datacom-cabling/fiber-testing/fiber-quickmap

 

For version, it should be marked on the sleeve, like ethernet cables, so if you are able to read the sleeve before it goes into any walls you should get the info there

[mdrabble]

If they are pre-terminated fibres, they sometimes have a url and test code label on each end near the tails so you can see details such as cable length and date cable was made/tested.