Unit 8 Assignment 1

A splice is a permanent connection of two optical fibers. Once the two optical fibers are joined with a splice, they cannot be taken apart and put back together as they can if you join them using connectors. A splice is typically employed for one of three reasons: to repair a damaged cable, to extend the length of a cable, or to join two different cable types. (Andrew Olivier, 2011, p. 617) There are some things that can affect splicing performance. There is Cladding Diameter which occurs when the cladding diameters of the transmit and receive optical fibers are not the same. Cladding diameter mismatch loss occurs when the cores of the optical fiber are not aligned because of the cladding diameter mismatch. Cladding diameter mismatch can cause the light exiting the core of the transmitting optical fiber to enter the cladding of the receiving optical fiber. The light entering the cladding is lost, causing attenuation. (Andrew Olivier, 2011, p. 620) Clad Concentricity variations can cause the optical fiber cores to misalign causing a loss when the light exiting the core of the transmitting optical fiber enters the core of the receiving optical fiber. The illustration in Figure 25.5 is greatly exaggerated to clearly show how a concentricity loss may occur. The core and cladding concentricity differences are typically less than 1μm. The noncircularity of the core will cause a loss when light from the core of the transmitting optical fiber enters the cladding of the receiving optical fiber. Cladding noncircularity may cause loss when it causes part of the core of the transmitting optical fiber to align with the cladding of the receiving optical fiber. Any light that enters the cladding of the receiving optical fiber will be lost, causing attenuation. (Andrew Olivier, 2011, pp. 620-621) The variations between two optical fibers that affect splice performance are referred to as intrinsic factors. One of the instrinsic factors that can affect connection performance is a Numerical

Cited: Andrew Olivier, B. W. (2011). Cabling The Complete Guide to Copper and Fiber-Optic Networking 4th Edition. Danvers: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. .