An evergreen white paper from TE Connectivity/ADC examines the effects of cold temperatures on outside plant (OSP) cable assemblies for FTTP deployments. Meeting the unique challenges of FTTP requires the production of components that are cost-effective, yet still perform to OSP standards under austere temperature conditions, the companies contend.
Insertion loss (IL) failures, for instance, are cited as oftentimes a direct result of cable and cable assembly component shrinkage due to low temperatures. Exposing cable and cable assemblies to cold weather is typically the most common cause of insertion loss failures in OSP architectures, notes the document.
As temperatures approach -40 degrees, the thermoplastic components in a cable's breakout, jacketing, and fiber fanout sections will tend to shrink more than the optical fiber. If this shrinkage isn’t somehow addressed in the manufacturing process, the optical fibers can eventually break.
View/Download the white paper.