Cold temperatures remain a challenge for OSP fiber cabling deployment

An evergreen white paper from TE Connectivity/ADC examines the effects of cold temperatures on outside plant (OSP) cable assemblies for FTTP deployments.

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.

About the Author

Matt Vincent

Senior Editor

Matt Vincent is a B2B technology journalist, editor and content producer with over 15 years of experience, specializing in the full range of media content production and management, as well as SEO and social media engagement best practices, for both Cabling Installation & Maintenance magazine and its website CablingInstall.com. He currently provides trade show, company, executive and field technology trend coverage for the ICT structured cabling, telecommunications networking, data center, IP physical security, and professional AV vertical market segments. Email: [email protected]

Sign up for our eNewsletters
Get the latest news and updates
Little Beaver Inc.
A hydraulic earth drill with a high-torque anchor handle and utility anchor adapter can significantly improve safety for anchor installation.
Enabling a one-person install, the earth drill has several advantages over manually setting drive rods or using anchor crankers.
Creative Composites Group
These Tower Tech XR cooling towers use evaporative cooling to remove heat generated within the data center by IT equipment. Composite cooling towers are more compact and significantly lighter than metal towers. They arrive at a data center site pre-built.
Data center designers shouldn’t sleep on the benefits of fiberglass construction materials.