Truths About Installing and Testing Pre-terminated Fiber: An Eight-Part Series

Part 3:
How Can “Guaranteed Performance” Benefit
An Installer?
As the use of pre-terminated fiber becomes essential for high performance networks and new topologies in the
datacenter, keeping the basic fiber fundamentals in mind will alleviate business, technology and performance issues.

Introduction
Pre-terminated fiber trunks have attributes that are attractive in both LAN and SAN applications. For example, the time needed for
physical installation is greatly reduced while the effort devoted to field termination is all but eliminated. In addition to these factors a
term that is almost ubiquitous in the promotion of pre-terminated fiber is “guaranteed performance.” This sounds enticing but exactly
what does a guaranteed performance mean? How can a cable installer benefit from this promise of a guarantee? These questions are
discussed here.

The Guarantee
With pre-terminated fiber trunks, one thing can be safely assumed: the cables were assembled and connectorized by the vendor. Beyond
this, however, questions begin to arise since the specifics of performance guarantees often go unexplained. To eliminate uncertainties in
a guarantee an installer should probe on four points:

1. What constitutes the marketed performance by the manufacturer?

2. Does the cable performance meet a specific industry standard?
3. What are the specific terms and conditions of the guarantee?
4. How are time and materials for installation treated?

By answering these questions you will understand the workings and know if the guarantee is beneficial to you.

Question 1: Performance
The best performance metric is minimum guarantee optical performance. This minimum guarantee, along with the cable’s bandwidth,
ultimately determines a cable’s ability to deliver frames, packets or blocks of data at the specified speed. The parameters to understand
are:

• Cable Attenuation Coefficient – is the maximum amount of loss per meter. This varies according to the cable category and man-
ufacturer. Even short links may have a notable impact due to the heightened loss budgets required for high speed networks.
• Connector Insertion Loss – is the loss in signal power, resulting from the insertion of a connector. Depending upon the factory’s
termination processes, this value may range from 0.10 dB to 0.75 dB. In short distance links, connector insertion loss typically
has the greatest impact on optical performance.
• Connector Reflection – is the reflection caused by each connection in a fiber link. This value is also dependent upon the fac-
tory’s termination processes. Large reflections at the connector interface may increase the network’s bit error rate, ultimately
decreasing the cable’s ability to deliver data. Error rate is especially important in storage applications because SCSI (Small
Computer System Interface) storage protocols efficient and assume a lossless connection. Acceptable reflection performance
may range from -20 dB to -40 dB for multimode fiber.

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 Truths About Installing and Testing Preterminated Fiber: A Series

You must realize the factory specifications of optical performance are current ONLY at the time of manufacture. Once the cable has been
put through the rigors of the delivery & installation the optical performance is likely to have been affected.

The category of the cable also determines the ability of cable assembly to deliver data as these categories primarily define the cable’s
bandwidth. For instance, a pre-terminated trunk labeled OM4 cabling is guaranteed to have a minimum effective bandwidth of 4700
MHz over a kilometer.

The third best metric of performance is a minimum guaranteed bitrate since the purpose of a cable is to deliver frames, packets or blocks
of data at a desired speed. An example of a bitrate guarantee might be, “10Gbps over 300 meters with bit errors of less than 1x10-12.”
If a vendor’s guarantee specifies a bitrate, the installer has a quantified expectation of performance. But only if the optical performance
is maintained during the installation process.

If an installer were to allow a performance claim to remain undefined, they have no avenue of recourse in the event of non-performance.
If the parameters are not stated, the promise of a guarantee is baseless.

Question 2: Standards
Standards are unbiased touch points for what can be expected from a cabling product. A reputable cable vendor should willingly to reveal
the standards they adhere to in designing, building and testing a cable and cabling assembly. The key standards for fiber performance and
testing are:

Performance
ANSI/TIA-568-C.3
TIA-492.AAAD (OM4)
TIA-492.AAAC (OM3)
Parametric testing
TIA/EIA-455.107-A
TIA/EIA-455.171-A

By getting proof of conformance to appropriate standards an installer gains confidence in the product and negotiating strength in the
event of non-performance.

Question 3: Terms and Conditions

Terms and conditions are the details that make a guarantee useful. The “Ts and Cs” that should be spelled in a performance
guarantee are:

Defects in Materials, Design and Workmanship: These boilerplate guarantee elements would seem to be superseded by a Performance
guarantee, but explicit assurances that all defects are covered gives an installer the additional layers of confidence and protection
needed.

Duration: The duration of the guarantee should be clearly spelled out also. Silence on this point is not acceptable and a “lifetime”
guarantee should unambiguously describe the meaning of “lifetime”. Conversely, seven years should be the minimum duration and is the
industry defacto.

Redress: What happens in the event of product failure? Is the price refunded? Is the product replaced and labor reimbursed? Is the
product repaired? Here again, contractual ambiguity is not acceptable. ull material replacement at the vendor’s expense affords the
installer the best protection.

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 Truths About Installing and Testing Pre-terminated Fiber: A Series

Field testing: Most fiber vendors require field testing to validate their warranty. The installer must understand the vendor’s position and
conform to it. The scope of testing should be stated and understood by the installer, as well as the vendor’s test documentation
requirements. A manufacturing vendor that is vague on testing leaves open the door for finger-pointing and creates a potential exposure
for the installer.

Question #4: Time and Materials

This could be considered one of the terms of the agreement, but it is especially interesting to installers. The question that needs to be
answered is, in the event of a failure is the installer “on the hook” for the time and materials to repair or replace bad cable? This is not
the same as product redress; this is a question of field labor. Since no installer wants to spend scarce resources fixing problems rooted in
bad cable, connectors or cable assemblies, the responsibilities for this should be spelled out in the guarantee.

Summary
It is a mistake to overlook the specifics of a guarantee, especially one that can be inferred to solve many problems. Cable installers
should invest the effort to study performance guarantees for pre-terminated fiber trunks to ensure that it protects and benefits them
rather than creating a cloud of imprecise, indefensible expectations.

Contact Fluke Networks: Phone 800-283-5853 or Email: info@flukenetworks.com.

Fluke Networks
P.O. Box 777, Everett, WA USA 98206-0777

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worldwide. To find your local office contact details,
go to www.flukenetworks.com/contact.

©2011 Fluke Corporation.

Printed in U.S.A. 7/2011 XXXXXXXA

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