July, 2004

Previous Issues: June, 2004, May, 2004, April, 2004, March 2004, January, 2004, December, 2003, November, 2003 October 2003 September 2003, August 2003, July 2003, June 2003, March 15, 2003, October, 2002 , August, 2002, May, 2002


 
 
FTTH Is On A Roll
Fiber To The Home or Fiber To The Premises, as it is sometimes called, is beginning to look more and more real. It ws reported recently by Bloomberg News that Verizon will spend $800,000,000 this year on FTTP, with sites in Keller, TX, Huntington baech, CA, Tampa and Hillsborough, FL and other localities around the US. Verizon has 55 million local lines and says they have already connected large businesses with fiber.
Once fiber is installed to the subscriber, Verizon will offer a new Internet service, FIOS, that will be 4 to 15 times faster than DSL (sounds like 10Base-T.)
Verizon recently made a presentation on their plans to the New England Fiberoptic Council. Vincent O'Byrne Director ­Technology
Verizon, presented technical details of the PON (passive optical network) network which will use three wavelengths: 1490 nm for data and1550 nm for videoto the premises, with 1310 nm used for return to the CO. To see the Verizon presentation, download the PPT at http://www.nefc.com/2004_Downloads/FTTP_NEFC_2004.zip
 
The Fiber To The Home Council http://www.ftthcouncil.org/ has updated their list of communities with FTTH projeccts, now numbering 128 communities in 32 states. They also report average subscriber rates (i.e. homes paying the higher costs of FTTH services) at 40% with rates over 75% in some areas.
 

Who Has Fiber To Their "Building"?
A market research group, CIR, reports that 37% of the 8000 downtown office buildings in the US have fiber connections. Manhattan alone has 3200 office buildings with a 55% connection rate. Most major cities have connection rates of more than 35%.
 
 

FTTH PON Networks Require New Testing Procedures
 
Passive optical networks (PON) use splitters to allow networks to broadcast data or video and combine incoming signals. But testing through a splitter, especially with an OTDR, is not easy. Splitters can have up to 32 ports and 20 dB loss per path. Each path needs to be characterized with an OLTS. Shooting through a splitter toward multiple fibers can be confusing to an OTDR, which sees all the subsequent fibers overlapped. Knowing the network layout and understanding the OTDR make it possible to use an OTDR to characterize PONs. A good place for an overview is an EXFO application note at
http://www.exfo.com/en/support/WaveReview/2004-June/WRarticle1.asp
 
 

 
 
FOA Certification Top Choice

The FOA CFOT and CFOS programs continue to gain momentum in fiber optics. Over 13,000 CFOTs have been certified by 114 schools as the FOA completes its 9th year. Since our founding in July, 1995, we have dedicated ourselves to promoting fiber optics and professionalism in fiber optics personnel, focusing on education and certification. We are continuing to add new schools and more CFOTs as users of fiber optics learn that a CFOT is the indication of a professional, well-trained fiber optic technician. Now with FTTH (fiber to the home) finally taking off, demand for CFOTs is rising and schools are responding by expanding programs rapidly.
The FOA now has approved programs at 114 organizations, welcoming new additions like Corning Cable Systems for their installation training programs and NASA's Goldstone Tracking Station. The complete list of FOA-Approved schools is at http://www.thefoa.org/foa_aprv.htm.
 

Tech Puzzler
Which connector type would you choose for high bandwidth analog video (CATV) over singlemode fiber?
 
Answer below
 
 

New Tech Topics

New PowerPoint Presentation Introduces Fiber Optics
The FOA has created a short PowerPoint presentation that introduces you to fiber optics and talks about job opportunities in the field. It was intended for instructors to introdcue studnets to the field, but it's a good introduction for anyone. It's about 3 meg file so it takes a while to download and you need PowerPoint to view it. See http://www.thefoa.org/ppt/

How Optical Fiber Is Made

Singlemode Fiber Nomenclature

Plastic Optical Fibers (POF)

Wavelength-Division Multiplexing

Fiber Amplifiers

Don't miss Eric Pearson's Newsletters - with some tests on connectors.

New sections of "Lennie Lightwave's Guide To Fiber Optics" covers loss testing of fiber optic cables and OTDRs.


 

Your Name, CFOT - It pays to advertise!

The FOA encourages CFOTs to use the logo on their business cards, letterhead, truck or van, etc. and provides logo files on this site for that purpose. But we are also asked about how to use the CFOT or CFOS certifications. Easy, you can refer to yourself as "Your Name, CFOT" or "Your Name, CFOS/T" for example.

Feel free to use the logo and designations to promote your achievements and professionalism!


Remember To Renew Your Certification !

Remember to renew your FOA certification. All current CFOTs have a ID Card with their certification data and we keep a database of current CFOTs to answer inquiries regarding your qualifications if needed. If you forgot to renew, use the online application form or the FOA online store to renew NOW!


Want To Get FOA Email?
We have been asked if we could send the FOA newsletter by email or post it on the website. We are looking into that and will definitely get one started soon. When you renew your certification, you will be asked if you are interested in email newsletters and if so, you will be asked to give your email address for us to use in a mailing list. If you want to get started now, send an email to info@thefoa.org with the subject "eMail List"
Note that The FOA never releases its mailing lists for any use! Your data is always safe with us.


To Contact The FOA:
 
The Fiber Optic Association
1119 S Mission Road, # 355
Fallbrook, CA 92028
 
Office Hours 10AM-5 PM Pacific Time
Telephone: 760-451-3655
Fax: 781-207-2421
info@thefoa.org
info@thefoa.org



Officers and
Board of Directors
Jim Hayes, President, Treasurer
Eric Pearson, Director of Certification
Tom Collins, Gateway Comm. College
Van Ewert, AESA
Bill Graham
Karen Hayes
 
FOA Staff:
Jim Hayes, newsletter, website editor
Karen Hayes, Administration

Administration:
The FOA is managed under contract by:
VDV Works LLC
1119 S Mission Road, # 355
Fallbrook, CA 92028
Telephone: 760-451-3655
Fax: 781-207-2421
email: info@vdvworks.com
FOA Board of Advisors
Elias Awad, Clerk, Director of Education
Tony Beam
Dave Chaney
F. Douglas Elliot, Past President
William H. Graham
Jim Hayes, President, Treasurer
John Highhouse, Past President
Danny S. Lyall
Eric Y. Loytty
Bob Mason
Eric Pearson
Paul Rosenberg, Past President
Dan Silver
Richard James Smith
Dominick Tamone
Tom Collins
Van Ewert
Elias Awad



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(C)1999-2004, The Fiber Optic Association, Inc.

 

Tech Puzzler: Any type (e.g. FC, SC, LC) with an APC endface polish. APC, which stands for "angled physical contact," directs any light reflected at the joint back at an angle which is too high for transmission, so it will be immediately absorbed in the cladding. APC connectors can have 60 dB of return loss - that means only 1/1,000,000 of the transmitted light will be reflected back toward the source.