A fiber patch cable, which was being stored in an unsecure telecommunications closet with janitorial supplies, was damaged and caused an outage. A network technician replaced the broken cable with a new cable from a sealed bag. However, this solution did not resolve the outage. Which of the following is the MOST likely explanation?
In fiber optic communications, even small amounts of dirt or debris can cause significant signal loss or complete failure. The new cable came from a sealed bag, but it is still possible for contaminants to have been present on the connectors. Fiber optic connectors are highly sensitive, and standard practice involves cleaning the ends of the connector before installation, regardless of the source. Given that the outage persisted despite replacing the cable, the most likely explanation is dirty optical cables.
Lol what the hell is this question. So you're telling me the correct answer is TX / RX sides are mixed up, and all that stuff being said about a unsecure telecoms closet stored with janitorial supplies is just there to F with us?
D. Dirty optical cables Optical fiber cables are delicate and require a lot of care when handling to ensure their efficiency. Even tiny specks of dust, dirt or any other debris could get onto the fiber connector end-face and can cause signal loss or even complete downtime. When the technician replaced the broken cable, it's possible that the replacement cable has debris or is dirty, which can block the light path and therefore, the signal.
The replacement cable was a new cable from a SEALED bag. It is very unlikely debris or dirt would be an issue here. I am going with answer C.
C. Reversed transmit and receive If replacing the damaged fiber patch cable did not resolve the outage, the issue may be due to a problem with the connection, such as a reversed transmit and receive. In fiber optic connections, it's crucial to ensure that the transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) fibers are correctly aligned. Reversing these connections can lead to communication issues and network outages. The technician should check the fiber connections and ensure they are properly aligned.
Reference: https://www.flukenetworks.com/blog/cabling-chronicles/b-c-s-fiber-polarity The transmit and receive sides of a duplex connection are easy to mix up in an installation. You can’t always tell which fiber is which, especially in an installation where both ends aren’t visible at once.
So, none of the answers are correct. But, I guess the "best" answer is C.
bit confused here, another similar question where cleaning optical was the answer. my understanding is that we should go with basic trouble show and way up. Cleaning should come first but are wo going with reverse tx/rx because cable was out from sealed bag?
I always clean “sealed” new fiber cables
Id say D
I will go for C just because they said it is in sealed packet (although that does not mean much in practice)