Spotting Fibre In The Wild: What to look out for to identify fibre when you’re out and about.

Most people will be aware of their household router (Optical network terminal / ONT) and the lead that attaches it to the box on the wall (Access terminal box / ATB), but will be pretty clueless beyond this. It’s not surprising as the vast majority of the networks that surround us are hidden, quite deliberately.

Posted by Sarah On 01 August 2024

So we have put this basic guide together to help identify what likely going on in your area. The info below is mostly for interest and may not reflect your actual setup, it will give you an idea of what the engineer with the orange vest is doing at the back of their van.

Your internet service provider (ISP) is a good place to start. They will have all kinds of electronic components that sorts your ‘Netflix’ signal from my ‘Amazon’ signal, and launches it into the PON (Passive optical network) that supplies your home. Surprisingly, from this point onwards, there are no more electronics until the signal reaches your house. This could be up to 20km but on average, less than 11km. This signal is made up of pulses of light that travels through the various fibres, splices, connectors etc.

When your particular fibre enters your local area, it will pass through a number of green street cabinets, until it reaches the one closest to you. At this point, an engineer will usually cut a window into the large cable allowing your fibre to be separated out. The trunk cable will then pass on to the next green cabinet to supply internet elsewhere.

Your fibre will be spliced onto a new fibre, or onto the ‘IN’ leg of a Passive Lightwave Circuit (PLC), also known as a splitter. One of the splitter’s ‘OUT’ legs will be spliced onto a fibre and leave the cabinet, towards your home. The other legs will supply your neighbours. As your fibre leaves your cabinet, it will travel a short distance underground to either a pole, or a pit in the ground.

If it is a pole, it will rise to the top and pass to the next pole. There may be manypoles carrying your fibre, possibly branching out through a number of PLC’s. This will happen within a Fibre Access Terminal (FAT) box. A FAT box will generally contain a splice tray(s), adaptor plates or a combination of both. This will allow for pre-terminated drop cables to be plugged in to adaptors, or un-terminated cable to be spliced securely.

If it is a pit, the fibre will be pushed through ducting (empty tubes) that runs underground towards your home, or be spliced onto existing fibre within a waterproof dome enclosure, or something similar. Either way, as above, your fibre may pass through a number of pits, enclosures and PLC’s on it’s journey towards your home.

The fibre will continue on in this way until it is within sight of your home. At this point it will wait for an engineer to visit your home to connect you to your fibre. This process will involve pushing or blowing a fibre through a duct, right up to your house, or hanging a cable between your roof line and a pole. Either way, the fibre will be pinned to the outside of your house until it reaches the point of entry.

Your engineer will usually fit a small Terminal Box (TB) on the outside of your house that will cover a drill hole. The fibre will enter this box and pass through your wall. When it enters your home, it will likely connect to a short white lead that will join the internal socket to your router.

How can Leader Optec help with your last mile?

There is likely to be a cable join in almost every enclosure that the fibre passes through. Each of these need to be a high quality join, kept free of dirt and moisture in order to continue supplying you fast, error free internet for many years to come.

At Leader Optec we stock many components that are widely used in PON networks. We manufacture drop cables to our customer specifications. We are proud to be a distributor for Jonard Tools and Sumitomo, enabling us to supply a wide range of tools, test equipment and splicers.

To find out more please call our Team on 01745 586600 or email us on sales@leaderoptec.com

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