Commscope Indoor-Outdoor Fiber Optic Cable – Advantages Over Non-Armoured Cables
Fiber optic cable is essential to supporting communication networks across a campus. These cables deliver outstanding audio, video and telephony signals.
Indoor cables are designed for controlled indoor environments with the ability to resist moisture, temperature fluctuations and UV radiation. Outdoor cables have additional layers or armors to protect them from rodent bites, digging and physical stress.
Enhanced Mechanical and Environmental Attributes
Compared to their non-armored counterparts, armored fiber cables can better resist damage from physical stress and environmental factors. For example, the outer layer of an armored cable provides protection from mechanical impacts like rodent chewing and forklift crushing. This can help minimize data loss and network disruption.
Armored cables also offer better resistance to environmental factors that can degrade fiber strands over time. These include moisture, temperature fluctuations, and UV radiation. In addition, these cables are typically rated for direct burial and can withstand high levels of stress without the need for conduit or other protective infrastructure.
If you need a more robust, long-term solution indoor-outdoor-armored-fiber-optic-cable-cable for your campus network, consider SYSTIMAX heavy-duty indoor/outdoor fiber-optic cable. This construction offers enhanced resilience to protect against physical damage and extreme conditions, including harsh outdoor environments like airport installations. It meets all standard fire safety requirements and can withstand high stresses and bending radius limitations, while still maintaining excellent signal transmission properties.
Additionally, SYSTIMAX’s Indoor/Outdoor Fiber-Optic Cable features a unique, ultra-thin micro armour construction that is up to 65 percent thinner in diameter than traditional aluminum interlocking armor. This means that it can be deployed with less hassle, resulting in quicker installation times and reduced costs. The cable is also plenum rated, which eliminates the need for a transition splice in locations that require a plenum rated jacket such as ventilation shafts.
Reduced Need for Transitions Within the Campus Network
Commscope offers a range of indoor and outdoor fiber cables to ensure network connectivity. Our indoor cable includes tight-buffered and loose tube designs to address the needs of various environments, ensuring high-speed communication and reliable data transmission. Our outdoor cables support long-distance connections between buildings and in remote areas.
For indoor applications, consider a tight-buffered design that features a protective buffer around each individual fiber strand. This minimizes the need for transitions in the network and protects against physical stress. Alternatively, a loose-tube design allows for flexible installation and simple termination. Both types of cable are available with single-mode and multi-mode fibers for optimum performance.
Both types of cable are available with a variety of jacketing materials to meet specific environmental conditions and installation requirements. For example, LSZH jackets are ideal for environments with fire safety concerns as they emit minimal smoke and toxic fumes during combustion. In addition, PVC and LSZH are UL-listed as non-hazardous electrical insulation materials that protect against moisture and temperature fluctuations.
When choosing an indoor or outdoor cable, ensure it is compatible with local regulations and complies with building codes and standards. Thorough documentation and labeling will streamline maintenance and troubleshooting.
Increased Flexibility and Durability
While there are many types of fiber cables to choose from, not all have the versatility to be used for both indoor and outdoor applications. Having one cable that can handle both environments can save valuable installation time and reduce material costs, since technicians wont have to splice outdoor cables to flame-retardant indoor ones.
This can also help to avoid loss of signal quality by reducing the distance between end-points. For example, when deploying a fiber rack system in a campus facility, using indoor/outdoor fiber optic cable can eliminate the need to couple an outdoor and an indoor cable together which can cause fiber losses.
A good choice for indoor/outdoor installations is FMUSERs new Ultra Thin Micro Armor fiber optic cable, which offers a revolutionary design and is significantly thinner and lighter than traditional aluminum interlocking armored cables, while being equally as crush resistant. It is ideal for headend termination to a fiber backbone, termination of fiber rack systems, multi-floor deployment where select fibers are used on each floor, and intra-building backbones.
We also supply a wide range of ribbon fiber drop cables, distribution cables and break-out cables for outdoor installations. These include tight buffer and loose tube designs to accommodate riser, plenum and duct installations as well as direct burial and aerial/lashed outside plant. They feature a high fiber count option for increased capacity and offer the choice of metal central strength members, corrugated steel tape or an armored layer to protect against rodent damage and physical impact.
Lower Cost
As the name suggests, indoor/outdoor fiber optic cable combines the benefits of inside-plant cable with those of outdoor cables. This construction is primarily gel-filled and rated for direct burial or aerial installation on utility poles. This type of cable is very durable and can withstand rodents, freezing, light crush forces, and other elements. It can also be bonded and grounded to help protect the cables from external interference like electrical currents that could disrupt service.
While the durability of this type of cable can provide added peace of mind, it optical-power-meters does come at a cost. However, it may save time and money in situations where a single construction can be used for both indoor and outdoor installations. For instance, if an installer needs to run a long distance of cable between and within buildings, this can reduce the need for multiple transition boxes and splice kits for each connection.
Another example is when a telecommunications company needs to lay a backbone in an area where there is a risk of lightning strikes or other natural disasters. In these cases, the installer might choose to use an outdoor rated cable with an LSZH jacket that meets flame retardant requirements. This allows the telecommunications company to avoid having to splice the cable into an indoor rated cable, and it can save on labor costs, materials, and time in the long run.
