OPTICAL DISTRIBUTION FRAME PERFORMANCE INDEX (OPI) A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO EVALUATE THE PERFORMANCE OF AN OPTICAL DISTRIBUTION FRAME

摘要

In fiber optic connectivity, optical distribution frame (ODF) is used in providing a central connection point for a large number of fiber optic cables, such as outside plant cables (OSP), pigtails, patch cords, etc. Since ODF has to handle a large number of different types of fiber optic cables, the number of cables inside an ODF can be from several hundreds to a thousand and the length for each of them can be from a few meters to more than 10 meters long. The total cable length for an ODF to accommodate can be therefore as high as 20,000 meters. Cable management becomes an essential and critical factor to be considered in order to provide a convenient and safety way of operation and maintenance to protect against the damage of those fiber optic cables that are transmitting tremendous traffic of information. However, many of the existing ODF products in the market do not provide decent cable management function. One of the reasons is price consideration. The manufacturers of those ODF try to pack as many terminations as possible into an ODF to make the price per termination low in the sacrifice of cable management function. Another reason is that there is no systematic measurement of the cable management concept for ODF within the industry. In such circumstance, the users are difficult to makes product comparison between vendors. Inexperienced engineers have an incorrect concept that the more termination an ODF can accommodate, the better the product is without consideration of future operation, maintenance and expansion. An example of ODF with poor cable management is shown here.