dark fiber and sfp distance limitations

Sat Jan 2 01:24:31 UTC 2010

The best OTDR data I have ever gotten prior to signing an agreement for strands is the readings from another pair on the same route.    That being said most dark fiber agreements have some sort of minimum performance specifications in them.

John van Oppen
Spectrum Networks LLC
Direct: 206.973.8302
Main: 206.973.8300
Website: http://spectrumnetworks.us

-----Original Message-----
From: William Herrin [mailto:herrin-nanog at dirtside.com] 
Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 5:11 PM
To: ML
Cc: nanog at nanog.org
Subject: Re: dark fiber and sfp distance limitations

On Fri, Jan 1, 2010 at 7:24 PM, ML <ml at kenweb.org> wrote:
> Pardon my ignorance in this area but is too much to ask for OTDR data before
> signing contracts?  In addition to data on the make of the fiber if you
> wanted to do xWDM in the future.

Yes, it's too much to ask. They won't splice your path until you sign
the contracts and you can't get useful OTDR and loss readings until
the fiber is spliced.

You can probably put an escape clause in the contract that lets you
exit with little or no cost if the readings aren't good enough after
the fact. If you're not time-constrained, you can probably request a
pre-check for a modest fee after main splicing but before trenching to
your endpoints.

Regards,
Bill Herrin

-- 
William D. Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/>
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