As fiber networks grow, maintaining a track record of cable splices becomes more and more challenging. Without an effective way to organize splicing information, network developers and field technicians are left in the dark when it comes to making changes or updates to existing cables.

What Is Operations Support?

Even after fiber networks have been designed and installed, they require ongoing care and management. Much like how gardens need careful attention, fiber networks need to be actively maintained in order to flourish. Without a clear understanding of the current-state of affairs, it’s difficult to manage existing operations and plan for future growth.

Recently, OSPInsight rolled out the Route Schematic tool which helps fiber network managers visualize key characteristics about their existing cable routes. Although all of the information contained in route schematics are available through other reporting tools, there is no cleaner way to see and share how fibers are being utilized.

There are myriad of stories where fiber optic cables are broken and resources are marshalled to find the location of the break and fix the fiber.  In the United States over a 9 month period monitoring a Google Alerts feed there were over 120 reported fiber optic cable breaks. Since most breaks never get reported it can be assumed that this is only a small fraction.

Breaks in fiber cables can be extremely disruptive, which is why quick attention and efficient restoration are so important.

When a fault causes service to go down, you need to be able to identify both the suspect cable and the exact location of the physical break in order to remedy the situation. Without the proper tools and resources, this is very challenging and risks extended downtimes and lost productivity for your end users.

One of the most widely used reports in fiber network management is the taper report which provides a detailed view of the utilization of individual fibers within a specific cable.

When it comes to managing your fiber optic networks, OSPInsight offers one of the most user-friendly and intuitive solutions in the industry. Although feature rich, OSPInsight’s software is easy to learn and aligns perfectly with the real-world processes of building fiber networks. In this article, we’re going to highlight a couple key features that make OSPInsight such an effective tool for managing your fiber optic networks.

Twenty years ago, the only way to document fiber optic networks was by putting pencil to paper. But In 1996, OSPInsight championed an industry-wide shift that transformed an antiquated process into a software driven database.

What Is A Fiber Network Capacity Report?

One of the most valuable tools for fiber optic network developers is the fiber capacity report.

As the name suggests, a capacity report provides a real-time view of how much open capacity exists across the cables within a fiber network, all of the way down to the individual strand.

Over the past five decades, fiber optic technology has improved tremendously, transforming the telecommunications industry and the broader global digital landscape. Today, fiber networks span entire countries and oceans, carrying data over vast distances at near-light speed.

In this article, we take a brief look at the history of fiber networks and then discuss what lies ahead as the technology continues to evolve.