Over the years I've come across situations where I needed to extend a fiber jumper from one location to another and didn't feel that a traditional jumper would be protected enough in our environment. The first solution to this problem was to run the fiber jumper through some plastic conduit. This not only took a very long time, but looked terrible when we were done. The second method was to pay a company for a made to order armored fiber cable. The trouble here is the cable is way too stiff and when you get to the end you still have a few feet of standard, unprotected fiber cables. This also looks messy on the termination end.
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loose fibers at the end of an armored cable
certainly don't belong in a harsh environment |
When I first started searching online I had a hard time finding armored fiber jumpers. However, this past year I was introduced to a company that changed all of that.
SanSpot.com* is an online company that specializes in optical storage and networking needs. I haven't used many of their products, but I can speak very highly of the heavy armored fiber jumpers they carry made by Optospan. I've purchased a few of these over the past year and continue to purchase them for when I'm installing a fiber jumper in a less than ideal environment. For example, if I'm connecting a telco fiber termination to a router in another room or if I'm connecting an IDF to an FDP in a harsh environment. These cables are premium quality and made to last. They mention military and tactical environments in the description and I can believe it. The cables are very flexible but very durable. They are wrapped in steel and Kevlar and come in many sizes and configurations. You will pay almost double of what a normal fiber jumper costs, but it's well worth it. I highly recommend you check out their website the next time you're in the market for a fiber jumper that's being installed in a less than ideal environment.
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| A 10M heavy armored cable from SanSpot.com |
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Armored 10G fiber uplinking a switch on the
opposite side of the data center. |
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An armored cable in a sea of traditional fiber jumpers.
SanSpot mentions that this fiber is 100 times stronger
than regular fiber optic cable. |
*I am not affiliated with SanSpot.com or Optospan.com in any way. I'm simply a satisfied customer that's trying to get the word out about an otherwise hard to find product.