UISP Fiber - Fiber Connectors and Splicing

This article shows the different methods that can be used to inter-connect different fiber cables and accessories.

Differences between Connectors and Splices

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Example diagram showing how to inter-connect the UFiber cables, splitters with male connectors and adapters with female connectors.

The simplest method of connecting UFiber equipment is to use pre-terminated fiber cables with connectors which can simply plug into the other accessories. The official UFiber GPON accessories use SC/UPC and SC/APC connectors which can be used to quickly and easily set up GPON networks. The Ubiquiti fiber cable accessories with connectors are:

• UF-SM-PATCH-UPC-APC Fiber patch feeder cable with one male SC/APC and one male SC/UPC connector (insertion loss of -0.3 dB or less).
• UF-SM-PATCH-APC-APC Fiber patch drop cable with male SC/APC connectors (insertion loss of -0.3 dB or less).
• UF-SPLITTER-4 PLC splitter with male SC/APC connectors (split ratio 1:4) with an insertion loss of -7.4 dB.
• UF-SPLITTER-8 PLC splitter with male SC/APC connectors (split ratio 1:8) with an insertion loss of -10.5 dB.
• UF-SPLITTER-16 PLC splitter with male SC/APC connectors (split ratio 1:16) with an insertion loss of -13.7 dB.
• UF-SPLITTER-32 PLC splitter with male SC/APC connectors (split ratio 1:32) with an insertion loss of -17.0 dB.
• UF-ADAPTER-AP Adapter with female SC/APC connectors used to inter-connect the male connectors (insertion loss of -0.2 dB or less).

There is more information about the official accessories in the Accessories article.

It can be required in a production environments to splice fiber cables instead of using connectors. The benefits of either mechanical or fusion splicing fiber is the decreased signal loss. With mechanical splicing, the fiber strands are firmly held in place so that light can pass through. With fusion splicing, the fiber strands are fused together. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages:

Connectors

• Easy and quick deployments of GPON networks.
• Most dB loss.

Mechanical Splice

• Time consuming.
• Margin for error.
• Low initial investment cost.
• High variable cost per splice.
• Less dB loss than connectors.

Fusion Splice

• Time consuming.
• Margin for error.
• High initial investment cost.
• Low variable cost per splice.
• Least dB loss.