Jim Hayes

Networks running on fiber optics are generally state-of-the-art, but even advanced networks can be improved. That means faster speeds and more traffic density. Many network enhancements can be done without upgrading the fiber...

When someone mentions safety, of course the first thing you think about is protecting your workers and yourself from harm on the job. While obviously important, I want to address another safety issue: installed fiber optic...

A city manager called the Fiber Optics Association for advice regarding a fiber optic network his organization was planning. They were developing the scope of work and a request for proposal on a fiber optic network that...

Sometimes the simple things get ignored, or lost, or forgotten. With all the technical questions we get at the Fiber Optics Association, we are often reminded that these details are sometimes very important and are worthy of...

My February column covers the reasons for power and loss budgets and how to interpret them. In this article, I’ll show you how to calculate loss budgets properly. Remember the differences: a power budget gives you the range...

When you design and build a fiber optic network, the goal is to have it work properly with the communications networks you need. Communications networks generally specify only two parameters for the cable plant: the type of...

In my January 2020 fiber optic update, I wrote, “But later in the year [2019], it seemed that disruption was being disrupted.” Well, 2020 did not wait until later in the year; disruption began in full force by early March...

Around the world, hundreds of millions of homes and businesses are connected to the internet on optical fiber, and almost every one with a network architecture called passive optical network (PON). There are two main...

When I first started working in fiber optics 40-plus years ago, the world was quite different. Computers were big rooms full of cabinets used by businesses and monitors had cathode-ray tubes, just like the televisions back...

Last month I wrote about a change in fiber optic standards that seemed out of step with the technical community. That raised questions such as how do fiber optic standards get written? And what are standards anyway...

Recently I was swamped with almost a dozen proposed updates to Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) standards to vote on and review. In fiber optic technology, most standards deal with the specification and testing...

Around the year 2000, there was a battle royale between fiber and copper cabling forces to capture the desktop. For more than a decade, unshielded twisted-pair copper—what many of us still call Cat 5—had ruled the local area...