Despite industry best practice of inspecting and cleaning fiber optic endfaces, contaminated connections remain the number one cause of fiber related problems and test failures in data centers, campus and other enterprise or telecom networking environments.
Every fiber installation relies on proper endface cleaning practices for good reason. Network performance is only as good as the weakest link, and the weakest link is wherever a fiber endface is exposed – whether at a patch panel, equipment port or at the end of a patch cord or jumper.
This White Paper from Fluke Networks provides an overview of proper fiber cleaning and inspection techniques including: inspecting for assurance, which tools to use, understanding grading & certification via standards, MPO inspection camera issues, knowing what to clean and inspect, and cleaning for performance.