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Bent Fibers Put Networks At Risk
opticsorg writes "The combination of moderate optical powers and tight bends can prove catastrophic for optical fibers, according to research carried out by BT Exact in the UK. Although the effect is unlikely to cause problems in current networks, it means that designers may need to think carefully before scaling up the power in their systems or deploying Raman amplifiers with pump powers of several hundred milliwatts or more. In the July 10th issue of Electronics Letters, Ed Sikora and his colleagues report that powers as low as 500 mW can induce permanent damage in singlemode fiber that is bent (13 mm bend diameter or less). 'These bends could be found in exchange racks or splice trays, for example, especially if a fiber is tugged or pulled,' Sikora told Optics.org. The BT researchers carried out tests on four types of fiber subjected to a range of bend diameters (5 to 15 mm) and optical powers of up to a few watts. In all cases the fibers fail within 53 hours. 'What was unexpected was that the catastrophic failure can occur in 90 bends at fairly low powers of less than 1 W or so,' said Sikora. 'It's important to understand that we're not saying that networks are going to fall over tomorrow, but as powers go up you have to aware this effect could occur under certain circumstances.'"
No kidding? Tight bends in fiber are a problem? You mean all those equations for theta max that we learned the first day in FO engineering class are correct? You gotta be kidding me! What a revolution! Next you'll be telling me that the sky is blue!
"Let's do this again, only using a method we like to call, 'the right way'"
Using teleportation technology a malicious individual could remotely install a new high-output DWDM device on the fibre and turn it on. The resulting high-power outpu would surely cause such failures and the authorities would be powerless to trace down who did the teleportation.
Maybe we should all be considerate and send data with less 1's and more 0's. When sending emails, don't use uppercase letters, try to use websites that use no graphics, and for gods sake, don't compress or encrypt anything!
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2B1ASK1
You sir, are a fucktard.