What is an enterprise network?

An enterprise network, also called a LAN (local area network) or datacomms network, is one that is used to provide communications around a specific establishment or organisation of some sort. It might be a private commercial enterprise such as an office block or large company site. Or it may be a public organisation such as a school, university or hospital. It may just be for one building, or it may cover a campus site where there are many buildings to be connected together. There are other special types of enterprise networks, such as those for datacentres or for heavy industrial sites, which each have their own particular requirements and standards.

The fibre type in enterprise networks is likely to be singlemode fibre for the longer links between buildings in a campus network, but may be multimode fibre for shorter links in small sites and single buildings. The transmission equipment that operates over multimode fibre is typically cheaper than that required for operating over singlemode fibre. The fibre optic cables that are used in a standard small scale enterprise network, will typically have a relatively small number of fibres which makes the cables and fibres easier to manage and terminate. However in datacenters you are likely to find very high fibre count cables.

In enterprise networks the cables usually run directly from patch panel to patch panel and so it is unlikey that there will be a requirement to do any external cable jointing. However, where the cables are terminated they may need to be prepared ready for the individual fibres to be terminated inside the patch panels. Using the right tooling and techniques is important to prepare the cables efficiently and safely without damage to the fibres. Cables may be terminated by fusion splicing on factory made splice-on connectors or pre-terminated pigtails or patch cords. Plug and play pre-terminated fibre optic cable assemblies, which are effectively a complete cabling link supplied ready to install and use, are also used for suitable environments and requirements.

Whether you have actually fitted fibre optic connectors onsite yourself, or whether you are using splice-on connectors or pre-terminated pigtails and patch cords, it is essential that connector end faces are clean before they are connected up. Learning about the right tools and equipment for inspecting and cleaning connectors is very important, as well as knowing when & how to use them! As data rates have increased, the allowable loss on a fibre optic link has gone down, particularly for multimode systems. This means that it is very important that you can measure accurately & reliably the total end-to-end loss of the cabling link. This is known as insertion loss measurement (ILM). Often OTDR testing is also required to prove the quality of the installation. Although OTDR testing in enterprise networks is less complicated than for long distance core networks, it is still important that you can do it properly in accordance with the standards. The more you know, the more confident you will be and you’ll be able to deal with, or report correctly on, any unexpected issues that you find.