Solved: Testing New dark fiber installation

bravob · ‎04-07-2008

What is the best way and/or best software for testing a new installation of dark fiber, not only the physical but also test for L2 errors etc, the fiber connects / terminates at two 6500's and will be configuring a /30 network as to not disrupt anything else in the network, thanks in advance.

Tom Randstrom · ‎04-08-2008

From the physical side, it is important to document the fiber you have. Using an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) will allow you to capture (document) the fiber link's signature [fiber attenuation, splice/connector loss(es), splice/connector location(s), and fiber length].

Once a link is documented, future troubleshooting is simplified because you know your starting point.

The following Fluke OTDR seems to provide some useful features (optional optical scope) and documentation capabilities.

Fluke OTDR

<http://www.flukenetworks.rsvp1.com/fnet/en-us/products/OptiFiber+Certifying+OTDR/Overview.htm>

Hope this helps!

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Tom Randstrom · ‎04-08-2008

From the physical side, it is important to document the fiber you have. Using an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) will allow you to capture (document) the fiber link's signature [fiber attenuation, splice/connector loss(es), splice/connector location(s), and fiber length].

Once a link is documented, future troubleshooting is simplified because you know your starting point.

The following Fluke OTDR seems to provide some useful features (optional optical scope) and documentation capabilities.

Fluke OTDR

<http://www.flukenetworks.rsvp1.com/fnet/en-us/products/OptiFiber+Certifying+OTDR/Overview.htm>

Hope this helps!

bravob · ‎04-09-2008

Thanks for your response.

konigl · ‎04-10-2008

In addition to OTDR testing of the fiber, once you plug it in and assign IP addresses from the /30 subnet, you could run IP Service Level Agreement (SLA) performance tests between the two 6500s.

Set one end up to be the "sender" and the other end to be the "responder". Configure a test or simulation that generates packet traffic between them. Sender sends to responder, which in turn returns it to sender. If you have NTP time synchronization configured on the 6500 switches, IP SLA can measure not only packet loss (indicating a questionable or saturated link) and in which direction the loss occurred; it can also report on the variability in delivery timing between packets, and lots more.

Depending on the age of your IOS, it may be termed IP SAA (for Service Assurance Agent) instead of IP SLA.

See the Cisco White Paper "Cisco IOS IP Service Level Agreements" at the following link for more details:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/technologies/tk648/tk362/tk920/technologies_white_paper0900aecd8017f8c9.html

Oh, and I forgot to mention the best part: it's free.