Fiber splice loss measures how much signal drops when you join two fiber ends. Many factors, like core mismatch and contamination, can increase splice loss. Optical fibers can be joined together, such that light is efficiently transferred from one fiber to another. This method is typically used for permanent connections. To be able to judge whether a fiber optic cable plant is good, one does a insertion loss test with a light source and power meter and compares that to an estimate of what is a reasonable loss for that cable plant. Modern fiber optic networks usually keep splice loss. Employing these fibers in lightwave systems requires precise jointing devices such as con nectors and splices. Considering the small size of the fiber cores, less than 10 11m in diameter for single-mode fibers and less than 100 11m for multimode fibers, it is not surprising that these components.
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