In recent years, telecommunications providers have been working to supply Americans with high-speed internet connections via fiber optics.
In doing so, they have been building out networks in urban and rural areas. When designing and building out those networks, one key consideration is what cabinets to deploy, which will depend mainly on what equipment the enclosure will hold and what its functionality will be.
Let’s take a look at American Products fiber optic enclosure solutions and how they can help organizations build out quality networks.
American Products Enclosures
Passive Optical Network (PON) Cabinets
American Products designed the AP LIBERTY® Series enclosures specifically for fiber optic network use.
Each comes fully loaded with key features to help organizations easily connect their customers and keep the cabinet organized, such as rack spools and fiber management panels.
In addition, if the provider requests it, American Products will send the cabinet with a standard 100’ pigtail that has a blunt end and pre-terminated end. Our certified fiber techs will integrate the pre-terminated end and ship the cabinet with the extra slack coiled and ready to be spliced at the site.
In the field, we also make it easy to swap cabinets and/or add additional outside plant (OSP) fibers without cutting off service to customers. Our LIBERTY cabinets are all hot swappable–you just have to remove the bottom panel to easily change/add connections and fiber components with no resplicing.
The cabinets can be built and integrated to feed 144-864 customers via SC/APC fiber, or 288-1,728 customers using LC/APC fiber. And for convenience, all cabinets feature front and rear access so technicians can easily perform necessary maintenance and upgrades with ease.
The AP LIBERTY is rated to NEMA 3R or 4X to provide organizations the protection they want against the elements.
American Products builds and stocks a variety of sized AP LIBERTY cabinets and makes them available via our Quick Ship program. Quantities and options are limited to stock cabinets, but providers can order and receive these prebuilt in just a couple weeks or less. Click here to learn more.
Indoor & Outdoor Fiber Termination / Distribution Enclosures
American Products also offers a series of indoor and outdoor fiber termination/distribution enclosures. These compact solutions are ideal for splicing and termination. They can be rack or wall mounted inside or outside, depending on the model. Each provides convenient access to fiber patching and splice trays, while keeping the cables all neatly sorted, out of sight and safe from vandals.
Active Cabinets
In addition to PON enclosures, American Products produces a number of active cabinets that can be outfitted for fiber optic networks.
Enclosures with multiple bays are especially great for this task because the customer can put active equipment in one bay and their fiber optic connections in the other. In these cabinets, we use standard 19” or 23” racks, so providers can put virtually any equipment on them, including active equipment, batteries and power systems.
Just like in the PON enclosures, our certified in-house technicians will integrate and groom all the fiber, power and battery backup (BBU) cables before it goes to the customer.
Unlike the PON cabinets that don’t need climate control solutions, we can outfit active enclosures with equipment to help maintain the proper internal environment for active equipment. Options include heat exchangers, fan solutions and air conditioning units. Which is best will be determined by the area the cabinet will be deployed to and what equipment it will house.
Fiber Optics Integration
American Products has a dedicated clean room for integrating fiber into our enclosures before we ship them to the customer. The room uses a positive pressure system to mitigate dust intrusion, which could degrade transmission quality if it got into the fiber connections.
We also have an in-house thermal chamber. When we purchase pre-terminated fiber optic cables, we will often spot check different cables in the thermal chamber, which allows us to test in temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Every American Product team member who integrates fiber is Fiber Optic Association (FOA) certified.
Choosing Between Fiber Optic Enclosure Solutions
There are quite a few variables that can affect which type and size of cabinet will work best for a particular network. When providers approach us for a cabinet, our team asks a series of questions to help us hone in on which enclosure is the best solution.
During the conversations, our team will ask whether the provider wants a passive cabinet for fiber only or an active cabinet they can also outfit with power equipment. In regard to fiber, does the provider want the standard SC/APC fiber cable, or do they want more connections with LC fiber? How many connections do they want to make from each cabinet? If they want an active cabinet, we also ask about the equipment inside and the cabinet’s deployment destination to determine the proper climate control option, if necessary.
And then we’ll walk through the options that can improve the cabinet and help it fit the provider’s network just right, including splice trays, pre-terminated fiber, security features, cable management provisions and more.
American Products builds every single cabinet in our own facility in Strafford, MO. We source U.S.-made components and parts from U.S. companies as much as possible. This means that every enclosure solution we build will meet Build America, Buy America (BABA) requirements for federal funding.
If you’re interested in learning more about our fiber optic enclosure solutions, please contact our enclosure specialists at 417.736.2135.