Why our backbone/backhaul networks should be contructed with anti-rodent,anti- bird optical fibre cables.

Why our backbone/backhaul networks should be contructed with anti-rodent,anti- bird optical fibre cables.

?????The security and reliability of optical fibre communication in the local-area-network (LAN), wide-area-network (WAN) and data center space is vital to the success of businesses across the globe. As the world becomes more connected, any failure that leads to downtime can cause a considerable loss of revenue and productivity, and it can lead to uncertainty among customers

Definitions

Rodent bird, optical fibre cables: These are optical cables that attract rodents and birds. They are also not well protected against the attack by these animals.

Anti-rodent, anti-bird optical fibre cables: These are optical fibre cables that repel rodents, birds, squirrels from attacking them. There are also heavily protected from damage by these animals and birds.

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???This article reviews the key hazards caused by animals and birds to communication systems in other countries North America, Africa and Cameroon. I equally explain the key methods of protecting optical cables to ensure that animals don’t bring down communication systems.

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??Anti-Rodent and Anti-Bird Optical Cables

Fiber optic cables are installed nearly everywhere. Not only are they buried underground for extensive communication networks, backbone and backhaul carriers, but they are also a part of every cell tower and particularly?small cell network installations. That exposes them to all sorts of critters, all seeking to find their way in, resulting in serious damage as they search for food. The solution is anti-rodent and anti-bird optical cables.

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?How Much Damage Is Caused by Rodents and Birds?

Rats, gophers, and squirrels grind their teeth on anything that comes to hand. It’s part of their nature. But by some estimates, it costs as much as $20 billion in damage to homes, businesses, and agriculture every year in the US and Canada. That damage hits wiring and is considered the source of many electrical fires. It also hits telecommunication services and cabling, causing phone and internet shutdowns. Statistics captured from informal sources, reports of NWMs, FMEs, network operatives, simulations and NOC reports show that about 30 percent of damages causing serious service outages in some African countries and Cameroon in particular are caused by these animals and birds. Bird damage hits crops primarily, but also damage telecommunication lines. 3G and 4G small cells as well as optical cables located throughout a community on poles and in the ground, etc. are particularly vulnerable. As just one example, it’s estimated that a single outage caused by animals and birds can easily cost over $10,000 in lost productivity and repairs in the US and Canada. By a simple calculation using internet concentration values in the US and Cameroon, this author depicts that in Cameroon the amount is about ? less.?

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?????What Are Anti-Rodent and Anti-Bird Optical Cables?

Anti-rodent and anti-bird optical cables are designed to either resist the damage or to re

pel the animal. Here are the methods currently used to prevent damage.

• Cable Diameter. If the outer diameter is large enough, the rodent won’t be able to get its jaws around it. It’s the size alone that discourages gnawing the cable.?
• Steel Tape Armor. The next line of defense, underneath the cable sheath, are several armoring options. Steel tape armoring uses thin steel tape running the length of the cable. It is usually corrugated to allow improved flex to the cable. There can also be two layers of tape to add still more protection. Steel tape is lighter than the next option, steel wire armor.
• Steel Wire Armor. This armoring is applied between the inner and outer sheath of the cable. It involves winding wire around the cable, which also imparts a high crush factor.?
• Steel Braid Armor. This is similar to wire armor but uses thin, soft steel wires formed into a braid. It’s best for small cable diameters and offers high flexibility and ease of installation.
• FRP Armor. Fiberglass-reinforced polymer rigid elements are stranded around the cable, between the outer and inner sheathing. One advantage is that it is non-metallic and, therefore, is immune to induced voltage and lightning.??
• Nylon Outer Sheath. The armor protection types above are all considered 100% protection from rodents. On the other hand, a thick outer sheath of?Polyamide 12 nylon?provides protection from rodents as well as termites, but for less rigorous conditions than armoring. It’s estimated to be around 75% effective.
• Glass Yarns. These wrap around the cable and, while not preventing gnawing, it makes it exceedingly unpleasant. As a result, it’s more of a discouragement to the rodents than an out-and-out preventative.?
• Chemical Repellents. The typical additive is capsaicin, which is an irritant that causes a burning sensation for any mammal that comes into contact with it, including humans. This falls into the discouragement category rather than preventative. One downside is that the chemical additives can migrate out of the sheath over time.??

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?????????????????????Conclusion and Recommendation

???????From the above article, we can clearly deduce that systems possessing cables that attract rodents, gophers and quirrels lack reliability and cannot guarantee continued service.?Infrastructure-due and man-made outages caused by this kind of systems can be completely eliminated by unbundling these cables and replacing them with anti-rodent, anti-bird fibre optic cables. Although eliminating human error and material failure from the network is impossible, there must be a more concerted effort to ensure that physical-network security reduces the human-error aspect of network downtime.

??Chief executive officers (CEOs), network managers (NWMs), field maintenance engineers (FMEs) and technicians will continue losing sleep over the prospects of an outage that could be prevented by implementing a physical-security program.