A properly installed and clean connector should not lose more than 0. If a connector is chipped, scratched, or not seated correctly, the light path is disrupted, increasing the overall system. 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. Unfortunately, it is not a simple answer and depends on several factors. So how do you determine acceptable loss? When testing fibre optic cabling, determining acceptable loss is. ity check. Testing with. Fiber loss, or attenuation, refers to the reduction in optical power as light travels through a fiber optic cable. While some loss is expected, excessive or unexpected loss can lead to poor performance, network downtime, and signal failure.
[PDF Version]