Beyond all of the detailed technical discussions looms the question of what type of splice to use for connecting two fibres together. The type and quality of fibre splices often has a great impact on the system cost. Fusion splicing uses an electrical arc to literally weld the two fibres together.
Light is transmitted along a continuous run of fibre with only a slight discontinuity at the splice.
Mechanical and elastomeric splicing each use a physical connector housing to butt the ends of the fibre together. While there is some discontinuity at the splice, index matching fluid is used to minimise the light loss. While most LAN cables have only two fibres, there can be anywhere from six to more than 100 fibres in a cable. Virtually half of a technician s time is spent breaking out the fibres. After the individual fibres have been separated, the end of each fibre must be cleaned.