The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) jointly developed the EIA/TIA standards, which define the performance and transmission requirements for optical cables and connectors. 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. The estimate, called a "loss budget" is calculated using typical component losses for. Fiber optic loss, also known as optical attenuation, refers to the light loss between the transmitter and receiver. Extrinsic Optical Fiber Losses contains splicing loss, connector loss, and bending loss. This loss can be caused by a multitude of factors, ranging from intrinsic material properties to environmental conditions.
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