Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1476549
28 I ICT TODAY THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND THE PRE-TERMINATED CABLE PULLING ADAPTER The PCPAs are plastic parts that are small, lightweight, reusable, recyclable, and injection moldable at low costs. The PCPAs have been developed for SC optical fiber connectors, as well as UTP 8P8C connectors. Variants for other connectors, such as MPOs, as well as for active optical cables (AOCs) and direct attach cables (DACs) are in active development. For AOCs and DOCs, the PCPA would be bigger, encapsulating the transceiver head. The PCPAs for active cables would facilitate pulling through a data center cabinet or set of cabinets. The PCPA is composed of three sections: • The head has a role to protect the head of the connector and prevent the dust cap from falling off. • The body has a cavity for the connector plus boot. • The boot has a reentrant U clamp that secures the cable. The PCPA transfers the tension from its head to its boot. This allows the pulling force applied to a pulling stick or pulling rope attached to the PCPA head to be transferred onto the pre-connectorized cable sheath clamped in the PCPA boot, thus preventing force from breaking the cable connector. FIGURE 5: PCPA for 4.8 mm (≈0.189 in) diameter fiber optic SC pre-connectorized cables having had the SC connector outer body removed. i) PCPA Head ii) PCPA Body iii) PCPA Boot Higher bandwidth balanced twisted-pair pre-connectorized cables, such as Cat 6A, 7, and 8, also have a rounder and harder sheath, which makes it possible for a PCPA to clamp on the pre-terminated cables. The same goes for twinaxial cables used in direct attach and breakout cables for data center applications. The ANSI/TIA 568 standards restrict the cable's pulling force applied to Ethernet cabling to 25 lbs. Optical fiber cables can tolerate twice that if pulling while attached to the aramid strength member. The reasonable expectation is that 20 lbs of force is a maximum requirement for pulling on long pre-connectorized cables, whether optical fiber or balanced twisted-pair Ethernet. The PCPA functions as an adapter; it adapts the pre-connectorized cable to a pulling stick. This allows transferring a retraction force applied to the pulling stick onto the cable jacket without applying any force over the connector or its boot. Furthermore, the PCPA has a hard-shell body with a cavity, which is designed to protect the connector from impact or dust, as well as to junction the head of the PCPA attached to the pulling stick to the boot of the PCPA that is attached to the cable sheath. Experiments using a PCPA to pull on long UTP pre-connectorized cables with over molded connectors have demonstrated that a pull force well in excess of the maximum rating allowed for Ethernet cabling in the ANSI/TIA 568 standard can be applied. With over molded connector boots, the force from the PCPA is transferred to the cable jacket and not onto the connectors. The PCPA is designed to clamp on thicker ruggedized cable sheaths, such as the popular 4.8 mm (≈0.189 in) bend-insensitive fiber (BIF) used for indoor optical fiber installations (Figure 5).