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Fibre Optic Loss Budget Calculator

Add up fibre, connection and splice losses and check the link against your optics' power budget.

Fibre Optic Loss Budget Calculator

Add up fibre, connection and splice losses and check the link against your optics' power budget.

Fibre and wavelength

Length (km)

Mated connections

Count every connector pair, including the ones at each end of the link.

Loss per connection (dB)

0.75 dB is the TIA-568 maximum; good factory-made connections are about 0.3 dB.

Splices

Loss per splice (dB)

0.3 dB is the TIA-568 maximum.

Optic power budget (dB, optional)

From the SFP or media converter datasheet: transmit power minus receiver sensitivity.

Safety margin (dB)

Results

Fibre loss: 1.00 dB

Connection loss: 1.50 dB

Splice loss: 0.60 dB

Total link loss: 3.10 dB

Attenuation figures are the TIA-568 maximums quoted by the Fiber Optic Association; real cable is usually better. Test the finished link with a light source and power meter.

Building a bigger job?Add these figures to a project, then add results from any of the other calculators. The project becomes one report you can save as a PDF and import again later to make changes.

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How it works

Link loss is the length in km x the fibre's attenuation in dB/km, plus the loss of each mated connection and each splice. The margin is the optics' power budget (transmit power minus receiver sensitivity) less the link loss and a safety allowance, and it should stay above zero. The default losses are the TIA-568 maximums.

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