Given the projected growth of 5G wireless networks (see adjacent chart), it is no wonder that 5G is the topic of conversation on the telecommunications scene. For CSPs the new business potential is enticing, though the technical challenges are enormous.

The higher-level network issues get the most play – and rightly so – but like any modern telecommunications network, it all comes down to the physical layer – where the electrons and photons live.

If the networking equipment ceases to “network”, or the optical fiber cable gets cut, 5G can go to 0G (zero G) in a hurry.

At the physical layer what is most needed is reliability and resilience:

-Micro-OTDR – SFPs everywhere, native to the host network switches, for maximum coverage.
Fast Fiber Fault Finder™

– The “F4” feature of the Micro-OTDR which automatically and instantaneously detects, locates, and reports optical fiber faults to the host equipment, eliminating the detection time component of the mean-time-to-recovery (MTTR) costs of a network failure.