Fiber optic enclosures are a necessary component of any optical-based installation. They protect fiber cables and connections, transition between different cable types, neatly organize incoming and outgoing cables, maintain minimum bend radiuses, provide consolidated points of system maintenance, and allow for future expansion and system scaling.

Ultimately, leveraging a fiber enclosure improves signal integrity and ensures the fiber-based network operates properly over the life of the system. Many enterprise end-users, consultants, and architects require a fiber enclosure for the reasons listed above.

This articles explores common fiber enclosure types, including those designed for indoor, outdoor, wall mount, and rack mount applications. A wide selection of enclosures is available on the Future Ready Solutions website.

 

Understanding Your Options

The first step in choosing a fiber enclosure is understanding the constraints and needs of your installation.

  1. Environment. Will the enclosure be located indoors or outdoors? Will the environment be temperature and humidity controlled? Will there be exposure to water, blowing dust, and other particulates?
  2. Mounting Style. Will the enclosure be rack mounted, wall mounted, or installed in a recessed wall-box or trim-ring?
  3. Size. How many connections must the enclosure manage? Do we need room for excess cable for a service loop or future expansion?
  4. Scalability. Could the system expand in the future? Do we have room for additional cables and connections if needed?

Answering the above questions will ensure the proper enclosure is selected for long-term system stability and ease-of-maintenance.

 

Wall Mount Fiber Enclosures

Wall mounted fiber enclosures are extremely common in both indoor and outdoor installations. Available in both plastic and metal constructions, wall mount enclosures provide compact, self-contained points of management for fiber cables and connections.

In many applications, a centrally located main distribution frame (MDF) feeds multiple wall mounted remote intermediate distribution frames (IDFs) creating a hub-and-spoke type fiber installation. Wall mounted enclosures are ideal in IDF locations because they tend to be smaller and more easily secured in a variety of environments.

Wall mount enclosures include basic wallplates that install over standard wall-boxes and low-voltage trim rings, plastic boxes that secure against the weather and are perfect for outdoor locations, and metal boxes that provide extra protection and multiple panel slots for future expansion.

LightSpeed Technologies offers several extremely unique wall mount fiber enclosures designed specifically for residential integrations.

  • The FTTX-IWP-SLIMFIT-APC provides an extremely compact, easy-to-hide enclosure that connects bulk cable to a patch cord.
  • The FTTX-IWP-APC-RJ45 combines fiber and twisted pair into a single plate that mounts over single gang boxes and trim rings.
  • The FTTX-NID-150 provides an outdoor-rated enclosure that’s factory-loaded with 150 feet of pre-terminated fiber designed for broadband and ISP connections.

Additionally, metal fiber enclosures from Cleerline accommodate up to eight configurable LGX adapter plates that allow installations to be customized across multiple fiber optic cable and connection types. A convenient LGX bracket mounts individual plates in tight locations and inside general purpose boxes, such as those from Altelix. Many applications benefit from Altelix’s universal approach to fiberglass, polycarbonate, and steel enclosures because they are agnostic across cable types and even provide power for integrated electronics such as media converters, extenders, wireless access points, and network switches.

 

Rack Mount Fiber Enclosures

Rack mounted fiber enclosures typically provide more capacity than their wall mounted counterparts and are designed to be installed in standard 19″ and 23″ audio-visual and datacom equipment racks.

Due to their larger footprint, rack mount enclosures allow extra cable to be coiled for future maintenance and system expansion, and built-in features such as sliding trays and front panel doors provide fast and secure installations.

Cleerline manufactures a variety of rack mount enclosures that accommodate up to 12 configurable LGX adapter plates. They include flush mount and recessed mounting ears, multiple points of entry, and removable panels to support a wide-variety of cable paths and rack configurations.

As discussed above, rack mount enclosures are often used as the main distribution frame (MDF) whereas wall mount enclosures support the in-the-field intermediary distribution frames (IDFs).

 

Choosing an Enclosure: Quick References

Future Ready Solutions provides a variety of guides and selectors to help choose the perfect fiber optic enclosures. We’ve listed quick reference links below:

Additional information, including system design support, is available online at FutureReadySolutions.com or by emailing info@futurereadysolutions.com.