Temperature fluctuations can cause the materials in the cable, including the fiber, cladding, and outer sheath, to expand and contract. In a recent experiment, Rice and Savoie used a simulation to take a look at how temperature changes affect the strain on cable subunits and fibers. Their experiment proved that changing the temperature affects how much the fibers of a cable expand and contrast which affects how much extra fiber. It varies over time and is strongly influenced by environmental conditions—especially temperature. In many regions with hot climates or large temperature fluctuations, operators observe unexplained signal degradation, margin loss, or seasonal performance instability. An optic fiber can be 20 times lighter and five times smaller than copper wire and still carry far more. Cold weather can affect fiber optic cables, but they are generally more resilient to temperature extremes compared to other types of cables, such as copper. NOTE: That indoor/outdoor cables.
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