Why Do You Need A Taper Report?

What Is A Taper Report?

One of the most widely used reports in fiber network management is the taper report which provides a detailed view of the utilization of individual fibers within a specific cable.

These reports are valuable for many reasons and are essential to successful network management and growth as they support different kinds of operational functions.

In the image above, the green line represents an existing fiber cable on which taper reports can be run. Whereas a capacity report provides a high-level view of usage across a network, the taper report allows us to dig deeper on specific cable spans and draw out insights that truly inform decision-making.

The screenshot above depicts the output of a taper report. Moving from left to right, we see the unique fiber strand, the ending port of each fiber, the panel associated with each port, the direction of data flow, and the status, priority level, and user of each strand. There are many other fields that can be pulled with taper reports depending on the end goal, but we’ll highlight just a few examples of how this specific information can be useful.

Why Is The Taper Report Useful?

First, taper reports can be used by business development personnel to understand whether or not they have capacity within a cable to support new clients or leads. The “Status” column in the report above indicates whether or not a fiber is available for lease or if it’s already lit. The taper report helps sales teams know whether or not additional cable needs to be installed or if existing unlit strands can be used.

Second, network engineers can use taper reports to understand which clients may be affected by faults or breaks in lit fiber strands, allowing them to disseminate information appropriately. With the priority designations listed in the report, engineers can address network faults in order of importance and also move clients over to unlit strands, either permanently or temporarily, until the broken strands are repaired.

Third, similarly to how capacity reports are used, a taper report is valuable to upper-level managers and executives as it provides a real-time snapshot of utilization by cable within a network. This helps guide strategic decision-making which is incredibly important in the current digital age where fiber optic technology demand is high.

These are just a few examples of how taper reports can be used to support network maintenance and development. For many years, these reports have been vital to data service providers’ success and will continue to to be going forward.

Do you have other examples of how taper reports can be useful? Share them in the comments below!