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Optical Fiber is used in signalling, communications, and sensors for everything from Internet backbones to earthquake monitoring to stress on bridges and even to measure water levels. Optical fiber has many diverse applications.
While optical fiber is constructed of glass or plastic or similar nonconductive materials, the optical fiber is considered to be very vulnerable to damage. Therefore, steel reinforcing rods or cables are commonly found in the insulation that protects optical fibers.
Optical fiber is now employed inside electrical transmission and distribution lines for the use of any agency or consumer that an electrical utility wishes to do business with. The current-transporting transmission and distribution cable then becomes the protective enclosure for the optical fiber, which lies at its core.
Although optical fiber is considered to be nonconductive, that is not entirely true. Anything will conduct electricity once its resistance is overcome. In the case of optical fiber, there is little risk of overcoming the resistance of the nonconductive components. Rather, there is more risk that current flow will occur along the reinforcing conductive strands that surround the cable, which will pose a hazard to humans and to their facilities.
It is an NEC requirement that such strands of reinforcing steel for optical fiber be grounded at the point of entrance to a facility. An ISBP will make an ideal bonding location in a sponsored module for optical fiber.
Optical Fiber has many diverse applications relating to electrical and non-electrical goals. The reinforcing members of optical fiber must be bonded to an ISBP at the entrance to a facility.
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