Trace the light. Get the number. PASS or FAIL.
EFL Telecom walks any strand through every recorded splice — in both directions — and computes a defensible optical link budget against your receiver sensitivity.
Strand-level tracing through real splices
Pick a strand on any cable and EFL Telecom follows it: through the closure at the end of the sheath, across the recorded splice, into the next cable, and onward until the path terminates. The result is an itemized chain — every cable section with its length, every splice with its loss — not a cartoon of one.
Link budgets an engineer can defend
- Wavelength-aware fiber loss — attenuation is interpolated from standard single-mode tables for your operating wavelength (0.22 dB/km at 1550 nm, higher at 1310 nm), not a single hard-coded constant.
- Per-splice and connector losses — measured values where recorded, standard assumptions where not, always itemized so you can see which is which.
- PASS / FAIL with margin — set your transmit power and receiver sensitivity and get the verdict with the remaining margin in dB. A green PASS badge is nice; the number under it is what you take to the design review.
Route-level tracing too
Alongside strand-level analysis, classic route tracing between equipment computes cumulative loss, hop-by-hop, drawn live on the map — useful for quick what-ifs before a single splice is recorded.
Why this beats the spreadsheet
Spreadsheet link budgets go stale the day after they're written, because they are copies of the network rather than views of it. EFL Telecom computes from the live model — the same cables, splices and lengths your team maintains every day — so the budget is current by construction.
Frequently asked questions
What attenuation values does the calculator use?
Fiber loss is interpolated from standard single-mode attenuation tables by wavelength (e.g. ~0.22 dB/km at 1550 nm). Splice losses use recorded values where present and a standard assumption where not, and every component is itemized in the output.
Can I set my own receiver sensitivity?
Yes — the PASS/FAIL verdict and margin are computed against the receiver sensitivity you specify (with a sensible default if you don't).
Does tracing work across splices between different cables?
Yes. Tracing follows recorded strand-to-strand splices through closures, in both directions from your starting strand, and reports the complete end-to-end chain.
See it on a live network in the next five minutes
The guided walkthrough drops you into a seeded demo workspace with interactive tours — no sign-up, no sales call. When you're ready, the free 90-day trial gives your team a private workspace with the full feature set.