The purpose of this part of IEC 61280 is to describe procedures to measure the optical attenuation (loss) performance of installed single-mode fibre optic cable plants. It is neither intended for component testing, nor does it define those elements of an installation which are to be measured. The document that invokes the procedure of this part of IEC 61280 is to establish the requirements for installation, maintenance, repair and conformance testing.
The optical attenuation (loss) performance is a specific test associated with IEC 61281-1.
The test procedure of this part of IEC 61280 may be used to measure the optical loss between any two passively connected points, including end terminations, of a single-mode fibre optic cable plant. The fibre optic cable plant may consist of fibre optic cables, connectors, mounting panels, jumper cables, and other passive components, but may not include active components.