Editing Optical attenuator (section)

===Fixed Attenuators===
Fixed optical attenuators used in fiber optic systems may use a variety of principles for their functioning. Preferred attenuators use either doped fibers, or mis-aligned splices, or total power since both of these are reliable and inexpensive.
''Inline'' style attenuators are incorporated into patch cables.  The alternative ''build out'' style attenuator is a small male-female adapter that can be added onto other cables.

Non-preferred attenuators often use [[gap loss]] or reflective principles. Such devices can be sensitive to: [[modal distribution]], wavelength, contamination, vibration, temperature, damage due to power bursts, may cause back reflections, may cause signal dispersion etc.