Certified Optical Network Associate (CONA) FAQs

01 Aug Certified Optical Network Associate (CONA) FAQs

Following are answers to frequently asked questions about CONA:

What is CONA?

CONA is an intensive 5-day fiber optic training course for engineers and managers involved with the designing and planning of national fiber optic backbones, metro networks, fiber to the antenna, enterprise wide area networks and data centre interconnects. The course focuses on single channel, SWDM, CWDM and DWDM at 10Gbps and 25Gbps per channel (DCI). CONA is a pre-requisite for CONE which focuses on more advanced topics such as coherent detection, flexigrid, polarization multiplexing and other higher data rate related concepts.

Who certifies the CONA?

Those who successfully complete assignments and an exam at the end of the course will be certified.

CONA is developed and certified by UK based Optical Technology Training (OTT). OTT has been developing optical network training courses for 25 years. FiberGuide, like other OTT partners around the world, is licensed to deliver the course in Africa.

Are their any hands-on activities like splicing in CONA?

The CONA course is aimed at network designers, project managers, infrastructure planners etc. Whilst these people need to have an appreciation of splicing techniques and resources required (included in the course), their job role will not involve the practical tasks of cable jointing and termination, so they do not need to master these skills. For the installers who need to perform this job role, OTT offers courses such as Certified Optical Fibre Installer (COFI) courses that are focused on the practical skills required to install, joint, terminate and test fiber optic cabling in different environments.

How does CONA differ from CFOT?

CONA is an intensive and specialized course primarily for engineers, managers and project managers who design or plan long haul, metro, fiber to the antenna and data center interconnect networks.

As an optical networking course, CONA does not only focus on the detailed properties and impairments of optical fibers but also on the photonic components, modules and processes that enable the encoding, transmission and deco
ding of optical signals over fiber.  In addition to optical fiber the course covers, in detail, lasers, detectors, wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), optical modulation schemes, detection methods and other related concepts.

The Fiber Optic Association (FOA) Certified Fiber Optic Technician(CFOT) – is a technician’s certification for general fiber optics application. The focus of the course is on optical fiber. Those who pass CFOT have adequate fiber optic background to take CONA as one step further in their optical networking careers. OTT develops specialized courses focusing on fiber optic infrastructure, including Certified Optical Fibre Installer (COFI).

Is CONA accredited?

When companies or government entities require the course to be accredited by certain bodies, we make an effort to get the accreditation. In South Africa, CONA is accredited by the Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA).

What are the pre-requisite for taking course?

There are no specific prerequisites but the course is very technical and engineers or managers involved with fiber optics will benefit the most. For those not already working in the industry physical sciences, mathematics or CFOT is sufficient background. If in doubt, please Contact FiberGuide.

How do I register to take the course?

Please point your browser to the Certified Optical Network Associate page to see a list of scheduled courses and click the link to the registration page. You can also request a custom training session to be delivered at your location.

Can’t find a question? Contact FiberGuide with your question and visit the fiber optic training page for the courses.