How to choose the best Fiber Optic Attenuator in your fiber optic network?

Applications
Fiber Optical attenuators are commonly used in fiber optic network, either to test power level margins by temporarily adding a calibrated amount of signal loss, or installed permanently to match transmitter and receiver levels accurately. Sharp bends stress optic fibers and can cause losses. If a received signal is too strong a temporary fix is to wrap the cable around a pencil until the desired level of attenuation is achieved. However, such arrangements are unreliable, since the stressed fiber tends to break over time.
Principles of operation
The power reduction is made by such means as absorption, reflection, diffusion, scattering, deflection, diffraction, and dispersion, etc. Fiber Optical attenuators usually work by absorbing the light, like sunglasses consume extra light energy. They typically have a working wavelength range in which they absorb all light energy equally. They should not reflect the light or scatter the light in an air gap since that could cause unwanted back reflection in the fiber system. Another type of attenuator utilizes a length of high-loss optical fiber that operates upon its input optical signal power level in such a way that its output signal power level is less than the input level. 
 Fiber Optical attenuators types
Fixed fiber optic attenuators are available in LC, SC, ST, FC, MU, E2000 style with APC and UPC polish. Generally, multimode systems do not need attenuators as the multimode sources, VCSELs, rarely have enough power output to saturate receivers. Instead, single-mode systems, especially short links, often have too much power and need attenuators. Therefore, fiber optic attenuators are usually single-mode types. The most commonly used model is LC single mode female to male and female to female fixed fiber optic attenuator. Unlike the common female to male type mentioned above, the female to female fixed fiber optic attenuators has female type fiber optic adapter at both ends, which are also, therefore, called fiber optic adapter type attenuators. They can be used as adapters and attenuators at the same time.
 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 misaligned 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.
Loopback attenuators
 Loopback fiber optic attenuator is designed for testing, engineering and the burn-in stage of boards or other equipment. Available in SC/UPC, SC/APC, LC/UPC, LC/APC, MTRJ, MPO for the single-mode application.900um fiber cable inside of the black shell for LC and SC type. No black shell for MTRJ and MPO type.
 Built-in variable attenuators
 Built-in variable optical attenuators may be either manually or electrically controlled. A manual device is useful for one-time set up of a system, and is a near-equivalent to a fixed attenuator, and may be referred to as an "adjustable attenuator." In contrast, an electrically controlled attenuator can provide adaptive power optimization.
 Attributes of merit for electrically controlled devices, include speed of response and avoiding degradation of the transmitted signal. Dynamic range is usually quite restricted, and power feedback may mean that long term stability is a relatively minor issue. The speed of response is a particularly significant issue in dynamically reconfigurable systems, where a delay of one-millionth of a second can result in the loss of large amounts of transmitted data. Typical technologies employed for high-speed response include liquid crystal variable attenuator (LCVA), or lithium niobate devices. There is a class of built-in attenuators that is technically indistinguishable from test attenuators, except they are packaged for rack mounting, and have no test display.
 Variable optical test attenuator
Variable optical test attenuators generally use a variable neutral density filter. Despite the relatively high cost, this arrangement has the advantages of being stable, wavelength insensitive, mode insensitive, and offering an extensive dynamic range. Other schemes such as LCD, variable air gap, etc. have been tried over the years, but with limited success.
 They may be either manually or motor control. Motor control gives regular users a distinct productivity advantage since commonly used test sequences can be run automatically.
 Attenuator instrument calibration is a significant issue. The user typically would like an absolute port to port calibration. Also, calibration should usually be at many wavelengths and power levels, since the device is not always linear. However, many instruments do not offer these basic features, presumably in an attempt to reduce cost. The most accurate variable attenuator instruments have thousands of calibration points, resulting in excellent overall accuracy in use.
Test automation
Test sequences that use variable attenuators can be very time-consuming. Therefore, automation is likely to achieve useful benefits. Both bench and handheld style devices are available that offer such features.