What is an advantage of having slack fiber-optic cable?

Having slack fiber-optic cable offers the advantage of decreasing downtime during restoration. This is because slack in the cable provides extra length that can be utilized quickly in case of damage or maintenance needs. When a fiber-optic line faces a break or requires repairs, having additional slack allows technicians to make the necessary connections and realign the fibers more efficiently without needing to replace long sections of the cable. This expedites the restoration process, reducing the overall time that the network might be down and thus improving service reliability for users.

The aspect of increased downtime would typically be associated with infrastructure lacking slack, which would necessitate longer repair times as replacements or rerouting must be more extensive.