To be able to judge whether a fiber optic cable plant is good, one does a insertion loss test with a light source and power meter and compares that to an estimate of what is a reasonable loss for that cable plant. The estimate, called a "loss budget" is calculated using typical component losses for. Fiber loss can be also called fiber optic attenuation or attenuation loss, which measures the amount of light loss between input and output. When implementing optical fiber communication, a key challenge is minimizing the loss of signals within the fiber. Losses can be introduced by various means such as intrinsic material absorption, scattering, bending, connector loss and more. Too much signal loss in optical fiber can lead to spotty transmission.