Optical fiber enclosures are known that contain various components for connecting optical fibers from a trunk cable to optical patch cables at a customer location. These enclosures or housings may be rack-mountable and may have front and/or rear hinged doors for providing access to the housing interior and the various fibers and components therein. One or both of these doors may be lockable using, for example, a cam lock.
The locking portion of a conventional housing 100 is illustrated in FIG. 11 which housing includes a top panel 102 and a door 104 hingedly connected to a support (not illustrated) so that a free edge 106 of the door 104 can swing toward and away from the top panel 102. A lock 108, which may comprise a conventional cam lock, includes a cylinder 110 that rotates when a key (not illustrated) is inserted in keyway 112 and rotated, and a cam 114 that rotates with the cylinder 110. In a locked position, illustrated with solid lines in FIG. 11, the cam extends through a slot 116 in the top panel 102 to prevent the door 104 from pivoting away from the top panel 102. The cam 114 can be rotated out of slot 116 to the orientation illustrated with chain-dashed lines in FIG. 11 to allow the door 104 to be opened. This conventional arrangement provides a reasonable degree of security for the components located inside housing 100. However, slot 116 is generally located near a central portion of the top panel 102. If the top panel 102 is formed from a material that can be readily deformed, relatively thin sheet metal, for example, it may be possible to pry or bend the portion of top panel 102 near slot 116 away from cylinder 110 so that cam 114 no longer extends through slot 116. This allows door 104 to be opened without using a key and without changing the orientation of cylinder 110.
The foregoing problem could be addressed by using various types of conventional locks having bolts or complicated latching mechanisms—a padlock and associated hasps could be mounted to the enclosure for increased security, for example. However, such approaches may substantially increase the cost and complexity of assembling and using such an optical fiber enclosure. It would therefore be desirable to provide a tamper-resistant optical fiber enclosure that operates in a manner similar to conventional lockable enclosures without the need for complicated and/or expensive modifications.