Fiber Optic Placing, Splicing, Testing, and Cable Design Experience at Bell Canada

Bell Canada has passed the stage of field trials and is now into the day-to-day operations, maintenance, and installation of FD-135 (135 Mbit/s) fiber optic transmission systems. The outside plant cables are manufactured by Northern Telecom and consist of a central stranded steel strength member with an extruded plastic slotted profile. Fibers, as well as two copper pairs which are used for servicing purposes and pressure monitoring, are loosely placed in the slots. Manually cleaved fibers are spliced with a V-groove alignment fusion set and are protected by a plastic splice package. Splice packages are inserted in an orderly fashion into an organizer tray which is then placed into a plastic closure allowing for pressurization and easy access of the cable. This paper provides an overview of the outside plant hardware and describes the various installation, splicing, and cable testing techniques that have been successfully used by Bell Canada.