A new fibre ribbon identification technique for in-service passive branched optical fiber networks

A technique is proposed for identifying one of the branched fiber ribbons that are fanned out from a common fiber via optical splitters. Multiwavelength light sources, WDM-couplers, and the free-ports of biconical fiber couplers in an optical splitter are used for the remote injection of an identification signal, whose wavelength is different from the communication wavelength, into a particular branched fiber ribbon. A particular fiber ribbon is identified from among four fiber ribbons without disrupting a 1.31/1.55 mu m optical transmission by using an identifier operating at 1.61 approximately 1.67 mu m.<>