Following on from earlier blogs concerning the worth of bi-directional (bi-dir) fiber certification it’s clear that performing full bi-dir IL, ORL, and OTDR testing provides a a lot deeper perception into the situation and high quality of a fiber hyperlink and finally will cut back ongoing upkeep prices, give higher service efficiency, and prolong a community’s operational life. Nonetheless, there may be additional work concerned whenever you embody the additional bi-dir assessments. And in case you are not cautious with alternative of check gear, with how check sequencing is carried out, and the extent of automation adopted or accessible (notably with the bi-dir OTDR evaluation), you may and possibly will run into points with extreme testing time, logistics, extra post-test processing work/price, and potential delays signing off fiber construct initiatives.
Conventional methods and approaches for bi-dir check could also be okay for decrease volumes of fiber, however if you end up confronted with deploying high-fiber-count cables with tons of and even hundreds of fibers ,and also you begin to scale up the time it takes to check and cert every fiber into the hundreds, you see that it quickly turns into nearly unfeasible by way of time required.
You want a brand new or developed method that places workflow effectivity at its core, employs extra automation, allows batch testing, and removes as many handbook and sophisticated processes as potential, notably the post-test bi-dir OTDR evaluation.
Let’s study the problems with conventional approaches and what a greater resolution may appear to be.
First, a number of check ports or check units, one for IL and ORL, one other for OTDR. The downside is that it’s a must to bodily swap or transfer the fiber beneath check between the ports and manually re-start testing, which interrupts the check stream and wastes time. You run one set of assessments, IL and ORL, then have to return and run the OTDR check. If you’re doing all of those assessments bi-directionally you additionally should name or radio the far-end tech to coordinate assessments to be sure you are each prepared and have the right check port linked or the fiber finish terminated or un-terminated, obtain fiber linked and so on..
A greater method could be to make all assessments accessible by way of a single check unit and single check port and let the instrument(s) coordinate the check sequences robotically. This could take away the necessity to bodily swap between check ports and eradicate the delays switching between assessments, plus the interruption after which handbook restarting of the testing sequence. It will additionally cut back delays on account of additional inspection and cleansing cycles of the check ports and launch cable connectors.
Second, coordinating assessments from every route utilizing telephones or radio. It might not appear to be a lot, however there are small delays that creep in with every name/dialog that begin to add up. Though not an enormous quantity of that point could possibly be used for one thing else—for instance to enhance your workflow and be extra time environment friendly by prepping and inspecting the subsequent fiber or batch of fibers for check whereas the instrument(s) handle coordinating the bi-directional assessments through the use of the fiber beneath check as a communications channel. This additionally signifies that you don’t should fiddle connecting devices to the web/cloud to supply comms between close to and much finish models (assuming that you simply even have simple/dependable connectivity the place you’re working).
And third, bi-dir OTDR evaluation as a post-test exercise the place outcomes are retrieved from the check instrument(s) and analyzed to generate the bi-dir pdf report. Setting apart all of the challenges about time to retrieve outcomes from devices, potential file naming errors that imply check information is misplaced, and so forth … this exercise requires effort and time (price) from a further engineer plus the evaluation software program license. It could add days to the certification, audit, and sign-off course of. And as that is carried out after all of the testing is completed, i.e. as soon as a tech has left the positioning, it means if there are any points it’s a must to return to repair and/or retest, which is mainly money and time.
A much more environment friendly option to conduct bi-dir assessments could be to alternate check end result information instantly and once more robotically by way of the fiber beneath check to carry out the bi-dir OTDR evaluation on the instrument. That means you get on the spot outcomes which can will let you decide if there’s a actual situation to repair and if mandatory, carry out any corrective actions earlier than you permit the positioning. It additionally removes all post-test processing work, offering a dramatic time saving and vital enchancment in workflow.
FiberComplete PRO information alternate by way of fiber beneath check (patented)
There are already approaches that try to handle this post-processing exercise by using the cloud and cloud purposes to alternate check outcomes between devices performing the testing at both finish of a hyperlink. However they are often impractical as they require extra setup (the web connection, the instrument account within the cloud software) and human intervention to set off end result file add/obtain. And this additionally interrupts the check stream and introduces delays which once more change into vital when multiplied as much as hundreds of fiber hyperlinks … and do you all the time have or are you all the time allowed an web connection (assume information middle no RF guidelines for Bluetooth or WiFi tethering)?
Guide undertaking and progress monitoring with spreadsheets is one other space that carries a danger of error or abuse. It’s a type of swivel chair method the place a techs/contractors provoke assessments on an instrument after which file fiber IDs and file move/fail standing on a spreadsheet. These spreadsheets should be submitted or collected frequently and returned to a undertaking supervisor or lead engineer for validation and compilation into undertaking progress reporting however as with most issues there will be delays with spreadsheet submission resulting in reporting delays. Getting into info manually on a spreadsheet carries the chance of typo’s which may imply info is misplaced or turns into ineffective, which may imply a web site revisit for retesting.
Once more, the handbook time and effort could also be okay for decrease volumes of fibers however just isn’t environment friendly sufficient and doesn’t scale nicely to tons of or hundreds of fibers, it merely takes too lengthy.
The way in which to deal with this piece of the puzzle could be an method that reduces the quantity of handbook information entry and robotically ties outcomes/stories to these fiber IDs, primarily integrating the undertaking administration facet into the instrument so that every one the fiber ID’s to be examined are pre-defined (no danger of knowledge entry errors), the check gear can then robotically tie check outcomes to the fiber ID, apply move/fail thresholds and supply a transparent view of undertaking/testing progress.
FiberComplete PRO with Cable-SLM for managing excessive quantity fiber certification initiatives
Adopting any of those approaches will enhance check time or workflow and enhance your techs’ effectivity, which means you will get check jobs completed in a shorter time, liberating your techs as much as do extra per day or to allocate much less time for certification (man hours price) or simply to make sure that the certification doesn’t delay undertaking log out. VIAVI believes when you undertake an answer which contains all of this stuff you may reduce the time taken for the complete end-to-end course of (job allocation, check setup, multi-fiber check, bi-dir evaluation and report era) by something from 70 to 80% (relying on the applying).
FiberComplete PRO single fiber check time examine
With such time financial savings performing full bi-dir certification for top fiber rely purposes doesn’t change into time prohibitive. Within the subsequent weblog we’ll take a look at a multi-fiber situation and evaluate conventional/legacy processes towards an answer that adopts the enhancements mentioned right here.
For extra details about bi-directional fiber certification check out our FiberComplete PRO web page.
Douglas Clague is presently options advertising and marketing supervisor for fiber optic discipline options at VIAVI. Doug has over 20 years of expertise in check and measurement with a major deal with fiber optics and cable applied sciences, supporting the telecommunications business. Previous to VIAVI, Doug held positions as manufacturing engineer, options engineer and enterprise improvement supervisor. Doug has participated on quite a few business panels round fiber and cable expertise developments. He attended Brunel College in London and graduated with an honors diploma in electrical and digital engineering.
