EoW January 2008

english

4.3 Installation of drop cabling Aerial single ducts are installed as drops from the nearest pole to a wall socket at the customer’s premises. If necessary, the duct can easily be jointed to an indoor duct. Each single duct is then connected to a specific tube in the main duct assembly by a duct joint, see 3.3. The pre-terminated EPFU is blown from the customer to the fibre joint closure, see Figure 13 , where it is spliced to the branched CFUs from the micro cable. 4.4 Installation requirements Experience shows that aerial air-blown installation performance is comparable with the performance in an underground installation. Under good conditions it is possible to blow a 24-fibre micro cable at least 2,000 metres and 96-fibre cable 1,000 metres. This is more than enough in a normal installation case. In cases where longer distances are needed for the main distribution cable, cascade installation can be performed. The drop cable distance, from the customer to the fibre joint closure, is typically a maximum of 100-200 metres long which can be installed in just a few minutes. Normally blown fibres can be installed up to 1,000 metres without problems, see [2] .

Span

Route

Length [m]

Micro duct in ground

Central building – pole 2

105

Span 2, aerial duct

pole 2 – pole 3

60

Span 3, aerial duct

pole 3 – pole 4

60

Span 1, aerial duct

pole 1– pole 2

75

Table 1

▲

5. Micro cable blowing at test site To demonstrate the performance of aerial air-blown installation a test has been performed. A 96-fibre micro cable (distribution cable) was installed in a test track located outside the cable plant, see Figure 14 . The test result can be seen in Figure 15 . The micro cable was blown the total length of 1,050m in just over 30 minutes. The test result demonstrates the feasibility of aerial air-blown installation as described in this paper. 6. Conclusions A novel and innovative concept for aerial installation of fibre, developed for FTTH applications is introduced. The technique is based on using pre-connected air- blown fibre and high fibre count micro cables. The performance of the system has been verified in several environmental conditions by installation tests and field trials. advantages: • low installation cost. Use of existing pole infrastructure. The minimum amount of fibre splices is required • quick installation. Pre-terminated fibre eliminates the fitting of connectors during installation • scalability. ‘Pay as you grow’, fibres can be installed when needed. A PON network can be upgraded to a P2P network without additional investment in ducts • low visual impact. Only one duct assembly between poles is needed. Compact design and small dimensions on all components reduces the visual impact 7. Acknowledgments Leif Jawerth, Anders Johansson, Lars-Göran Andersson, Tomas Jendel, Jörgen Lundberg and John Eriksson are acknowledged for their contribution to this paper. n The technique has several major

Figure 15 : Graph showing test result from blowing of micro cable in aerial test track ▲

8. References

[1] T Jendel et al, ‘Design and high-speed processing of new advanced blown fibre units (EPFU’s)’, International Wire and Cable Symposium 2002, (November 2002) [2] T Jendel et al, ‘Installation performance of EPFU MkII blown fibre units’, International Wire and Cable Symposium 2003, (November 2003) [3] T Jendel, B Arvidsson, T Cedervall, ‘Micro cables with new Acrylate-based compact fibre units (CFU)’, International Wire and Cable Symposium 2004, (November 2004) [4] Willem Griffioen et al, ‘Experience in application of various micro-duct cable designs’, International Wire and Cable Symposium 2005, (November 2005)

Figure 13 : Installation of pre-terminated EPFU

▼

Ericsson Network Technologies Kabelvägen 1 82482 Hudiksvall Sweden Fax : +46 650 362 00 Email : info@ericsson.com Website : www.ericsson.com Ericsson Communications Ltd Ericsson House Level One 105 Carlton Gore Road Newmarket Auckland New Zealand Fax : +64 9 355 55 01 Email : info@ericsson.com Website : www.ericsson.com

Figure 14 : Test site

▼

85

EuroWire – January 2008