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EuroWire – January 2008 85
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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] .
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.
The technique has several major
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
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 ▼
Figure 14: Test site ▼
Figure 15: Graph showing test result from blowing
of micro cable in aerial test track
▲
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 ▲
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