July 3, 1991
Mr. L. Frank Brisk
Associate Editor - Telephony
2534 W. 183 Street
Homewood, Illinois 60430
This is in support of Mr. Ron Wadley of USAX-Tractions for his nomination to Telephony's Ray Blain - OSP Achievement Award.
The fiber optic placing procedures followed in Ohio Bell over the past several years have allowed us to place long sections (average 20,000 ft.) between splices. This has enabled us to reduce splice points and lower the overall installations cost.
In order to accomplish long fiber optic cable pulls, we generally started at the mid-point and pulled one direction (about 10,000 ft). We then pulled the remaining 10,000 feet of fiber optic cable off the reel, placing it in a figure 8, prior to pulling in the opposite direction. Removal of this cable from the reel took several hours to complete and usually involved 3-5 Outside Plant Technicians. In many cases it was difficult to find a space along the crowded streets large enough to perform this operation. Mr. Wadley's innovative design of the Endagain - Figure 8 machine has given us the opportunity to enhance our performance in this area by completing this same task in less than one hour with the Endagain Figure 8 trailer.
I heartly endorse Mr. Wadley's nomination for his innovative equipment design. His idea has provided our industry with a way to reduce cost and improve performance.
Sincerely,
John R. Aulicino
Manager - Technology Support & Planning
Ohio Bell Telephone
| cc: | Arnie Dzinney
Dick Brown Hank Hartman |
Bell Canada cuts losses on fiber ring
KEN THUELL
In 1991, Bell Canada built a 25-mile fiber ring through three central offices surrounding Toronto's Pearson International Airport.
As the facility designer, keeping installed cost and end-to-end optical signal loss at a minimum were two of my key objectives. Conditions along the route of the proposed ring, however, threatened to put both goals beyond reach.
For one thing, the new cable would be pulled into underground conduits already occupied by existing cables. Thus, pulling tensions would be higher than normal and could quickly exceed the 600-lb. pulling tension limit specified by the cable manufacturer.
To avoid exceeding that limit, the outside plant technicians would have had to install many short lengths of cable. They also would have had to make 55 full cross-section cable splices, of which some could not be used for customer access. That many splices would have played havoc with the objectives for loss and installed cost.
I investigated traditional methods for installing cable in long uncut lengths, but heavy traffic, above-ground work space limitations and manhole congestion made them impractical. There was no room for mid-assist pulling units or for making backfeed pulls and temporarily storing huge piles of cable on the ground in a figure-eight configuration before completing the pulls.
A Telephony article entitled "To splice or not to splice in the OSP" (May 27, 1991, page 42) mentioned a machine called Endagain manufactured by U.S.A. X- Tractions Inc. of Belleview, Mo. According to the article, the machine lets technicians install very long lengths of fiber optic cable in underground conduit without exceeding prescribed maximum pulling tensions. It eliminates the need for mid-assist pulling devices or for making temporary piles of cable laid out manually in the form of a huge figure-eight. The product also is suited for placing long lengths of splice-free aerial or buried cable.
I purchased an Endagain after seeing it in action at Illinois Bell. The unit's order, assembly and delivery interval gave me time to redesign the fiber ring and specify placement of long lengths of cable. By doing so, the number of full cross-section fusion splices needed to join the lengths together plummeted from 55 to 19.
The redesign also provided for the installation of stored-slack, fiber-access splice closures at 67 locations. These fiber access points were built at minimal cost and without increasing end-to-end loss. They were built in half the time it takes to make a full cross-section fusion splice because the technicians only had to remove the buffer tubes and store the uncut fibers in trays.
Thanks to the long lengths technicians were able to install by using the new machine, end-to-end optical signal loss on the project was 60% less than the amount estimated in the original plan. Furthermore, the initial transmission test of the installed 96-fiber cable revealed it was 100% defect-free. The estimated annual savings stemming from the use of Endagain have been estimated at $1 million.
Bell Canada now owns several of the machines.
Ken Thuell
Manager-Access Network
Bell Canada
Etobicoke, Ontario
LoopScoop is a forum for our readers, Telephony Division of Intertec Publishing Corp. neither tests nor guarantees the efficacy of the solutions, product applications of modifications discussed in this column. If an outside plant problem has you down in the dirt, we'll help you tackle it. If you have solved an outside plant problem creatively, we'd also like to hear about that. Mail or fax correspondence to Telephony's LoopScoop, 55 E. Jackson Blvd., Suite 1100W, Chicago, Ill., 60604-4188; fax: (312) 922-1408.
TELEPHONY/FEBRUARY 22, 1993