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I'm picturing plenty of bundled optical fiber cut in two. How big are these bundles ? How can they repair the optical fiber (i.e. how to reconnect each single

I'm picturing plenty of bundled optical fiber cut in two. How big are these bundles ? How can they repair the optical fiber (i.e. how to reconnect each single fiber to its previous half ?) Do they have to reinstall a section of cable ?

ra1n85 8y ago
They can be sizable depending on the type or how many fibers are run. Marine vs terrestrial are different as well. Repair depends on the type of cut, too. Aerial run? Buried? Did the fiber get damaged as a result of an underground gas explosion in a nearby vault that caused several meters to fuse together? :) Often, a splicing is necessary - that involves using special equipment to re-align and fuse the damaged pairs. Slack in the run can be used to bring the damaged ends flush, or a segment can be added to couple them.
dunham 8y ago
My dad used to do this for AT&T (mainly for train derailments if I remember right). As I understood it, he would cut/polish the ends of the glass and glue together. The process may have changed since then, it’s been about a decade.
- GistNoesis 8y ago
  What I don't get is how they match each individual fiber on the left with its right one, as I imagine there are probably thousands and individual fibers inside a bundle. When they installed the fiber at my home they had some laser to check the fiber correspondence. Is it just that, pick left illuminated by laser fiber, pick right illuminated by laser fiber, put in a glueing/fusing machine, and doing it n times (where n is huge)? Where do they get some slack to access the fiber bundled inside ? (Do they need to add a patch section and do the above work two times, or is there some neat trick ?)
  - windowsworkstoo 8y ago
    Fibre buffer is standard colours, you just match and splice. Service loops in the run provides slack to take up, else you just cut and splice in a short segment.
- patrickg_zill 8y ago
  That is no longer done.

ra1n85 8y ago

They can be sizable depending on the type or how many fibers are run. Marine vs terrestrial are different as well. Repair depends on the type of cut, too. Aerial run? Buried? Did the fiber get damaged as a result of an underground gas explosion in a nearby vault that caused several meters to fuse together? :) Often, a splicing is necessary - that involves using special equipment to re-align and fuse the damaged pairs. Slack in the run can be used to bring the damaged ends flush, or a segment can be added to couple them.

dunham 8y ago

My dad used to do this for AT&T (mainly for train derailments if I remember right). As I understood it, he would cut/polish the ends of the glass and glue together. The process may have changed since then, it’s been about a decade.

GistNoesis 8y ago
What I don't get is how they match each individual fiber on the left with its right one, as I imagine there are probably thousands and individual fibers inside a bundle. When they installed the fiber at my home they had some laser to check the fiber correspondence. Is it just that, pick left illuminated by laser fiber, pick right illuminated by laser fiber, put in a glueing/fusing machine, and doing it n times (where n is huge)? Where do they get some slack to access the fiber bundled inside ? (Do they need to add a patch section and do the above work two times, or is there some neat trick ?)
- windowsworkstoo 8y ago
  Fibre buffer is standard colours, you just match and splice. Service loops in the run provides slack to take up, else you just cut and splice in a short segment.
patrickg_zill 8y ago
That is no longer done.