Optical Fiber Cable Installation Techniques

When installing junction optical fiber cable, which essentially must be longer than conventional metallic-conductor cable to effectively reduce splice loss, the applied tensile load must be within tolerable limits to prevent an increase in loss and a decrease in lifetime. It has recently become possible to meet this requirement through the development of a new cable installation system which makes use of a modified cable pulling truck and a new intermediate cable pulling machine. Furthermore, this new installation system, capable of achieving a 1.0-1.5 km installation length for all types of cable accommodations, has already been put into practice. In addition, this paper presents three new cable installation techniques for facilitating subscriber optical fiber cable installations under various environmental conditions: a tension-controlled pulling technique, a cable pulling eye attachment technique, and a cost-effective damage-free cable installation technique in older buildings.