OPTICAL FIBER CABLE ASSEMBLY COMPRISING OPTICAL TRACER FIBER

摘要

An optical fiber cable assembly includes an optical tracer fiber, an optical data transmission fiber, and a cable jacket. The optical tracer fiber defines a tracer scattering profile having a scattering loss of >15 dB/km at a tracer wavelength or wavelength range λT that lies in a visible spectrum. The optical tracer fiber is wound about a longitudinal axis of the optical fiber cable assembly and is either physically coupled to the cable jacket or contained within an inside diameter of the cable jacket. The cable jacket may be engineered to generate light at an optically visible shifted tracer wavelength or wavelength range λT* from visible light at the tracer wavelength or wavelength range λT. The cable jacket may include an optically reflective material such that a portion of dispersed visible light from the optical tracer is reflected by the optically reflective material of the cable jacket.

主权项

1. An optical fiber cable assembly comprising at least one optical tracer fiber, one or more optical data transmission fibers, and a cable jacket, wherein:
the optical data transmission fibers are surrounded by the cable jacket and define a data transmission profile comprising a relatively low scattering loss of <10 dB/km at a data transmission wavelength or wavelength range λD that lies in an IR portion of the optical spectrum; the optical tracer fiber defines a tracer scattering profile comprising a relatively high scattering loss of >15 dB/km at a tracer wavelength or wavelength range λT that lies in a visible portion of the optical spectrum such that visible light at a tracer wavelength between about 400 nm and about 700 nm or a tracer wavelength range λT between about 400 nm and about 700 nm is dispersed from the optical tracer fiber along at least a portion of its length; the optical tracer fiber is wound about a longitudinal axis of the optical fiber cable assembly and is either physically coupled to the cable jacket or contained within an inside diameter of the cable jacket; the optical fiber cable assembly is configured such that the dispersed visible light at the tracer wavelength or wavelength range λT or an optically visible shifted tracer wavelength or wavelength range λT* is visible from an exterior of the optical fiber cable assembly.