Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Smart optical cable positioning/location using optical fiber sensing
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Application No.: US16660699Application Date: 2019-10-22
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Publication No.: US11366231B2Publication Date: 2022-06-21
- Inventor: Ming-Fang Huang , Yuheng Chen , Ting Wang
- Applicant: NEC Laboratories America, Inc.
- Applicant Address: US NJ Princeton
- Assignee: NEC Laboratories America, Inc.
- Current Assignee: NEC Laboratories America, Inc.
- Current Assignee Address: US NJ Princeton
- Agent Joseph Kolodka
- Main IPC: G01S19/03
- IPC: G01S19/03 ; G01H9/00

Abstract:
Aspects of the present disclosure describe systems, methods and structures for determining any location on a deployed fiber cable from an optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR) curve using a movable mechanical vibration source to stimulate tiny vibration of fiber in deployed fiber cable along the cable route and a fiber sensing system at a central office to detect the vibration(s). Latitude and longitude of the location(s) of the vibration source is measured with a GPS device and a dynamic-OTDR distance is measured at central office (CO) simultaneously. The collected GPS location data and corresponding dynamic-OTDR distance data are paired and saved into a database. This saved data may be processed to graphically overlie a map thereby providing exact cable location on the map thereby providing carriers/service providers the ability to improve fiber fault location on a deployed fiber cable much faster and more accurately than presently possible using methods available in the art.
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