RFID Systems and Methods for Optical Fiber Network Deployment and Maintenance

• US 20090097846A1
• Filed: 10/09/2008
• Published: 04/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Corning Cable Systems LLC (Corning Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Corning Cable Systems LLC (Corning Incorporated)
• Inventors: WAGNER, RICHARD EDWARD, DOWNIE, JOHN DAVID, SUTHERLAND, JAMES SCOTT, WHITING, MATTHEW SCOTT, TAYLOR, MARK PETER, NEDERLOF, LEO, KOZISCHEK, DAVID ROBERT
• Granted Patent: US 8,264,355 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/07 Arrangements for monitoring or testing transmission systems; Arrangements for fault measurement of transmission systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/27 Arrangements for networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0677 Localisation of faults
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0062 Network aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0079 Operation or maintenance aspects
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/00 Systems for electrical power generation, transmission, distribution or end-user application management characterised by the use of communication or information technologies, or communication or information technology specific aspects supporting them

Abstract

An optical-fiber-network (OFN) radio-frequency identification (RFID) system for deploying and/or maintaining and/or provisioning service and/or locating faults in an OFN. The system includes a plurality of OFN components, and at least one RFID tag that includes RFID tag data that has at least one property of the OFN component associated with the RFID tag. The RFID tag data is written to and read from the RFID tags using one or more mobile RFID readers either prior to, during or after deploying the OFN components. An OFN-component-data database unit is used to store and process the RFID tag data and is automatically updated by the one or more mobile RFID readers. This allows for different maps of the OFN to be made, such as an inventory map and a maintenance map, and for the maps to be automatically updated. The OFN-RFID system allows for mobile automated operations and management of OFN components by service personnel, and provides for faster and more accurate OFN system deployment and maintenance.

Claims

1. A radio-frequency identification (RFID) method of deploying and/or maintaining and/or provisioning service and/or locating faults in an OFN an optical fiber network (OFN), comprising:

providing at least one RFID tag on at least one OFN component of a plurality of OFN components that constitute the OFN;

writing to at least one RFID tag using at least one RFID reader, OFN component data relating to at least one property of the corresponding OFN component;

recording and storing the OFN component data in an OFN-component-data database unit; and

automatically updating the OFN-component-data database by reading OFN component data from the at least one RFID tag using the one or more RFID tag readers.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

installing the OFN components in the OFN; and

performing said providing of at least one RFID tag prior to said installing.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein reading OFN component-data is performed either during or after deploying the OFN.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

including in said OFN component data a location of the corresponding OFN component either as deployed or as to be deployed in the OFN; and

using said location data to create a spatial map of the OFN.

5. The method of claim 4, including showing the spatial map of the OFN with a geographical map having geographical features, so as to locate the OFN components relative to geographical features.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

locating at least one select OFN component based on said spatial OFN map; and

reading the corresponding at least one RFID tag associated with the one or more select OFN component.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

including inventory data in the OFN component data; and

using said inventory data to create an inventory map of the OFN.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the OFN includes an optical fiber cable having a length, and including:

positioning RFID tags along the length of the optical fiber cable; and

including as OFN component data the relative locations of the RFID tags along the optical fiber cable using global position system (GPS) coordinates.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of OFN components includes at least one patch panel, and further comprising:

including in at least one patch-panel RFID tag corresponding to the at least one patch panel, at least one OFN component data element from the group of OFN component data elements comprising;

port identification, loss per port, and connectivity for each port.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of OFN components includes at least one splitter module, and further comprising:

including in at least one splitter-module RFID tag corresponding to the at least one splitter module, at least one OFN component data element from the group of OFN component data elements comprising;

shelf ID, port identification, loss data at a given wavelength, terminal ID, street name, street address, pole number, and GPS coordinates.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one RFID reader is mobile, and further comprising:

bringing in the at least one mobile RFID reader within a read range of the at least one RFID tag affixed to the at least one OFN component and reading the OFN component data from the at least one RFID tag.

12. A radio-frequency identification (RFID) system for deploying and/or maintaining and/or provisioning service and/or locating faults in an optical fiber network (OFN), comprising:

at least one RFID tag affixed to at least one OFN component of a plurality of OFN components that constitute the OFN, wherein the at least one RFID tag affixed to the at least one OFN component contains OFN component data that relates to at least one property of the OFN component;

at least one mobile RFID tag reader adapted to be taken within a read range of the at least one RFID tag affixed to the at least one OFN component and adapted to read the OFN component data from the at least one RFID tag; and

an OFN component data database unit adapted to receive and store OFN component data read by the at least one mobile RFID tag reader.

13. The RFID system of claim 12, wherein the OFN components include one or more OFN components selected from the group of OFN components comprising:

a feeder cable, a distribution cable, a drop cable, a splitter, a splitter module, a network access point (NAP), an enclosure, a cabinet, a terminal, a patch panel, a patch cord, a splice box, a fiber connector, a coupler, an optical amplifier, a wavelength multiplexer, a wavelength demultiplexer, an optical line terminal (OLT), a filter, a light source, an optical receiver, an optical transmitter, an intrafacility cable, a local convergence point (LCP), a network interface device (NID), a fiber distribution frame (FDF), and a fiber equipment module.

14. The RFID system of claim 13, wherein one of the OFN components is a splitter module, and wherein the OFN component data for the splitter module includes at least one data element selected from the group of data elements comprising:

a shelf location, a port identification, a loss at a given wavelength, a terminal identification, a street name, a street address, and GPS coordinates.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein one of the OFN components is a patch panel having a number of optical fiber connection ports, and wherein the OFN component data for the patch panel include one or more data elements selected from the group of data elements comprising:

GPS coordinates, a shelf location, a port identification, a loss for each port, a destination for each port, and a status of each port.

16. The RFID system of claim 12, wherein:

the database unit includes a microprocessor having graphical user interface (GUI) capability and adapted to process the OFN component data stored in the database unit; and

a display operably coupled to the processor unit and adapted to interactively display the OFN component data as processed by the microprocessor.

17. The RFID system of claim 12, wherein at least one mobile RFID tag reader is adapted to read RFID tag signals from RFID tags located underground.

18. The RFID system of claim 12, wherein the at least one mobile RFID tag reader automatically updates the OFN component data database.

19. A radio-frequency identification (RFID) system for deploying and/or maintaining and/or provisioning service and/or locating faults an optical fiber network (OFN) that is optically coupled to a central office (CO), comprising:

at least one feeder-cable RFID tag fixed to a feeder cable that is optically coupled to the CO, with the at least one feeder-cable RFID tag having feeder-cable data relating to one or more properties of the feeder cable;

at least one local convergence point (LCP) RFID tag fixed to a local convergence point (LCP) that is operably connected to the feeder cable, with the at least one LCP RFID tag having LCP data relating to one or more properties of the LCP;

at least one distribution-cable RFID tag fixed to a distribution cable that is operably coupled to the LCP, with the at least one distribution-cable RFID tag having distribution-cable data relating to one or more properties of the distribution cable;

at least one network access point (NAP) RFID tag fixed to a NAP that is operably coupled to the LCP via the distribution cable, with the at least one NAP RFID tag having NAP data relating to one or more properties of the NAP;

at least one network interface device (NID) RFID tag fixed to a NID that is operably coupled to the LCP via a drop cable, with the at least one NAP RFID tag having NID data relating to one or more properties of the NID;

one or more mobile RFID tag readers adapted to read at least one of the feeder-cable RFID tags, the LCP RFID tags, the distribution-cable RFID tags, the NAP RFID tags, and the NID RFID tags, and provide corresponding feeder-cable data, LCP data, distribution-cable data, NAP data, and NID data; and

an OFN component database unit adapted to receive and store the feeder-cable data, the LCP data, the distribution-cable data, the NAP data and the NID data.

20. The RFID system of claim 19, wherein the at least one mobile RFID tag reader is configured to automatically update the OFN-component-data database.