Method and apparatus for fiber optic fault locating and mapping

• US 7,536,102 B1
• Filed: 03/04/2005
• Issued: 05/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Eslambolchi, Hossein, Huffman, John
• Primary Examiner(s): SINGH, DALZID E
• Application Number:
  US11/072,468
• Time in Patent Office: 1,537 Days
• Field of Search: 398/10, 398 13- 17, 398/20, 398/21, 398/28, 398 30- 32, 356/73.1
• US Class Current: 398/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/071 using a reflected signal, e.g. using optical time domain reflectometers [OTDR]

Abstract

In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a method and apparatus is presented for troubleshooting a fiber-optic cable. A fiber-optic, cable-troubleshooting system includes an integrated Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) for generating an optical distance to a fault and a cable-locating module for presenting a tone on a fiber-optic cable. A technician uses the tone to locate the fiber-optic cable and the optical distance to locate the fault in the fiber-optic cable.

Claims

1. A method of troubleshooting a fiber-optic cable, comprising the steps of:

operating an OTDR to generate fault information;

generating a signal in response to generating the fault information; and

operating a cable-locating module in response to generating the signal, including placing a cable locating tone on a metallic sheath of the fiber optic cable, the tone emanating from the cable for locating the cable using a signal detection unit.

2. A method of troubleshooting a fiber-optic cable as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a step of communicating the fault information to a technician.

3. A method of troubleshooting a fiber-optic cable as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a step of communicating the fault information to the technician before generating the signal.

4. A method of troubleshooting a fiber-optic cable as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a step of communicating the fault information to the technician after generating the signal.

5. A method of troubleshooting a fiber-optic cable as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a step of receiving a code to operate the cable-locating module and operating the cable-locating module in response to generating the signal and in response to receiving the code to operate the cable-locating module.

6. A method of troubleshooting a fiber-optic cable as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a step of storing the fault information, accessing instructions, and performing the step of generating the signal in response to the instruction.

7. A method of troubleshooting a fiber-optic cable as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a step of accessing instructions from a memory and operating the OTDR to generate fault information;

generating the signal; and

operating the cable locating module in response to the instructions.

8. A method of troubleshooting a fiber-optic cable as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a step of receiving operation information through a communication interface and operating the OTDR and the cable-locating module in response to receiving the information through the communication interface.