N112-134 TITLE: In-Line Fiber Optic Signal Quality Fixture

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Materials/Processes

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PMS 317, LPD 17 Program

OBJECTIVE: Develop an in-line signal quality fixture to provide shipboard personnel with a 24/7 condition status of the entire fiber optic network plant throughout the life of the ship. Additionally, the fixture should enable shipyard fiber optic technicians with the ability to detect, isolate, and troubleshoot conventional or air-blown fiber optic cable installations during the shipboard cable installation tests and inspection phase of the Shipyard Industrial Test Period.

DESCRIPTION: Communication transmission systems and networks continue to evolve towards higher data rates, increased wavelength density, longer transmission distances and more intelligence. Additionally, dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) and all-optical networks (AON) such as the Ship-wide Area Network (SWAN) on the LPD 17 Class demands a monitoring fixture to assure quality of service (QoS). Higher degree of self-control, intelligence and optimization for functions within next generation networks require new monitoring schemes to be developed and deployed. Currently, on board naval ships there are a wide range of optical network technologies: 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GigE), 10 Gigabit SONET, OCx ATM, etc. All these system use or are projected to use air-blown fiber optic (ABFO) cabling. While methods and installation practices of Fiber Optics (FO) in a shipyard environment has improved considerably over the years, experience has shown that ABFO cables will develop tiny breaks or cracks that, if not detected during the testing period, will continue to propagate. Breaks or cracks are typically found in areas such as bends in the cableways, as a result of initial connectorization, subsequent removal and reconnecting, cinching up the cableways and installing and pulling copper cable within the same cableways. As the Navy continues to move into the FO environment, it is beginning to see thousand of man hours being spent troubleshooting initial ABFO or standard FO installations. Degradation of FO connections have been experienced merely by opening, moving, or disconnecting FO connectors, thus become unknown or questionable entities. Though portable FO testers are available to test the fiber cable in a shipyard environment, there is no apparatus that is capable of being installed in the shipboard FO network as part of the monitoring system 24/7. The development of an in-line FO fixture will drastically reduce essential troubleshooting hours required to install and verify fiber optic cables and over time will reduce time spent troubleshooting broken or unknown fiber connectivity. An in-line monitoring fixture is a key enabler for self-control of next generation networks.

This topic seeks to explore innovative approach(es) to the development of an in-line signal quality fixture to enable users to detect, isolate and troubleshoot conventional FO or ABFO cable installations. The development of an in-line FO fixture will drastically reduce essential troubleshooting hours required to install and verify fiber optic cables and over time will reduce time spent troubleshooting broken or unknown fiber connectivity. An in-line monitoring fixture is a key enabler for self-control of next generation networks. Proposed concepts should be able to be permanently rack mountable as well as portable, easy to use and cost-effective to deploy in both shipyards and in the fleet. The proposed concepts will need to be capable of monitoring a variety of metrics � Loss of Signal, Bit Errors, Optical Power Levels, Laser Current, Voltage Output, and Bandwidth in a real-time status.

PHASE I: Demonstrate the feasibility of the development of an in-line signal quality fixture(s) to provide shipboard personnel with a 24/7 condition status of the entire FO network plant throughout the life of the ship as well as enabling shipyard FO technicians with the ability to detecte, isolatate, and troubleshoot conventional FO or AFBO cable installations. Establish performance goals and provide a Phase II development approach and schedule that contains discrete milestones for product development.

PHASE II: Develop, demonstrate and fabricate a prototype as identified in Phase I. In a laboratory environment, demonstrate that the prototype product meets the performance goals established during Phase I. Provide a detailed plan for software and/or hardware certification, validation, and method of implementation into a future ship test and/or design environment. Prepare cost estimates, logistics data packages, and interface documents for use in both forward fit and retrofit ship programs.

PHASE III: Utilizing the technology developed during Phase I and II, work with Navy and industry to certify and implement for use on existing and future naval and commercial shipbuilding environments.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: This in-line fixture could be employed in any fiber optic environment involving complex network systems and interfaces.

REFERENCES:
1. Fiber Optic Cable Topology Installation Standard Methods for Naval Ships Mil-Std-2042B

2. Test Method Standard for Environmental Engineering Considerations and Laboratory Tests, Mil-Std-810F

3. Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) standard test FOTP-95.

KEYWORDS: Fiber optics; air blown fiber; signal quality; test and evaluation; troubleshooting

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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