Michael B. Cain

Environmental, mechanical, and handleability perform- ance of single blowable fiber units

The installation of optical fiber units using a compressed gas was first described by British Telecommunications Research Laboratories (BTRL).1 Installation distances of up to 600 m (Ref. 2) in a single operation, with greater distances achievable using multiple installation devices, make this technique attractive in many networking and communication scenarios. Unspliced, point to point links, deferred fiber deployment, future upgradeability, and system flexibility are advantages of this approach. The blown fiber system developed by BTRL was designed for use in the U.K. The environmental requirements in the U.K. result in a low temperature specification of only −10°C for the multifiber unit.