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Submarine Fiber Optics Cable Installation

6/23/2015

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This project was undertaken in mid 1990s for EPMI (Esso Production Malaysia Incorporated - later sold to PETRON) offshore east cost of Malaysia Peninsular
The fiber optics cable was to link main oil platform to another satellite oil platform to ensure smooth communication data & voice transfer.
The submarine cable was of hybrid type i.e. power, fiber optics and copper incorporated into one cable.
The power cable, fiber optics cable and copper cable were separated and terminated individually at the platform lower base.
Another type of fiber optics cable was installed from the termination point up to platform communication room.

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Iron Ring & The Ritual of The Calling of an Engineer

6/16/2015

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The Iron Ring is a ring worn by many Canadian-trained engineers, as a symbol and reminder of the obligations and ethics associated with their profession. From a concept originated in 1922, the ring is presented to graduates in a closed ceremony known as The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer, developed with the assistance of English poet Rudyard Kipling.

The ring symbolizes the pride which engineers have in their profession, while simultaneously reminding them of their humility. The ring serves as a reminder to the engineer and others of the engineer’s obligation to live by a high standard of professional conduct. It is not a symbol of qualification as an engineer – this is determined by the provincial and territorial licensing bodies.

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OTDR Setup - Index of Refraction & Fiber Distance

6/1/2015

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All OTDRs regardless of brand have four basic setup requirement i.e. the OTDR user is required to key in these four basic data parameters into OTDR in order to get good and accurate fiber trace analysis.

The required data parameters are :-

Testing Range - Refer to Article HERE
Pulse Width - Refer to Article HERE
Index of Refraction
Averaging Time

Index of Refraction

The relationship between distance and velocity or speed is as shown below -

You can review previous article on Index of Refraction HERE or HERE

As previously mentioned index of refraction measures the speed of light in optical medium. It is a function of velocity of light in vacuum and velocity of light in the opticel fiber medium or simply stated as below -

Velocity of light in fiber optics can be further expressed in terms of velocity of light in vacuum and index of refraction. This is done by rearranging the index of refraction equation as stated above.

Knowing that C or velocity of light in vacuum is a constant value

Then the distance of fiber optics as measured by OTDR can be simplied as shown below

The index of refraction, n, is a known value which can be obtained from the fiber optics manufacturer. While t , OTDR pulse width and its backscatter light travelling time , can be measured by OTDR automatically ie. the initial time laser pulse width launched into fiber optics and time taken by backscattered light returned back into OTDR.

Therefore, the measured of fiber optics distance is a function of index of refraction.

As value of IOR increases the measured fiber optic distance or length is getting shorter.

As value of IOR decreases the measured fiber optic distance or length is getting longer.

If the OTDR index of refraction does not match to that of fiber optics under testing IOR then the OTDR distance traces might show the incorrect results.

If the fiber optics under testing IOR is not known, then the end-user can use the OTDR default IOR setting.

Typical fiber optics IOR value is between 1.4000 to 1.6000

Rule of Thumb
Always obtain the fiber optics Index of Refraction values from corresponding fiber optics manufacturer.

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Submarine Fiber Optics Cable Installation

Iron Ring & The Ritual of The Calling of an Engineer

OTDR Setup - Index of Refraction & Fiber Distance

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