LightPULSE Fiber
Health Management

Centralized Monitoring Pinpoints Fiber Cuts and Degradations
Fiber failures cause service outages, so it is imperative to locate and repair failures as soon as possible. LightPULSE uses
distributed OTDR (Optical Time Domain Reflectometry) to monitor the physical health of a fiber, including the integrity ofall splices along the fiber path, from the convenience of a network control center. In locates degradations and failures towithin a few meters, and can combined with a GPS system to dispatch repair crews with pinpoint accuracy.
LightPULSE OTDR monitors fiber health without affecting services traffic, and can be installed on any fiber network,
whether it is supporting packet or optical networking gear from Ribbon or another provider. LightPULSE OTDR pays foritself quickly in operational savings and customer satisfaction.

In-service
Monitoring of any
Fiber Network

Locates Failures
to within Meters,
Whether In-building
or Outside Plant

Finds Degradations
before they
become Failures

Eliminates
Multiple Truck
Rolls

LightPULSEOTDR HostOTDR Module

Node

Node

OTDR Module

Node

Node

NodeFiberNode

Application Note

Node

NodeNode

NodeLightPULSE Fiber Health Management

Fiber Failures Happen

Steam Damage

Fibers by their nature are the most exposed part of anetwork. They span huge distances in territories beyond
the control of a network operator, underground, underwater, on aerial cables, and often popping up in equipment
huts. While perhaps not intuitive, studies have shown that
underground fiber is the most susceptible to harm, withthe most frequent failure mode being dig-ups1.

ExtremeIce
Temperature
Flood

Intrinsic Electronics
Failures
Firearms
Defective Cable
VehiclesTypically, a failure leads to multiple truck rolls, to:01

Fire

Determine the location and nature of the failure02

Perform a temporary repair to restore service,with an average repair time of 5 hours203

Perform a permanent repair, with an average
repair time of 14 hours

Lightning

Unknown
Other

Dig-upsRodentCraft/Workman
ErrorsHowever, average repair time statistics are misleading. The real pain comes from a small percentage of problems thatseemingly take forever to locate and repair. Being able to locate degradations before they become service affecting, orquickly pinpointing the location of hard failures, reduces outage and repair times significantly. It saves on truck roll costs
and repair crew man-hours (usually with overtime), and increases customer satisfaction with higher service availability.

loss
Normal connector

Fiber cutlocation

Normal splice
loss

LightPULSE Integrated OTDROTDR is a classic technique to characterize and locate problems on a physical fiber. It injects a pulse of light into a fiber,
and then analyzes the power of the reflected signal in time. Expected characteristics, as well as abnormalities and hardbreaks all show up instantly to a technician.
In the past, OTDR has been exercised mainly with handheld devices. When a problem occurs, a technician is dispatchedto the approximate area; he or she then finds a location like an equipment hut to patch into the fiber with the handheld
OTDR, and proceeds with the diagnosis. The downsides of this approach is that it is reactive and time-consuming.

1 Reliability of Fiber Optic Cable Systems: Buried Fiber Optic Cable, Optical Groundwire Cable, All Dielectric Self-Supporting Cable, Alcoa Fujikura, May 2001.
2 V. Hou, “Update on Interim Results of Fiber Optic System Field Failure Analysis”, NFOEC Proceedings, pp. 539-545. April 1991. (Note: While these are older references, they are still widely cited because thenature of fiber failures and repair has not changed significantly over time.)

2 Application Note

LightPULSE Fiber Health Management

LightPULSE OTDR makes fiber health management easy with a centralized solution. Its has two elements:

OTDR1610_8S ModuleThis single slot card fits any of Ribbon’s Apollo 9600 series optical networking platforms, including the compact 9603 2RUplatform. It can be deployed stand-alone or in conjunction with other Apollo optical transport gear like transponders andROADMs. The OTDR module operates at 1610nm, outside the bands used for optical services transmission, and each module
can monitor up to eight individual fibers.

LightPULSE Host
This centralized application and GUI controls the OTDR modules, reports OTDR measurements, and stores results for historical
trend analysis. It also interfaces with a LightPULSE Geographic Information System (GIS) to translate distance down a fiber toa problem to geographical X and Y coordinates.

LightPULSE OTDR Trace

3 Application Note

LightPULSE Geographic MappingLightPULSE Fiber Health Management

Dramatic Reduction in Truck Rolls
Centralized monitoring dramatically reduces truck rolls previously required in dealing with fiber
problems. One LightPULSE OTDR network operator reports a 4X reduction in truck rolls from 100s toless than a 100 per year.

Complete Network Coverage
Each OTDR module can monitor up to eight fibers. By distributing the modules around the network,
it is straightforward to cover all fibers. Moreover, fibers can be monitored bi-directionally, providing
even greater insights.

Fault Detection with Pinpoint Accuracy
LightPULSE OTDR is accurate to within about 0.01% of fiber length. For example, for spans up to30km, breaks can be identified to within 3m, or to within 12m for spans as long as 120km.

Can Sectionalize Faults between Owned and Leased Fiber
Many network operators rely on a combination of owned and leased fiber. LightPULSE OTDR’s
mapping feature makes it easy to determine in whose jurisdiction the problem lies, and who isresponsible for the repair.

Early Fault Detection Through Trend Analysis
LightPULSE OTDR enables comparing snapshots of a fiber’s characteristics over time to identify
problems before they become service affecting, such as a splice that is deteriorating.

Works on any Fiber Network
LightPULSE OTDR can be deployed in conjunction with Ribbon supplied networking gear, or as anoverlay to an existing packet or optical network, or a mix of the two.

About Ribbon
Ribbon Communications (Nasdaq: RBBN) delivers communications software, IP and optical networking solutions toservice providers, enterprises and critical infrastructure sectors globally. We engage deeply with our customers, helping
them modernize their networks for improved competitive positioning and business outcomes in today’s smart, always-on
and data-hungry world. Our innovative, end-to-end solutions portfolio delivers unparalleled scale, performance, and agility,
including core to edge software-centric solutions, cloud-native offers, leading-edge security and analytics tools, along withIP and optical networking solutions for 5G. We maintain a keen focus on our commitments to Environmental, Social andGovernance (ESG) matters, offering an annual Sustainability Report to our stakeholders. To learn more about Ribbon visit
rbbn.com.
Contact Us

Contact us to learn more about Ribbon solutions.

Copyright ©️ 2023, Ribbon Communications Operating Company, Inc. (“Ribbon”). All Rights Reserved. v0423

4 Application Note