Patent ID: 7079735

Claim:
A method for selecting optical fibers from inventory for use in a communication network, the method comprising the steps of: locating a plurality of optical fiber reels located in inventory, wherein each of the optical fibers reels exhibits a plurality of optical parameters; receiving a customer order, the customer order including customer requirements for at least a portion of the plurality of optical parameters and a total optical fiber length, or a standardized specification of anticipated customer requirements for at least a portion of the plurality of optical parameters and a total optical fiber length; selecting at least two optical parameters from the plurality of optical parameters that are included in the customer requirements or standardized requirements wherein said two optical parameters correspond to those among said plurality of optical parameters for which the greatest number of the optical fiber reels fail to meet the customer requirements or standardized requirements; combining a number of the optical fiber reels which individually do not meet the customeror standardized requirements into optical fiber reel pairs whose length weighted average for the selected optical parameters meet the customer requirements or standardized requirements; and selecting an appropriate number of the optical fiber reel pairs to meet the customer requirements or standardized requirements for the total optical fiber length.