System and method for assisting in fiber optic splices

A method for assisting a technician in optical fiber splices using a first and a second test unit to be connected toward opposite ends of an optical fiber link, the optical fiber link comprising a first fiber span and a second fiber span to be spliced, each test unit having at least one output port, the method comprising:

• at least one of the first test unit and the second test unit activating a tone generator to produce a tone optical signal toward an output port;
• at least the other one of the first test unit and the second test unit detecting, using a tone detector, a presence of the tone optical signal produced by the tone generator of the opposite test unit and received via the output port in order to test a continuity of the optical fiber link;
• on a portable device used by the splicing technician and in communication with the first test unit and the second test unit, displaying a result of a continuity test performed using the first test unit and the second test unit in a user interface, whereby the splicing technician can verify that the spliced fiber spans match;
• after the splice is completed, at least one of the first test unit and the second test unit conducting a splice quality test toward the optical fiber link, the splice quality test comprising performing at least one OTDR acquisition toward the output port;
• and
• on the portable device used by the splicing technician, displaying a result of the splice quality test, whereby the splicing technician can be informed about the splice quality.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed on a network server, cause a processor to perform the steps of:

• via a network communication between the network server and a first and a second test unit to be connected toward opposite ends of an optical fiber link comprising a first fiber span and second fiber span to be spliced, each test unit having at least one output port:
• a) triggering each of a first test unit and a second test unit to select a first output port among a plurality of output ports, using its respective optical switch;
• b) triggering at least one of the first test unit and the second test unit to activate its tone generator to produce a tone optical signal toward the at least one output port, at least the other one of the first test unit and the second test unit to detect a presence of a tone signal produced by the tone generator of the opposite test unit and received via the output port in order to test a continuity of the optical fiber link;
• c) sending the result of a continuity test to a wireless portable device used by a splicing technician, whereby the splicing technician can verify that the spliced fiber spans match;
• d) after the splice is completed, triggering a splice quality test toward the optical fiber link, the splice quality test comprising at least one of the first test unit and the second test unit performing an OTDR acquisition toward the output port;
• e) sending the result of the splice quality test to the wireless portable device used by the splicing technician, whereby the splicing technician can verify if a splice is successful;
• and
• f) triggering each of the first test unit and the second test unit to select a second output port among the plurality of output ports, using its respective optical switch and repeating steps b), c) d) and e).