Fast optical cable identification using acoustic pen

Abstract

A fast optical fiber identification system and method employing an acoustic pen that is connected to a portable device (such as a laptop, a smartphone, an iPad). The pen generates acoustic signals under the control of the portable device. The portable device interacts with a DFOS (Distributed Fiber Optic Sensor, e.g., a DAS or DVS) interrogator to notify the interrogator about the generated signals and receives a detection result from the interrogator. The result is either illustrated using a graph on the portable device, or as a tone of different volume, to indicate the strength of the pen's signal detected by the interrogator. As the pen touches/excites vibrationally/acoustically each of the fibers, the portable device notifies the user about the detected signal's strength or presence/no-presence, which allows a technician to quickly identify the fiber of interest.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.