Optical trunk cable
AssigneeAFL Telecommunications LLC
InventorsMatsuhiro Miyamoto, Yoshio Hashimoto, Joseph Cignarale
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fiber optic cable comprises a plurality of elongated optical fiber units, each having an outer jacket containing multiple optical fibers. The optical fiber units are interconnected at intermittent bonding locations along an axial length of said trunk cable to form a sheathless bundle. The absence of a sheath makes the trunk cable thinner and lighter than typical trunk cable. In addition, each unit can serve as a horizontal cable at a selected branching location.
Claims18
An optical trunk cable comprising:
- a plurality of elongated optical fiber units, each of said optical fiber units having an outer jacket containing a plurality of optical fibers;
- and
- said optical fiber units being interconnected at intermittent bonding locations along an axial length of said trunk cable to form a sheathless bundle.
A method of branching a selected optical fiber unit from an optical trunk cable, said method comprising:
- a. providing an optical trunk cable comprising:
- i. a plurality of elongated optical fiber units;
- and
- ii. said optical fiber units being interconnected at intermittent bonding locations along an axial length of said trunk cable to form a sheathless bundle;
- b. selecting a desired branching position along said axial length of said optical trunk cable;
- c. cutting said selected optical fiber unit at a cut position spaced apart from said desired branching position to form a tail portion;
- d. separating said selected optical fiber unit from interconnected other of said optical fiber units at said bonding locations between said branching position and said cut position;
- and
- e. removing said tail portion of said selected optical fiber unit from said trunk cable for optical connection to a different optical fiber cable.
An optical trunk cable comprising:
- at least seven elongated optical fiber units;
- and
- said optical fiber units being interconnected at intermittent bonding locations along an axial length of said trunk cable to form a sheathless bundle, wherein a different combination of less than all of said optical fiber units are interconnected at adjacent bonding locations in a repeating pattern having a predetermined axial pitch.
An optical trunk cable comprising:
- at least seven elongated optical fiber units;
- and
- said optical fiber units being interconnected at intermittent bonding locations along an axial length of said trunk cable to form a sheathless bundle, wherein all of said optical fiber units are interconnected at adjacent bonding locations separated by a predetermined axial pitch.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.