The Blown Fiber Cable

A radically new approach to optical fiber cable design and installation is described. Packages containing a number of optical fibers were drawn into preinstalled empty bores (tubes) using the viscous drag of air. The drag force acting on the fiber package is distributed along its length, which makes it possible to introduce fibers into complicated routes, with low strain. In this paper, we will concentrate mainly on the design of the fiber package, first from the point of view of the hydrodynamic forces acting on it during installation. This leads to a theoretical model for the installation process. Second, we shall consider the package as a subminiature optical fiber cable, and examine its optical performance during manufacture and temperature cycling, which leads to a theoretical model of the temperature performance of the package. Finally, we will describe a trial field installation using this cabling technique.