Hello, everyone!
Today, I want to continue to explain a new topic – ODN engineering and maintenance. Now, I will start to explain ODN engineering. Today, the topic is direct burial. Let’s get started.
Direct burial is one of the ways to install optical cables during the implementation of ODN. This is a faster way of realization than an underground installation but a slower way than an aerial installation. Underground installation requires digging a trench, laying pipes, inserting an optical cable, and burying the trench. In direct burial, no pipes are installed, but the optical cable is installed directly into the ground. This reduces the steps in relation to the underground installation.
The land should be suitable for this type of installation. After all the necessary permits have been obtained, the route is marked and the realization starts. Of course, the existence of underground facilities and installations is checked with appropriate radars. During the process of obtaining a work permit, we come across information about the existence of underground facilities and installations. But in addition to that, radars, manual excavation should be used, and in addition to all that, the presence of people from companies whose underground facilities or installations exist is required. The most dangerous is the damage to gas pipelines and high voltage power lines. There are machines that dig and immediately start fiber optic cables.
A special type of loose tube optical cable is used for this method of installation. To protect the optical fibers from damage, additional reinforcements of the jacket are required, so metal wires or plates are used in the jacket. This protects the optical fibers from rocks, high pressure, rodents, etc.
All fiber optic cables that have metal elements in them require grounding. That is the case here as well. Grounding is required at both ends of the cable.
Places for handholes or manholes should be provided, where the optical closure or backup length of the optical cable will be located. Generally, if fiber optic cable is damaged, the repair is very difficult and usually requires re-digging and laying part of the optical cable and forming one or two optical closures.
Marking the route is mandatory, as well as GPS coordinates. All this is entered into the documentation.
This is the end of this article. I will continue to explain this topic in the next article >>ODN Engineering and Maintenance (14).
Thank you!
