Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1472963
54 I ICT TODAY Fusion splicing machines have evolved significantly since their commercial introduction to the Japanese market in 1979. Those who fusion spliced in the 1980s lived through the painstaking, cumbersome, and error- prone process of fusion splicing. For those without this hands-on familiarity, Figure 5 may help visualize the painstaking process. The fusion splicer in Figure 5 is one of the earliest generations of fusion technology. This splicer had no cameras, no image processing, no optimized splice modes, no sensors, no motors, no arc calibration, no automated function, and no bells or whistles. A microscope was required to view the fibers and using mechanical precision stages, the fibers were moved by hand into position for fusion splicing. FIGURE 5: The 1st generation fusion splicer. Once manually aligned, a separate button was pressed to start the arc, and fibers manually moved again to touch in order to create a joint while heated. There was no loss estimation capability, so testing was the only method to confirm a passing fusion splice. Although much to be desired, it provided the basic function required for perma- nently joining two optical fibers with acceptable splice loss. Even with an inefficient process, compared to today's standard, it was much less expensive, less wasteful, and faster than installing new cable. Optical fiber cable had not yet proliferated telecom- munication networks as it has today. When fusion splicing was introduced, fiber optic cable was limited to the core layer of OSP telecommunications networks. The fiber rings in these early wireline networks had very few fiber counts (24 or less) and were not fusion spliced at many locations before tiering down further with copper. Early implementation of fiber in Ethernet networks followed the same methodology. As fiber was trialed and performance in real-world deployments scrutinized, the benefits of fiber began to be recognized. This drove further adoption of optical fiber as a preferred medium, and innovations to remove pain points followed. Fusion splicing has evolved into a smart capable tech- nology. Not all fusion splicers on the market fall into the smart category, but some manufacturers have introduced features which match the EFA acronym. For example, management of fusion splicer accessories, namely the fiber cleaver, was solely on the technician to manage blade rotations to ensure quality fiber cleaves. Solutions now exist for automatic blade rotations based on the condition of the cleaved fiber seen by the fusion splicer's zoom-capable camera(s) and automatically reports the condition to the operator. Self-monitoring analysis and reporting are present in this newer capability. Another example is self-splice optimization. Some fusion splicers can identify the ITU classification of the fiber in the machine, set arc parameters based on the optimal conditions for the fiber, and self-optimize arc conditions when larger cleave angles are present, which historically cause poor splices. With self-splice optimiza- tion, splicing technicians can achieve low splice loss despite the fiber preparation quality.