Jasco Carrier Solutions new proactive in-service fibre network monitoring offering that measures the integrity of a fibre plant in realtime, allows operators to efficiently isolate faults and take immediate targeted action.
This effectively boosts up-time, cuts maintenance costs and effort, whilst enables operators and service providers to minimise disruption and meet service level agreements.

“As more fibre is rolled out to businesses and homes, traditional reactive network maintenance models are proving less than effective,” explains Martin Ferreira of Jasco Carrier Solutions. “There simply isn’t enough time or manpower to physically check on every network alert that comes into the network operations centre.

“Jasco thus went in search of a fibre network monitoring solution to address this challenge cost effectively. By not having to upkeep existing test equipment or even buy new, we believe significant cost savings will be achieved.

The Jasco Carrier Solutions fibre network monitoring device requires no active, onsite equipment at the remote site as it can be configured to passively monitor access services. Eliminating active demarcation further reduces cost and frees operators to deploy the fibre monitoring solution in even the most extreme environmental conditions. It requires no power and little additional space. It sits on top of the network and can supervise 16- or 64 fibres per device, reaching across 160km (Depending on fibre quality) of fibre. It is particularly useful for monitoring and troubleshooting dark fibre and other wholesale services connections.

With a fibre monitoring solution in place, operators can improve network service testing and quality, and can deliver on service level agreements (SLAs), offering improved and even premium SLAs to service providers and their customers.

“In the past, network operators have simply provided connectivity; testing has been the service provider’s problem,” explains Ferreira. “With this fibre monitoring device, operators can now provide monitoring, with detailed insight into network uptime and issues.”

The device can identify failures of active devices and problems with the fibre plant. Says Ferreira: “Not all network problems are fibre related and the fibre monitoring device can assist to identify this. For example, a failure on the service provider’s equipment or a power failure at a site. This type of real-time information on fibre integrity allows for fast failure detection and short repair cycles, allowing operators and service providers to maximise the potential of their fibre assets.”

Key features of the fibre monitoring solution include the following:

* Passively monitors fibre links, integrating with GIS to pinpoint problems;

* Provides real-time information about fibre loss profiles;

* Localises loss points with alarm thresholds;

* Provides ultra-fast fibre integrity verification with three to six seconds per port;

* Ultra-compact ETSI solution: up to 64 ports per 1RU chassis;

* Up to 160km nominal reach for access, metro and core applications; and

* Measurement signal at 1650nm, outside user traffic wavelengths.