Submarine equipment and fault locating method for a submarine communication system
US5446392A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 30, 1993 |
| Grant date | Aug 29, 1995 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 30, 2013 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04B17/409
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A fault locating method and submarine equipment for detecting the location of a fault developed in a communication system including an optical submarine cable and submarine equipment such as repeaters and branching units inserted in the cable, which is supplied with operating current via a feed line of the cable. The submarine equipment has a main processing circuit for transmitting signals via the submarine cable; an power unit inserted in the feed line so as to supply operating power for the main processing circuit by receiving the operating current from the feed line; a nonlinear resistance device which is connected to the feed line and the resistance value of which increases as a current flowing through it decreases, and a charging/discharging resistor disposed in parallel to the nonlinear resistance device. The fault locating method detects the location of an open-circuit fault occurring in the cable by measuring the capacitance of the open-circuit cable. The capacitance measurement is quickly and accurately carried out by charging and discharging the cable capacitance through the charging/discharging resistor.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.