IoT Based Underground Optical Fiber Cable Fault Detection System

Murugesh P D 1​ ​, Damini R 2​ ​, Amitha P 3​ ​, Shwetha M 4​

Assistant Professor 1​ ,​ UG scholar 2,​ 3, 4​, Dept​.​ of EEE, Sri Venkateshwara College of Engineering, Bengaluru, India
[email protected]​ ​, ​[email protected]​ ​, ​[email protected]​3​, [email protected]​4

Abstract - Optical fiber cables are very well tested long network and it supports great bandwidth. The author
before burying it underground, but in contrary they are explained the planning of optical network on basis of
prone to problems as they are quite fragile. This fault wireless fiber to the home building. In Future, it is useful
detecting system is used find the fault in the optical to investigate other parameters of optical network and
fiber line across the customer sides. The received power used to measure other units. [2] This paper introduced
supply in optical fiber is monitored by laser output Robotic Platform for configuring underground cable
power using microcontroller. Any instantaneous systems. The author explained that Robotic sensor has
change in the power of optical line is detected and the
been developed for checking underground, power
fault message is unveiled through Wi-Fi using IoT. The
distribution cable systems. In future it is possible to
microcontroller is operated in low power mode to save
include signal acquisition, data fusion and signal
power consumption. Exact location of the fault
occurred in the optical fiber line is shown. processing based on sensors information. [3] This paper
introduced the model of fault location for underground
Key words: ​Optical fiber line/cable, laser, fault power cable using microcontroller. In this author detects
detection, IoT. the exact location of fault in short circuit. [4] This paper
introduced Underground Cable fault detecting system
I. INTRODUCTION
using Aurdino. Author examined to identify the distance
Fiber optics communication is developed of underground cable fault from base station in
immensely in the past two decades. It is seen much lower kilometers using Aurdino board. This greatly reduces the
interference and attenuation in optical fibers compared to time and operates effectively. In this it is possible to
copper wires. The fiber is a strand of silica based glass detect the location of open circuit fault. Location of the
protected with a transparent cladding. The information is fault is detected from the server unit.
transmitted through the fiber in the form of monochrome III. CIRCUIT DIAGRAM
light over great distances at a high data rates.
Telecommunication companies are now opting mostly
for optical fibers for telephone/internet connections as
they are very efficient. Good efficiency comes with
unusual faults which are quite rare in optical fiber cables
but when they do occur this intelligent fault detection
system could be applicable. From this fault detection
system, fiber is monitored which is prone to many
numbers of parameters including current, temperature,
Power supply, transmitted power, received power. In this
project optical fiber is monitored by received power
supply. To know exact location of the fault is our main
aim. Therefore this is developed through IoT where the
location of fault is detected.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

There are many related studies based on optical fiber
fault detection. [1] This paper introduced passive optical
network based on some issues in wireless fiber to the
home building for fault detection. Nowadays optical fiber
is used as media to design a network that is short and
 Fig. 2.1: Transmission unit
Fig. 1.1: Circuit of PIC16F877A controller board

In our project the PIC (16F877A) controller

will act as brain of the controlling device in the set up. It
is one of the most advanced microcontrollers from
Microchip. One of the major advantages of PIC
controller is that the data can be written or erased as
many times as possible because it uses FLASH memory
technology. It is a 40 pin microcontroller in which 33
pins are for input and output. It has two 8 bit and one 16
Bit timer. It also consists of capture and compares
modules, serial ports, parallel ports and five input/output
ports. We use the 12V DC adapter for giving power
Fig. 2.2: Receiver unit
supply to the controller board.

Fig. 2.3: Server unit

The block diagram consists of three units namely:

1. Transmission unit
2. Receiver unit
Fig. 1.2: Circuit of ARM Controller board 3. Server unit
ARM is known as advanced Risk machine 1. Transmission unit
Microcontroller. It is a 32 bit controller. Its operating
In transmission unit (Fig. 2.1) switches are connected as
voltage is 3.3V.it has frequency of 60 Hz. when this is
line 1, line 2, and line 3. Adapter is used to activate
compared to 8051 microcontroller this has internal
PIC16F877A microcontroller and hence switches, laser,
peripherals like 10bit and 2 ADC. It consists of 64 pins.
LCD gets activated through Microcontroller. LCD
It consists of 2 UART. ARM is an architecture used in
displays the title of project. Laser transmits
many processors and microcontrollers. ARM is also
monochromatic light in order to transmit data to optical
known as LPC that is low power consumption controller.
fiber. Optical fiber carries light signals.
It can be used as general purpose and for Bi-directional
output. When compare to other Microcontroller this has 2. Receiver unit
more storage which is advantage for project.
In receiver unit (Fig. 2.2) adapter is used to
activate LPC2148 Microcontroller and hence optical
IV. BLOCK DIAGRAM
fiber, LDR sensor, ADC gets activated through
microcontroller. Optical fiber is given as input to
another Microcontroller unit. Optical fiber is connected
to LDR sensor. LDR sensor is connected to analog
digital converter. LCD connected displays the fault
occurred.
3. Server unit
In server unit (Fig. 2.3) if fault occurs in
Line 1, Line 2, Line 3. GPS determines the exact
 location and this message are automatically sent to
mobile phone and laptop through TCP client app.
V. FAULT DETECTION AND
RECTIFICATION PROCESS
Optical fiber fault recognition and adaptation involves of
two stages: I) Fault Recognition Phase and II) Fault
Adaptation Phase.
The method of error recognition and adaption involves
of two stages: I) Fault Recognition Stage: This stage is
to pinpoint the place where optical fiber cable has been
cut due to some reason like structure of road. The device
Fig. 3.2: OFC break
which is recycled for this is called Optical Time Domain
Reflectometer. II) Fault Adaptation Phase: This stage is It is to pull breakdown cable from both the sides once
to make OFC joint with slight spice damage. The device after making two digs. The digs and placed a new cable
used for linking is called mixture splicer. To understand between both the digs.
this concept considers a example. Adopt there are two
telephone connections A and B which are located at a
distance of D from each other. Both the telephone
connections are connected through 0ptical fiber cable.
Due to some reason the Optical fiber cable which link A
and B is cut. After the Optical fiber cable breakdowns
between A &B, the optical fiber diffusion equipment‘s
installed at A&B start exhibiting visual alarms. After
observing the visual alarms it is supposed that the OFC
break between A’&B’. To prove this statement or to
know the real place of Optical fiber cable break, Optical
Time Domain Reflectometer is connected to fiber at A
or B or both and the distance of fiber is measured. There
can be only two possibilities Fig. 3.3: Adding new cable
1. The distance of fiber (Y) = D which suggest Both the trimmings of the original cable are connected
there is no Optical fiber cable break. with the cracked ends of old cable. The device which is
2. The distance of fiber (Y) < D which suggest used to make optical fiber cable joint is called mixture
optical fiber cable broke has been broken. splicer or splicing mechanism. The optical fiber cable
When the distance of fiber Y is recognized this is a lesser joints are cover by mutual shutting box. Then the
amount of than D because the Optical fiber cable has combined shutting boxes are located below the digs and
been cracked. Currently to repair the Optical fiber fault digs are occupied with earth.
breakdown, the distance X is equal to Y from A is slow
along the Optical fiber cable way on the road through
space meter or any car.

Fig. 3.1: OFC Break

Fig. 3.4: New OFC and Joint closure.
Fig 3.1: Two digs are made on both the sides once the
The communication between A and B starts again as the
optical fiber cable reaches Distance X, at distance of
Optical fiber cable. Error is corrected. Currently the
1020 meters. The length between crack and the cut
space between A and B = D + the length of the new fiber.
should not be big if so it is hard to detect fault.
 VI. METHODOLOGY
The main idea of this paper is to perform
real time monitoring on underground optical fiber and to
detect if there is any breakage in optical fiber cable. In
IoT based Underground optical fiber cable fault detecting
system is an effective method to analyze various faults in
optical fiber cable and automatic message will be sent to
the monitoring person. In Transmission unit, PIC
16F877A Microcontroller gets activated through adapter
via 5V supply. Switches connected to Microcontroller are
taken as Line 1, Line 2, and Line 3. LCD is initialized
along with the display of the project title. Laser gets
activated in order to transmit data on optical cable.
Optical cable carries light signals from laser.
In Receiver unit, the optical fiber is given as input to
another microcontroller unit i.e. LPC 2148. The optical
fiber carries data in the form of light. The received data
will be sensed by LDR sensor. LDR sensor converts light
signals to electrical signals. LDR output is fed to ADC.
ADC converts an Analog signal into digital signal. The
digital values will be displayed on LCD. If the digital
values are equal to threshold value then it is displayed
as” LINE 1 OK”. If the digital values are less than
threshold value then the fault is detected and is displayed
as “LINE 2 FAULT OCCURRED”.
VII. FLOW CHART
The flow chart of IoT based Underground Optical fiber
fault detecting system is as shown in Fig. 4

Fig. 4: Flow chart of IoT based Underground optical fiber fault

detecting system.
 VIII. HARDWARE RESULT
In the project IoT based underground optical fiber cable
fault detecting system there are two modules namely
transmission module and receiver module.
In transmission module the source of the supply is micro
controller. This micro controller controls all the
components which are present in transmission side. In
the side there is a display unit which displays the title of
the project. When switches are activated, the laser light
signals are transmitted by the principle of Total Internal
Reflection through an optical fiber and it reaches the Fig. 5: Hardware kit
receiver side.
IX. CONCLUSION
In the receiver side, LDR sensor senses laser light
signals which are coming out from the optical fiber. From this project it is possible to simplify the actual
Depending upon the intensity of light, the fault is problem of detecting faults and find where the actual
calculated and the amounts of faults are displayed in the fault has occurred by finding the exact position or
receiver part. The basic faults here are bending loss, locations in latitude longitude form and also find the
alignment loss, and design loss. The faults which are accurate distance of breaker points. By using software’s
occurring can be seen in a phone as well as in a system. can encrypt the land transfer at controlling section and
If the optical fiber has a fault or the fiber is ok, it displays actual action will be working out.
in the display unit, system as well as in the phones.

In the project IoT based underground optical X. FUTURE SCOPE

fiber cable fault detecting system there are two modules In future, this list must be better to investigate other
namely transmission module and receiver module. In parameters of the optical line and able to extent other
transmission module the source of the supply is micro units. Locating fiber fault within the network becomes
controller. This microcontroller controls all the more important due to the growing demand for
components which are present in transmission side. consistent service distribution.
In the side there is a display unit which displays the title
XI. REFERENCES
of the project. When switches are activated, the laser [1] Underground Cable Fault Detection and Identification via
light signals are transmitted by the principle of Total Fourier analysis by Abhishek Pandey and Nicolas H.
Internal Reflection through an optical fiber and it reaches Younan, 978-1-4244-8286-3/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE,
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In the receiver side, LDR sensor senses laser [2] Investigation of Passive Optical Network Based on QoS
light signals which are coming out from the optical fiber. Issues in Wireless Fiber to the Home Architecture for
Fault Identification and Detection by S. Mary Praveena,
Depending upon the intensity of light, the fault is
IlaVennila, R. Vaishnavi, and Springer Science Business
calculated and the amounts of faults are displayed in the Media New York 2017.
receiver part. The basic faults here are bending loss, [3] Underground Cable Fault Detection Using
alignment loss, and design loss. The faults which are Microcontroller by Swapnil Gaikwad, Hemant Pawar,
occurring can be seen in a phone as well as in a system. Ajay Jadhav, Vidhut Kumar, Prof.A.A.Rane,
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in the display unit, system as well as in the phones. [4] Underground Cable Fault Detection using Arduino by
T.Nandhini, J.Shalini, T. Sai SangeeetD.Gnanaprakasam,
Student1, 2, 3, Assistant Professor4, International Journal
of Engineering Science and Computing, April 2017.
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P.M., Bhise S.S., Deokate N.R. Guide-Prof.Suryawanshi
R.R. S.B.P.C.O.E., Indapur, Novateur Publications
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