Typical project · Quebec and Ontario
A cut fibre backbone repaired and re-certified
These are typical projects, described from the kind of work we do. They do not describe a named client or a specific building.
A crew opening a ceiling cuts the cable that links the telecom rooms of a building, and several floors lose their network at once. This is how the break is found, repaired and shown to be sound again.
The situation: one cable, several floors without a network
The client is the owner or the manager of a commercial building, or the company that occupies several of its floors. A fibre backbone runs up a riser and across the ceilings, from the main telecom room to the floor rooms. During the fit-out of one floor, a trade working in the ceiling cuts or crushes the cable.
The floors beyond the damage lose their network, their phones and their door readers. Nobody knows exactly where the break is, the original installer can no longer be reached, and the test results of the first installation cannot be found.
What the first visit to the telecom rooms finds
- A break that is not where people pointThe crew shows the ceiling it opened, but the cable was also pinched further along. A measurement taken from each end gives the distance to each fault.
- No slack at the damageThe cable was pulled tight. There is not enough length to bring both ends into one enclosure without adding a section.
- Fibres in use that nobody listedThe labels in the rooms do not say which fibre carries what. Some serve tenants, others the systems of the building.
- A second route for the essentialsSpare fibres in another cable can carry the most important services while the repair is made.
What is designed, and why
A repair is designed like an installation: what is replaced, where the splices sit, and how the result is proven.
- Locate before cutting anythingThe cable is measured from both telecom rooms so that every fault is known, including those that do not yet stop the light. Repairing the visible break alone would leave a weak point behind.
- Fusion splices in a protected enclosureThe damaged length is removed and each fibre is fusion spliced, one by one, in an enclosure fixed where it can be reached again. A fusion splice loses far less light than a mechanical connection and holds over time.
- A new section rather than a stretched cableWhere there is no slack, a short length of cable of the same type is spliced in, with an enclosure at each end, so that nothing stays under tension.
- Critical services restored firstThe fibres are ranked with the client: those that carry the core of the network and the building systems are spliced and tested first, the spares last.
- Proof for every fibreAfter the repair each fibre is tested, the spares included, and the results are compared with what the cable should deliver. A fibre that does not pass is spliced again.
How the work is sequenced to bring the floors back
The order is set by what the building needs first, not by the order of the fibres in the cable.
- Temporary service
Where a second route exists, the essential links are moved onto it so that the floors work while the repair is prepared.
- Location and plan
The faults are located from both ends, the ceiling is opened where needed with the building's agreement, and the client approves which fibres come first.
- Splicing
The cable is prepared, the fibres are spliced, then the enclosures are closed, fixed and labelled.
- Testing in both directions
Each fibre is tested from both ends. The services return to the repaired cable only once the results are in.
- Making good and labelling
The ceiling is closed, the temporary links are removed and the labels in the telecom rooms are brought up to date.
What is handed over
- The test results of every fibre, in both directions, after the repair
- The location of each splice enclosure, marked on a plan and labelled on site
- An up-to-date list of what each fibre serves, room by room
- A short report on the cause and the extent of the damage, for the owner's file
- A note on the weak points seen along the route, if there are any
Services involved
- Fibre optic installation and cabling
- Fibre optic fusion splicing
- Fibre optic testing and certification
Industry
Other typical projects
- Entry panel and fobs in an occupied rental building
- Cameras, alarm and a radio link on a construction site
- Low-voltage package of a new mixed-use building
- Wi-Fi and dock cameras in a warehouse that never closes
- Leak detection with shut-off by riser in a condo building
- An office move on a fixed date: cabling, Wi-Fi, doors and phones
- Mobile coverage for two levels of underground parking
- Analogue cameras replaced by IP cameras across a group of stores
- Access control for an office building with several tenants
- Licence plate recognition at the gate of a logistics yard
- Audio and video for the meeting rooms of an office
- A network put back in order after a security incident
- An old alarm system replaced in a store with offices and a stockroom
A project like this starts with a call and a measurement
Tell us what stopped working and where the cable runs. We measure the cable from its ends, tell you where the faults are and what the repair involves, then send a quote. The service can be ordered for fibre that another company installed. We reply in English or French.