Table of Contents

 1     Scope            
 2     References 
 3     Definitions  
 4     Abbreviations and acronyms 
 5     Conventions
 6     General comments on reliability           
 7     Optical reliability       
        7.1     Bending loss    
        7.2     Hydrogen          
        7.3     Impact of nuclear radiation         
        7.4     Attenuation stability     
 8     Mechanical reliability               
        8.1     General comments on mechanical strength of optical fibres             
        8.2     Power law theory           
        8.3     The time to failure or fibre lifetime is often the parameter of interest.          
        8.4     Static and dynamic stress corrosion parameter and impact on reliability      
        8.5     Relationship between proof stress and proof-testing on reliability  
        8.6     Handleability of optical fibre       
        8.7     Test proceedures that measure aspects of mechanical reliability   
 9     Strain due to bends tension, to axial tension or a combination of the two mechanisms       
10     Impact of cable properties on reliability            
       10.1     Fibre strain and cable strain      
       10.2     Installation load vs. long term load          
Appendix I - Lifetime expectation in case of small radius bending of single-mode fibre    
        I.1                   Introduction        
        I.2                   General aspects of failure characteristics under small radius bending              
        I.3                   Network and network failure examples      
        I.4                   Fibre lifetime considerations          
        I.5                   Conclusion           
Appendix II - Long term reliability of deployed optical fibre cables    
       II.1     Introduction     
       II.2     Factors having an impact on the objectives for the reliability of deployed optical cables    
       II.3     Example of objectives for the reliability of laid optical cables             
Bibliography