On departure with a repair team

While you call the operator’s technical support to inform the girl with a pleasant voice that your home Internet is not working, a team of nice guys from the Network Repair Service is already rushing to the scene of the accident. Their task is to fix the accident and restore the service as soon as possible. Today we will go with them on one of the trips.

We really wanted to get into an accident, but accidents (fortunately) do not happen every day. On such days, the brigades are engaged in scheduled maintenance, but there will also be something to see.
Attention, under cat traffic.




It all starts with the project, the changes fit into the overall network topology. The head gives the task to the team - today it is a forwarding of the CPSU (air-cable transition) between houses to increase the number of fibers between segments.



The team is preparing to climb the roof.
Half the time consumes access efforts. We go to the ODS for the keys: A



hospitable corridor leads us into a comfortable room: The



employee presents a certificate, signs for receiving the keys. Employees are pre-listed; getting keys is not so easy. They are on duty in the UDF around the clock, but they give out keys only in the daytime and not on weekends - they protect the peace of residents. Often this is the main reason that accidents that occurred on Friday can only be fixed on Monday. From the outside, it looks like “my Internet broke down and was repaired only after three days”, but the operator is not guilty of this.



The lady-employee of the ODS has a security guard, she reports that one of the keys that we need is located at the plumber, who is now in the basement of another house. We go to catch the plumbing:



- Petroo-o-o-vich !!!
We rise to the roof





This is probably the most pleasant side of the work. Fresh air, beautiful view. I wouldn’t get down.



On an average Moscow house - 3-4 cables from different operators. We are for healthy competition.



A colleague unwinds the cable and puts it on the roof. For suspension between houses, a cable with a hanging cable is used, the so-called "eight":



A power element is a steel cable (1), on which a twist of modules hangs around a central power element (usually a plastic rod - 2), in which optical fibers float in a hydrophobic gel (3). A hydrophobic gel prevents the longitudinal distribution of moisture if it enters the polybutylene terephtholate module. The fibers are stacked in the module so that their length is 1-3% longer than the length of the module. This is necessary to compensate for thermal expansions, so that under any load tensile forces are not transmitted to brittle fibers. The sheath (7) is usually made of polyethylene, in which soot is added for light stabilization, since the polyethylene decomposes under the influence of ultraviolet radiation (therefore, all cables for outdoor installation are usually black)



Contrary to popular rumors, the cable between the houses is not forwarded with the help of silent crossbows and folding hang gliders, but with such a device, called a cable walker or, in common people, “a monkey”. On rubberized rollers, driven by a small electric motor powered by a battery, the monkey overcomes the rise to 30 degrees, catching on an already stretched cable. If there is no cable, a rope comes down from two buildings, and its ends are connected on the ground, and then they are lifted to the roof.



Our monkey bears the proud name "KARABASIK" The



monkey went! And behind it is the cable ... The cable
stretched between the houses is pulled by the cable onto the studs fixed in the bearing wall and pulled by a lanyard.



A compensation ring is left to equalize tensile loads.





The cable is inserted inside to weld the fibers in our equipment. The cable is laid in the corrugation, the input is sealed.


A mandatory element is marking, the cable has a number and is responsible. If the cable interferes with someone or something happens to him, we will come and repair (more about that in one of the following materials)

PS This Thursday, the “One day with the
installer” tour is planned , where you can see all the work of our unit
and ask all your questions.