Robust fiber-optic interconnecting wires using redundancy.

Situations can occur, in fiber-optic information transmission systems, where armor sheathing of the fibers is not sufficient physical protection. In this paper we study the use of redundancy to provide the required additional protection against loss of signal. Two methods are examined: one where each redundant path is uncoupled to all others and another where paths are longitudinally coupled, allowing energy to pass freely between fibers. It is shown that coupling always has a statistical advantage, although this advantage may be small in some cases. The parameters needed to produce effective interfiber coupling are then investigated, and a configuration is proposed for such a coupled wire system.