N6660416Q2810_Attachment_1.pdf

COMMERCIAL UNDERSEA TELECOMMUNICATIONS CABLE MINIMUM

REQUIREMENTS/SPECIFICATIONS

1.0 GENERAL REQUIREMENT

The contractor shall supply commercial undersea telecommunications cable with various armoring types in accordance with (IAW) Appendix A and as specified in the Section B Contract Line Item structure. It includes procurement of reels for delivery of spare cable, cable storage and cable testing including commercial reports.

2.0 APPLICABLE DOCUMENTS

2.1 Standards

The cable must be in accordance with the documents in Table 1. The documents listed are readily available international standards. Therefore, the Government will not be providing the documents. The contractor is responsible for obtaining them.

Table 1 Standards

DOCUMENT TITLE

ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management Systems - Requirements ITU-T Recommendation G.976

International Telecommunication Union Test Methods Applicable to Optical Fibre Submarine Cable Systems

ITU-T Recommendation G.655

Characteristics of a non-zero dispersion-shifted single-mode optical fibre and cable

3.0 SPECIFICATIONS

The undersea telecommunications cable shall include an optical fiber transmission path from end to end with a quantity of ≥ 12 fibers, an electrical power conductor, dielectric, metallic armor wire for strength, and outer jacket and shallow water cable with external armor layers shall have common core as unprotected deep water cable. The cable minimum general applications and features are listed in Table 2. For this specification SA/LWA is used interchangeably. Likewise, SPA/LW type cable is used the same way.

Table 2 Cable Type and Application

CABLE TYPE APPLICATION FEATURES

Double armor (DA) Very rocky terrain, high risk of trawler damage Two layers of armor wires surrounding the core cable

Single/lightweight armor

(SA/LWA)

Rocky terrain, greater risk of trawler damage

Single layer of armor wires surrounding the core cable

Special Application (SPA)/Lightweight protected

(LWP)

Somewhat rocky terrain, risk of moderate abrasion or attack by marine life

Metallic taper and polyethylene surrounding the core cable

Lightweight (LW) Benign sandy seafloor Core cable

3.1 Cable Construction

The length tolerance shall be ± 0/2%.

3.1.1 Lightweight (LW) Cable

3.1.1.1 Fiber Tube

The fibers shall be housed within a polymer or metallic fiber loose tube. The free space within the tube shall be filled with a filling or buffer gel to act as a water blocking compound.

3.1.1.2 Power Conductor

The conductor shall be a metallic tube/sheath/tape formed and continuously welded with bare copper tape surrounding it and the strength member. The tube/sheath/tape shall form a hermetic barrier for optical fibers from hydrogen intrusion. The interlayer adhesion between the conductor and steel strength member wires shall prevent cable damage when transferring load from the cable during marine operations.

3.1.1.3 Dielectric

The dielectric/sheath/insulate shall be a medium or high density (MD or HD) polyethylene bonded to the conductor.

The concentricity shall be a minimum of 90%. For termination sealing, the dielectric shall be free from axial scratches and indentations caused by manufacturing and/or cabling processes. The insulation diameter tolerance shall be ≤ 2% of the nominal diameter of the insulation.

3.1.1.4 LW Cable Physical and Mechanical Characteristics

The LW requirements are listed in Table 3.

Table 3 Minimum/Maximum LW Cable Physical and Mechanical Characteristics

CHARACTERISTIC UNIT VALUE

Outer Diameter mm 15 ≤ diameter ≤ 18 Weight in air kN/km ≤ 7.0 Weight in seawater kN/km ≤ 4.5 Minimum bending radius mm ≤ 650 in storage condition Storage Factor m3 per km ≤ 0.32 Maximum Deployment Depth m ≥ 6500 Ultimate tensile strength (UTS) kN ≥ 60 Nominal permanent tensile strength (NPTS) kN ≥ 18 Nominal operating tensile strength (NOTS) kN ≥ 40 Nominal transient tensile strength (NTTS) kN ≥ 50

3.1.2 SPA/LWP Cable

The core of the SPA/LWP cable shall be LW cable. The SPA/LWP shall have an additional longitudinally wrapped steel tape with adhesive coating surrounding the LW cable core dielectric. A black high density polyethylene (HDPE) jacket shall surround the steel tape. The physical and mechanical properties of the SPA/LWP cable shall differ from LW. The SPA/LWP requirements are listed in Table 4.

Table 4 Minimum/Maximum SPA/LWP Cable Physical and Mechanical Characteristics

CHARACTERISTIC UNIT VALUE

Outer Diameter mm 22 ≤ diameter ≤ 24 Weight in air kN/km ≤ 8.5 Weight in seawater kN/km ≤ 5.0 Minimum bending radius mm ≤ 910 in storage condition Storage Factor m3 per km ≤ 0.55 Maximum Deployment Depth m ≥ 5000 Ultimate tensile strength (UTS) kN ≥ 60 Nominal permanent tensile strength (NPTS) kN ≥ 18 Nominal operating tensile strength (NOTS) kN ≥ 40 Nominal transient tensile strength (NTTS) kN ≥ 51

3.1.3 Armored Cable

Armored cable shall be varying numbers and layers of armor wires surrounding the core cable. The armor wires shall be galvanized improved steel. The armor layer shall be filled with a slushing compound such as bitumen or natural asphalt to minimize corrosion of the wire during the service life. The outer armor layer shall be surrounded with a nylon yarn with a protective coating (e.g. tar). At a minimum, 10 ends of the outer serving layer shall be white or yellow, to provide a visual stripe on the cable to aid underwater inspection/location. There shall be two different types of armored cable; 1. LWA/SA; and DA. The physical and mechanical properties are listed in Tables 5 and 6.

Table 5 Minimum/Maximum LWA/SA Cable Characteristics

CHARACTERISTIC UNIT VALUE

Outer Diameter mm 26 ≤ diameter ≤ 32 Weight in air kN/km ≤ 27 Weight in seawater kN/km ≤ 20 Minimum bending radius mm ≤ 1000 in storage condition Storage Factor m3 per km ≤ 1.05 Maximum Deployment Depth m ≥ 1500 Ultimate tensile strength (UTS) kN ≥ 250 Nominal permanent tensile strength (NPTS) kN ≥ 60 Nominal operating tensile strength (NOTS) kN ≥ 140 Nominal transient tensile strength (NTTS) kN ≥ 195

Table 6 Minimum/Maximum DA Cable Characteristics

CHARACTERISTIC UNIT VALUE

Outer Diameter mm ≤ 44 Weight in air kN/km ≤ 53 Weight in seawater kN/km ≤ 39 Minimum bending radius mm ≤ 1200 in storage condition Storage Factor m3 per km ≤ 2.0 Maximum Deployment Depth m 500 Ultimate tensile strength (UTS) kN ≥ 530 Nominal permanent tensile strength (NPTS) kN ≥ 100 Nominal operating tensile strength (NOTS) kN ≥ 250 Nominal transient tensile strength (NTTS) kN ≥ 360

3.2 Fiber Optical Properties

The single mode fiber properties listed in Table 7 shall be applied equally to individual fibers. The fibers shall meet or exceed ITU-T Recommendation G.655. These properties shall apply to the continuous cable lengths identified in Appendix A.

Table 7 Minimum/Maximum Fiber Optic Properties

CHARACTERISTIC UNIT VALUE

Fiber quantity each ≥ 12 Optical Transmission bands name C, U, L Attenuation at 1,550 nanometers (nm) wavelength decibels/kilometer (dB/Km) ≤ 0.20 Attenuation at 1,625 nanometers (nm) wavelength decibels/kilometer (dB/Km) ≤ 0.22 Fiber Identification each Uniquely color coded Proof stress GPa ≥ 0.69 Transmission speed (for DWDM application) Gb/s ≥ 40 Polarization mode dispersion (PMD) coefficient ps/sqrt(km) ≤ 0.05

3.3 Electrical Properties

The electrical properties shall be IAW Table 8.

Table 8 Minimum/Maximum Electrical Properties

PROPERTY UNIT VALUE

DC resistance when corrected at 20°C Ω/km ≤ 1.0 Insulation Resistance TΩ-km ≥ 1.0 Power Feed Voltage kV ≥ 10

3.4 Environmental Properties

Table 9 Minimum/Maximum Environmental Properties

CHARACTERISTIC UNIT VALUE

Pressure rate of change psi/min ≥ 200 Maximum operating depth LW cable meters ≥ 6,500 Maximum operating depth SPA/LWP cable meters ≥ 5,000 Maximum operating depth LWA/SA cable meters ≥ 1,500 Maximum operating depth DA cable meters ≥ 500 Temperature range Celsius (C) -20⁰ ≤ C ≤ +50⁰ Water ingress rate shallow water for 15 days Down to 1,000 m m ≤250

Water ingress rate deep water for 15 days Down to 6,500 m km ≤1

Optical attenuation due to hydrogen aging at 1,550 nm dB/km ≤ 0.003

Service life Years ≥ 20

3.5 Armor Transitions

Transitions shall transfer the strength IAW section 3.1.3 and sufficient length to avoid twists in deployment and recovery. It shall meet or exceed the cable handling characteristics in section 3.8.

3.6 Jointing

Cable shall be qualified by the Universal Joint Consortium (UJC) for universal jointing (UJ).

3.7 Marking

The cable shall be marked in 2 kilometer intervals.

3.8 Cable Handling

The minimum cable handling characteristics are as follows;

• Withstand stresses and strains of installation and repair operations with negligible strain on the optical fibers.

• Handling characteristics compatible with current cable ship handling equipment for the telecommunications industry.

• Capable of laying, burial, and recovery operations using standard equipment in the telecommunications industry.

The crush resistance shall be IAW Table 10.

Table 10 Minimum Crush Resistance

CABLE TYPE UNIT VALUE

LW kN ≥10 SPA/LWP kN ≥15 LWA/SA kN ≥15 DA kN ≥30

There is no recommended limit on turning over the cable during storage and operation. The armored cable shall be capable of burial depths ≥ 1 meter. The cable shall be capable of recovery at speeds up to 1.5 knots, estimate recovery angle of 75 to 80° in sea state less than 6 without degradation of the its performance characteristics.

The cables shall allow use of industry standard stoppers (e.g. PMI stoppers, Kellems grips, Yale grips, etc.) without damage to the performance characteristics in this specification.

4.0 VERIFICATION

Failure of the product in any stage of inspection, assembly or testing shall automatically classify the unit as non-compliant. The contractor shall determine the causes of the defect; take necessary action to correct the defect; and submit to the Government a Failure Analysis and Corrective Action Report (FACAR). The Contractor shall deliver a Failure Analysis and Corrective Action Report (FACAR) IAW CDRL A001.

The contractor shall perform cable acceptance testing demonstrating that the cable meets or exceeds the performance specification requirements IAW ITU standard in this documents standards section 2.1. The contractor shall deliver a cable test procedure IAW CDRL A002. The contractor shall deliver a cable test report IAW CDRL A003.

The contractor shall notify the Government 10 business days in advance of cable testing. The contractor shall provide the Government the opportunity to attend cable tests. The Government reserves the right to observe the manufacturing operations or activities resulting in a FACAR, and witness the verification activities.

5.0 PACKAGING/STORAGE/OPERATION

5.1 Cable on Reels

Cables for contract line items 0003, 0004, and 0005 shall be delivered on steels reels or drums that do not exceed the minimum bending radius. The drum flange diameter shall be 5 ½ inches. Each cable end shall be accessible for testing. Post testing, the ends of the cable are sealed to preclude the uptake of moisture during the shipping process.

The cabled reel shall be covered with three layers of black plastic to protect the cable from ultra-violet damage. The cable reel shall be marked with a durable permanent tag identifying the cable segment and the location of the outer cable end relative to the reel. The markings shall include documents indicating the cable identity codes, length of cable on each reel (or lengths and sequence if more than one cable per reel).

5.2 Universal Joints

The universal joints minimum packing requirement is a hard case box for each individual joint.

5.3 Storage and Operation

Direct exposure to sunlight shall be avoided except for short durations (e.g. movement of cable). Cable A and B (figures A-1 and A-2) ends shall be sealed to preclude the uptake of moisture during the shipping process. The ends shall be left accessible in the event testing is required during the storage period.

APPENDIX A: Straight Line Diagrams

The straight line diagrams (SLD) illustrate the composition of the various armor types and cable length. Each is a continuous length. Figure A-1 will be referred to as cable A. Figure A-2 will be referred to as cable B. Each cable shall be a continuous length. For this specification SA/LWA is used interchangeably. Likewise, SPA/LWA type cable is used the same way.

Figure A- 1: Cable A

Figure A- 2: Cable B

APPENDIX A: Straight Line Diagrams