Abstract: A housing for optical fibers to be spliced including a pair of movable sleds for supporting the opposing fibers and directing the fibers into opposite ends of a central alignment guide. Retainer sleeves crimped about the cable ends and locator sleeves crimped around individual coated fibers are positioned in slots in each sled to provide precise locations for the fibers. Grooves in the sleds align the fibers for insertion into the guide upon positioning the sleds in recesses at each end of the housing. Movement of the sleds feeds the stripped and cleaved fiber ends through internally tapered rings and into the ends of the alignment guide. Two or more fibers from respective cable ends may be supported on each sled to provide two or more splices in the same housing. The housing device is readily assembled with the fibers aligned and held securely in place so that negligible optical losses result.

Abstract: A multipoint fiber optical communication system which can carry both voice and data traffic which achieves both full duplex operation and long range with a minimum of apparatus. An active star coupler receives signals from all connected users and provides amplified replicas of all of these received signals to all users. The system may utilize time division or wavelength division multiplex techniques and one embodiment requires only a single optical fiber connecting each user station to the active star coupler.