VOL. 11, NO. 5, MARCH 2016 ISSN 1819-6608 ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences © 2006-2016 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved. www.arpnjournals.com 3133 COMPACT COPPER CABLE ANTI-THEFT SYSTEM SOLUTION Azlan Sulaiman, Mazlan Burhanudin, Kamarul Bahrin Zainal Abidin and Muhammad Harith Bin Zol Azlan Telekom Research & Development, TM Innovation Center, Lingkaran Teknokrat Timur, Cyberjaya Selangor, Malaysia E-Mail: azlan@tmrnd.com.my ABSTRACT As the price of the copper increased due to high demand globally which used in various sectors, it become a major factor in boasting cable stealing activities particularly telecommunication cables since it is low risk, less hazard and easy to cut. The present invention relates to anti-theft monitoring apparatus for cables, especially for telephone lines, electrical cables and other communication lines, and more particularly, relates to the apparatus for detecting the cable theft by sensing the cables vibration. This system applies combination of vibration sensor, GSM and GPS module in order to form a complete solution for cable theft. The system able to detect the theft incident by recognising the vibration pattern made by cutting tools such as hacksaw, cutter and dagger. It also able to give information such as movement and location of the stolen cable. Keywords: copper cable theft, GSM, GPS. INTRODUCTION Telephony cable theft is a widespread problem that results in revenue losses to the data service industry totaling several billions of dollars per year. This action will increase the data service interruption and further decrease the possible arrest of convict due to cable theft if proper security is not established. This action will further increase the financial impact in service restoration and cable replacement by service providers. Current situation shows one of the problems facing by the telecommunication company such as disrupt transmission line of telephony and data services due to cable theft and the number of cases increasing year by years. For instance TM Malaysia reported 11.539 cases of cable theft and 6,759 cases in the first eight month of 2012 [1] and TM suffered about RM 8.8 million for the whole 2012 due to cable theft [2] . It cost to South African economy about R5-billion a year and copper cable theft was declared a high priority crime [3]. Hence there is a need for low cost apparatus in detecting the overhead cable theft by sensing the physical. The present invention relates to anti-theft monitoring and tracking system for overhead telecommunication copper cable and more particularly, relates to the device for detecting the cable theft by sensing the cable vibration as shown in Figure-1. CAT is an abbreviation for Cable Anti-Theft (CAT) system which is first entry level deterrent system to protect telecommunication overhead (OH) copper cable from theft. It comprise of devices attached to the OH copper cable and connected to the remote terminal unit (RTU) inside the telecommunication cabinet. The CAT device consists of low cost microcontroller and unique vibration sensor which has been calibrated to detect the vibration pattern of theft attempts with various techniques such as theft attempt using tools such as cutter, jigsaw and dagger. The CAT device also consists of lithium ion battery to power the device when the cable is cut and removed from its initial location. For tracking functionality the device is equipped with GPS (Global Position System) and GSM (Global System for Mobile) to determine the movement and locations of the stolen cable sent to the system via SMS. When there is a theft attempt, the system will sense the cable vibration and sent alarms to CAT server. The CAT device will repetitively send SMSs in defined period which contain movement location of the cable to the server and recorded accordingly through Google Map application. Norizan et al. [4] has proposed the remote sensing cable theft device which only able to detect the occurrence of the cable theft without tracking capability using complex and expensive FPGA solution. Figure-1. Deployment plan of CAT system at TM networks. CAT SYSTEM COMPONENTS The main components of the CAT system are divided into the following categories as in Figure-2 which consisted of hardware and software components, as below:  Cable Protective Clothing  CAT Device  CAT RTU  CAT Application A mechanical barrier which assembled together encapsulates copper cable to protect the copper cable from