AbstractBoth the expansion of optical networks and their maintenance techniques are becoming increasingly important During optical fiber cable transfer work, while securing user's services, it is very important to develop optical cable transfer splicing systems for efficient cable transfer which raises the possibility of low‐cost maintenance.In this paper, the realizable configuration of the optical fiber identification equipment used in the optical cable transfer splicing system is investigated. The structures of the two identification systems of local injection/local detection and end‐face injection/local detection is proposed and the required functions together with the design guidelines of these two systems are clarified. Further, the design method and characteristics of the local injection and local detection equipments together with evaluation method of the transfer connection losses are presented.Finally, it is shown that the allowable distances of the local injection/local detection and end‐face injection/local detection systems are 11 km and 29 km, respectively.