Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) is an essential tool used
to test the integrity of fiber optic cables, which can be applied to evaluate
the length of fiber cables, measure transmission and connection
attenuation and to detect the fault location of fiber links as well. Based on
these functions, it is commonly employed to fiber optical cable
maintenance and construction. Moreover, OTDRs are most effective when
testing long cables or cable plants with splices by illustrating where the
cables are terminated and confirming the quality of the fibers, connections
and splices.
How Does an OTDR Work?
Comparing with those sources and power meters which measure the loss
of the fiber optic cable plant directly, the OTDR works indirectly. By
duplicating the transmitter and receiver of the fiber optic transmission link,
the source and meter make the measurement correlate well with actual
system loss. However, the OTDR uses a unique optical phenomena
“backscattered light” to make measurements along with reflected light
from connectors or cleaved fiber ends, thus to measure loss indirectly.
During the process of OTDR testing, the instrument injects a higher power
laser or fiber optic light source pulse into a fiber from one end of the
fiber cable, with the OTDR port to receive the returning information. As the
optical pulse is transmitted through the fiber, part of the scattered
reflection will return to the OTDR. Only useful information returned could
be measured by the OTDR detector which acts as the time or curve
segments of fibers at different positions. By recording the time for signals
from transmission to returning and the speed of transmission in fibers, the
distance thus can be calculated. The following picture shows exactly how
an OTDR works for fiber optic testing.
The Working Characteristics of OTDR
OTDR uses Rayleigh scattering and Fresnel reflections to measure fibers’
characteristics. Rayleigh scattering refers to the irregular scattering
generated as optical signals transmitting in the fiber. OTDR only measures
the scattered light back on the OTDR port. The backscatter signal shows
the attenuation degree (loss/distance) of the optical fiber, and will be
tracked as a downward curve, illustrating the power of backscatter
decreases. This is because both transmission signal and backscatter loss
are attenuated.
Rayleigh scattering power is related to the wavelength of transmitted
signal: the shorter the wavelength, the stronger the power, which means
the backscatter lose generated by the trajectory of 1310nm signal will be
higher than that of 1550nm signals.
In the higher wavelength region (more than 1500 nm), the Rayleigh
scattering will continue to decrease, and another phenomenon called
infrared attenuation (or absorption) will appear to increase thus to cause
an increase of the overall attenuation values. Therefore, 1550nm
wavelength has the lowest attenuation, which testifies why it is a long
distance communication wavelength. Similarly, OTDR of 1550nm
wavelength also has low attenuation, therefore it can be used for long
distance testing as well.
Fresnel reflection falls into the category of discrete reflection that is caused
by the individual point of the whole fibers. These points are the result of
changes in reverse coefficient elements such as glass and air gap. At these
points, a strong backscatter light will be reflected back. Therefore, OTDR
uses the information of Fresnel reflection to locate the connection point,
fiber optic terminal and breakpoints.
The Solution for OTDR Dead Zone
Then, let’s take a look at an important OTDR specification which originated
from Fresnel reflections, known as “dead zones”. Basically, there are two
types of dead zones: event and attenuation. Both of them are expressed in
distance that vary in accordance with the power of those reflections. A
dead zone refers to the length of time during which the detector is
temporary blinded by a high amount of reflected light, until it recovers and
can read light again. As the OTDR is working, time is converted into
distance, therefore, more reflections lead to more time for the detector to
recover, thus resulting a longer dead zone. Dead zone limits the operation
of OTDR to a large extent, making it unable to locate and resolve faults.
The following picture shows the dead zone of the OTDR.
The dead zone seems like a problem when using OTDR for testing,
however, adapting visual fault locator (VFL) can serve as an effective
solution for solving this issue. It works as a complement to the OTDR in
cable troubleshooting since it successfully covers the range where OTDRs
fail to monitor because of the dead zone. The visual fault locator is
designed with a visible laser and universal adapter like FC, SC and ST etc,
which contributes to locate faults on the fiber link easily. For instance, to
locate the breakpoint, bending or cracking of the fiber optic cables and
locate the fault of ODTR dead zone as well. The higher power of a visual
fault locator can find breaks in fibers or high losses around connectors in
simplex cables. If the light escapes at one break, it will be visible through
the jacket of the fiber. Which is especially helpful in finding cable faults
near the end of a cable, whereas the dead zone of the OTDR restrain its
ability to resolve faults. Meanwhile, the VFL also can be applied into finding
cracked fibers or bad splices where an OTDR unable to do so.
Conclusion
In conclusion, an OTDR tester is an optical radar in essence. By sending
out a flash of bright light, it measures the intensity of echo or reflections.
So, OTDRs are mainly used in the optical fiber installation and maintenance
service of access networks (communications links between telephone
exchanges) and user networks (communications links between user sites
and telephone poles). And computation is used to display a trace and make
a number of mathematical deductions. Fiberstore ([Link]) offers a wide
range of OTDRs of reliable and excellent quality, for more information and
details, kindly visit the website at [Link] or contact over
sales@[Link].