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1. OTDR makes use of the fact that microscopic
fluctuations of the RI and small imperfections in the
fiber cause light to be reflected back within the fiber¶s
NA ( Rayleigh¶s scattering).
2. Fundamentally an optical radar, also called the
backscatter measurement method.
3. It is one of the fundamental instruments for making
single ended measurements of optical link
characteristics such as:
(a) Attenuation
(b) Connector and splice losses
(c) Reflectance level from link components.
(d) Length of fiber.
4. OTDR is also used to locate fiber breaks.
. Short pulses of light are sent into one end of the
fiber and the reflected signal is observed at the same
input end.
6. An isolated scatterer reveals its presence as a
sharp spike in the back reflected signal.
7. It provides measurement of the attenuation on an
optical link down its entire length giving information
on the length dependence of the link loss.
8. It is superior to the other measurement methods
like cut-back and insertion loss methods which gives
only average loss over the whole length (in dB/km).
9. When the attenuation on the link varies with
length, the averaged loss information is inadequate.
10.Adv of being an non destructive (cutting)method.
|
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1. A light pulses from the injection laser is injected into
the fiber in the fwd direction using either a directional
coupler or a system of external lenses with a beam
splitter since it necessary to observe the reflected light.
2. The reflection from the fiber end are much larger
( 04 % of power incident on it) than the signal reflected
from imperfections or random RI fluctuations inside the
fiber.
3. The backscattered light is detected using a PIN/APD
receiver which drives an integrator in order to improve
the received S/N ratio by giving an arithmetic average
over a number of measurements taken at one point
within the fiber.
. This is necessary as the received optical signal
power from a particular point along the fiber length is
at a very low level compared with the forward power
at that point by some 4 to 60 dB and is also
swamped with noise.
6. The signal from the integrator is fed through a
logarithmic amplifier and averaged measurements
for successive points within the fiber are plotted on a
chart recorder
7. This provides location dependent attenuation
values which give an overall picture of the optical
losses down the link.
|
  
 |
  
1. The figure shows a typical OTDR trace.
2. The scale of the vertical axis is logarithmic
and measures the returning signal in decibels.
3. The horizontal axis denotes the distance
between the instrument and the measurement
point in the fiber.
4. Backscattered waveform has four distinct
features:
(a) A large initial pulse resulting from Fresnel
reflection at the input end of the fiber
(b) A long decaying tail resulting from
Rayleigh scattering in the reverse direction as
the input pulse travels along the fiber.
(c) Abrupt shifts in the curve caused by optical
loss at joints or connectors in the fiber line.
(d) Positive spikes arising from Fresnel
reflection at the far end of the fiber, at fiber
joints, and at fiber imperfections.
 |   |

1. Two imp performance parameters of an OTDR are:
(a) Dynamic range
(b) Measurement range
2.

 
(a) Dynamic range is defined as the difference between
the initial backscatter power level and the noise level
after 3 minutes of measurement time.
(b) Expressed in decibels of one-way fiber loss.
(c) Dynamic range provides info on the max fiber loss
that can be measured and denotes the time required to
measure a given fiber loss.
(d) Used to rank the capabilities of an OTDR.
3. A basic limitation of an OTDR is the tradeoff between
dynamic range and resolution. For high spatial
resolution, the pulse width has to be as small as
possible.However, this reduces the S/N ratio and thus
lowers the dynamic range.
4. In HP 8147 OTDR , 100 ns pulse width allows 24 dB
dynamic rg, whereas 20 µs pulse width increases
dynamicrg to 40 dB.
.  
(a) Deals with the capability of identifying events in the
link, such as splice pts, connection pts, or fiber breaks.
(b) It is the maximum allowable attenuation between
an OTDR and an event that still enables the OTDR to
measure the event accurately.
(c) A 0. dB splice is selected as the event to be
measured.
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   |
à Raleigh scattering is the dominant loss mechanism
in most high quality fibers.
à Let PD(x1) and PD(x2) be the reflected power levels
at distances x1 and x2 where x2 > x1.
à Then the average attenuation between two points
is given by:
÷â10[log PD(x2) ± log PD(x1) ]/(2.(x2 - x1))
Ã The backscattered optical power PRa(t) can be
given by:
PRa(t) â Pi *S*lR.*W0 *vg*exp(- l* vg*t)
where,
Pi is the optical power launched into the fiber,
S is the fraction of captured optical power,
lR is the Rayleigh scattering coefficient,
W0 is the input optical pulse width,
vg is the group velocity in the fiber,
l is the attenuation coefficient per unit length for
the fiber.
Ã The fraction of captured power S is given by the
ratio of the solid acceptance angle for the fiber to
the total solid angle, i.e.
S ƒ .NA²/(4. . n1²)â (NA)² /(4* n1²)
à From above eqs it is possible to determine the
backscattered optical power from a point along the
link length in relation to the forward optical power
at that point.
  |  |
à The max fiber length accessible to OTDR depends
on the dynamic range.
à OTDR could be used to locate breaks and
imperfections in an optical fiber.
à The fiber length L and hence the position of the
break or fault can be calculated from the time
difference between pulses reflected from front end
and far ends of the fiber.
à If this time difference is t, then the length L is given
by: L â c.t/(2.n1),
where n1 is the core refractive index of the fiber.
Ã Since the OTDR is based on using a pulsed probe
signal, the spatial resolution or sampling spacing
of where some event occurs in a fiber is limited by
the pulse width of the source.
à The resolution of fault detection depends on the
length of optical pulse. Finer resolution is
achievable with shorter pulse widths.
à The relationship between spatial resolution ux and
pulse width is given by:
ux âc. uts/2n
where uts is the system response time, which is
equal to the pulse width if the receiver has a
sufficiently fast response.
Ã Normally, since it is not practical to increase the
resolution by using a higher data sampling rate, an
OTDR will use an interleaving scheme, which can
improve spatial resolution down to the centimeter
range.
Ã This is done through a composition of individual
measurement shots that are delayed by a fraction
of the sampling time.

D B

B B
( 2B ± D)
à The separation of the reflected pulses is 
,
where B is spacing between scatterers & D is pulse width
If we define the limit of spatial resolution as Sâ0, then the
smallest spacing that can just be resolved is
  

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à Only a very small portion of the light comes back
to the OTDR for analysis. Therefore, the OTDR
receiver circuit must be very sensitive.
à Reflections, which may be one percent of the
outgoing signal, will saturate the receiver, or
overload it.
à The receiver requires some time to recover from
saturated condition, and until it does, the trace is
unreliable for measurement as shown in Figure.
Ã The most common place you see this as a problem
is caused by the connector on the OTDR itself.
à The reflection causes an overload which can take
the equivalent of 0 meters to one KM to recover
fully, depending on the OTDR design, wave-length
and magnitude of the reflection.
à It is usually called the "Dead Zone".
à A "pulse suppressor" cable should be used, which
doesn't suppress pulses, but gives OTDR the time
to recuperate before actual measurement for the
test fiber begins.
à Also called as "launch cable".
 È  
à If you are testing short cables with highly reflective
connectors, you are likely to encounter "È | " .
à These are caused by the reflected light from the far
end connector reflecting back and forth in the fiber
until it is attenuated to the noise level.
Ã
hosts are very confusing, as they seem to be real
reflective events like connectors, but will not show
any loss.
Ã If you find a reflective event in the trace at a
point where there is not supposed to be any
connection, but the connection from the
launch cable to the cable under test is highly
reflective, look for ghosts at multiples of the
length of the launch cable or the first cable
you test.
]m  m

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à Depends on backscatter coefficient i.e. the amount
of light from the outgoing test pulse that is scattered
back toward the OTDR.
à Only about one-millionth of the light is scattered
back for measurement, and that amount is not a
constant.
à The backscattered light is a function of the
attenuation of the fiber and the diameter of the core
of the fiber.
à The OTDR looks at the returning signal and
calculates loss based on the declining amount of
light it sees coming back.
Ã Higher attenuation fiber has more attenuation
because the glass in it scatters more light.
à If two different fibers are connected together
and splice or connector loss is measured using
OTDR, a major source of error could be the
difference in backscattering from each fiber.
à If both fibers are identical, such as splicing a
broken fiber back together, the backscattering
will be the same on both sides of the joint, so
the OTDR will measure the actual splice loss.
 

Ã However, if the fibers are different, the backscatter
coefficients will cause a different percentage of light
to be sent back to the OTDR.

à  ! "#$##%#$
± If the first fiber has more loss than the one after
the connection, the percentage of light from the
OTDR test pulse will go down,
± The measured loss on the OTDR will include the
actual loss plus a loss error caused by the lower
backscatter level.
± The displayed loss is greater than it actually is.
È | 
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± While splicing a low loss fiber to a high loss fiber,

the backscatter level goes up, making the
measured loss less than it actually is.
± It can be a major source of error.
± In fact, this may show a "gain³.
± A difference in attenuation of 0.1 dB/km in the
two fibers can lead to a splice loss error of 0.2
dB.
|&| 
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Ã Error Caused by Variations in Fiber Diameter.
± Tapered fibers show higher attenuation in one
direction.
± A variation in diameter of 1% can cause a 0.1 dB
variation in backscatter.
± The OTDR trace will show fibre with "waves",
which is caused due to manufacturing variations
in the fiber diameter.
 |' |È (  
|

à This error can be practically eliminated by

taking readings both ways and averaging the
measurements to get accurate results.
à The errors in each direction cancel out, and the
average value is close to the true value of the
splice or connector loss.
 | |  |

à The OTDR test pulse may only be able to resolve a

distance of typically  to 00 meters long between
two consecutive events while showing the trace on
the CRO.
à It can not see features in the cable plant spaced
closer than that, since the pulse will be going
through both simultaneously and thus two events
will be measured as a single event .
à A problem mainly with LANs or any cable plant with
patch cords, as they disappear into the OTDR
resolution.
Ã E.g.
± A connector that has a high loss stress bend
near it will show up on the OTDR as one event
with a total loss of both events. Even if
connector is replaced taking it to be bad, the
actual problem will remain.
± Errors may also occur in splice closures. An
OTDR may show a bad splice, but it can actually
be a crack or stress point somewhere else in the
splice closure.


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Ã An optical communication system is used for
both digital as well as analog transmission
systems.
à Digital light pulses are distorted in many ways,
which include the distortion caused by noise
and distortion caused by pulse spreading.
à Pulse spreading limits bandwidth of the system
and is caused due to transmitter, fiber and
receiver.
Ã In addition, system introduces timing errors, a
phenomenon known as jitter¶.
à All these distortions reduce the ability of the
receiver to correctly identify the presence of
Binary 1s and 0s.
à A convenient way to measure these distortion
is the Eye Diagram¶.
 )   *
à Eye-pattern technique is a simple but powerful
measurement method to test the overall
performance of an optical digital transmission
system and helps in assessing the data-handling
ability of such a system.
à The information regarding the signal amplitude
distortion, time jitter and system rise time can be
derived immediately by a visual observation on the
CRO.
à The eye-pattern measurements are made in the
time domain. The waveform from a large number of
random pulse sequences are superimposed in one
bit period and the display obtained on CRO is called
eye pattern or eye diagram.
)+
È   
Ã The output from a pseudorandom data pattern
generator is applied to the vertical input of an
oscilloscope and the data rate is used to trigger
the horizontal sweep.
à This results in the type of display, known an eye
pattern.

Note: The word °
 means that the

generated combination or sequence of 1s and 0s
will eventually repeat but that it is sufficiently
random in nature.
)
È
Ã It may be observed that the pattern has the shape
of a human eye which is open.
à The decision time corresponds to the center of the
opening.
à To regenerate the pulse sequence with minimum
errors the eye should be as open as possible. The
effect of practical degradation on the pulses is to
reduce the size of the eye or close the eye.
1 0 1 0 1 1 1

T
u,
!

T
u$,!-$.%."! 

+
T
u,

Ã The (a) illustrates a representative binary NRZ
signal. The bit period is T¶ seconds corresponding
to data rate of 1/T bps.
à Figure (b) shows this waveform after distortion i.e.
pulse spreading and increase in the pulse rise and
fall time due to transmission through fiber and
reception by the receiver.
à Figure (c) shows the superimposition of successive
pulses as observed on a CRO whose time base
would be triggered every T seconds.
Ã A clear opening as shown illustrates an ideal
condition, since no noise and jitter have been
shown.
à Considering the effect of jitter , the superimposed
bits will produce an eye pattern whose upper and
lower bounds are determined by logic 1 and 0
levels.
   ||) 
à Some key feature of the pattern include:
 The opening and width.
 The 20% to 80% rise and fall times.
 Overshoot on logic 1.
 Undershoot on logic 0
 Jitter in eye pattern.

à Information regarding the signal amplitude

distortion, timing jitter, and system rise time can be
derived.

)
È
Ã The height measures the amplitude distortion in
the data signal.
à The width of the eye opening defines the time
interval over which the received signal can be
sampled without error from intersymbol
interference.
à Best time to sample the received wave form is
when the height of the eye opening is the largest.
à The difference between the maximum signal level
and top of the eye opening ( both measured
vertically) gives the maximum distortion.
à When eye opening is small, distortion is high and
the signal detection is difficult.
Ã

 
   
  
 

 

  


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Ã The amount of distortion (¨T) at the threshold
level may arise due to noise in receiver and pulse
distortion in fiber. This distortion indicates the
amount of jitter which is also called edge jitter or
phase distortion.
Timing jitter (%) â (¨T/Tb) *100%,
where, Tb is one bit interval.
à Since 10% and 90% of final amplitude get
obscured by noise and jitter effect, 20-to-80
percent threshold points are normally measured.
T10-90 â 1.2 * T20-80
Ã Similar approach is used for fall time.
à The asymmetry in the eye pattern indicates
nonlinearity of the system. A perfect linear
system will provide identical and symmetrical
eye patterns.