TEST

AND
MEASUREMENT

Eagle

Loss- dB
Fundamental Of OTDR
Power, Laser Source Test
Link Loss Budget

Eagle

Loss and its origin

Loss in optical power due to..

Scattering
Absorption
Bending
Micro bending
Macro bending

Eagle

Scattering

Scattering, Primarily Rayleigh scattering, also contributes to attenuation.

Scattering causes the light energy to be dispersed in all directions, with
some of the light escaping the fiber core. A small portion of this light
energy is returned down the core and is termed backscattering.

Eagle

Absorption
Absorption may be defined as the conversion of light energy to
heat, and is related to the resonance in the fiber material. There
are intrinsic absorption (due to fiber material and molecular
resonance) and extrinsic absorption (due to impurities such as
OH- ions at around 1240 nm and 1390 nm).

Eagle

Bending Loss
Bending losses which are caused by light escaping the core due to
imperfections at the core/clad boundary (microbending), or the angle
of incidence of the light energy at the core/cladding boundary
exceeding the Numerical Aperture (internal angle of acceptance) of the
fiber due to bending of the fiber (macrobending).
Single mode fibers (for example) may be bent to a radius of 10 cm
with no significant losses, however after the minimum bend radius is
exceeded, losses increase exponentially with increasing radius.
Minimum bend radius is dependent on fiber design and light
wavelength.

Eagle

Example of different types of Loss

Eagle

Input Power : Pi (w)

Loss = Pi -Po

Output Power: Po (w)

Loss (dB) = 10*log10 (Pi / Po)

Loss per unit length (dB/Km) = (10/L)*log10 (Pi / Po)
What do u mean by 3dB loss?
Eagle

What is dBm and Why dBm ?

In Telecommunication transmitted power is very much
low. ( in range of mw to Microwatt ).

dBm :
It is output power in decibel (dB) for unit milliwatt input power.

Remember : 5 dBm - 4 dBm = 1 dB ( not dBm)

Eagle

What is dBm and Why dBm ?

Eagle

Optical Time Domain Reflectometer

Eagle

Eagle

Eagle

Course Objectives
Principles Of OTDR
Block Diagram of OTDR
Specifications of OTDR
Using an OTDR(Operation of OTDR)

Eagle

Principles Of OTDR
An OTDR is a fiber optic tester characterizing fibers and optical Networks
The aim of this instrument is to detect,locate and measure events at any
location in the fiber optic link
An OTDR can test a fiber from only one end,that is it operates as a one
dimensional Radar System
The OTDR technique produces geographic information with regard to
localized loss and reflective events providing a pictorial and permanent
record which may be used as a permanent baseline

Eagle

Principles Of OTDR(Contd..)
The OTDRs ability to characterize a fiber is based on detecting
small signals returned to OTDR in response to the injection of a
large signal

OTDR depends on two types of Optical Phenomena:

Rayleigh Backscattering
Fresnel Reflections

Eagle

Rayleigh Scattering
Rayleigh scattering is intrinsic to the fiber material itself and is
present all along the length of fiber

If Rayleigh scattering is uniform along the length of fiber, then

discontinuities in the back scatter can be used to identify
anomalies in transmission along the length of fiber

Eagle

Eagle

Fresnel Reflections
Fresnel reflections are only point events

Fresnel reflections occur only where the fiber comes in contact

with air or any other media such as at a mechanical
connection/splice or joint

Eagle

OTDR Block Diagram

Eagle

OTDR
Light from the source is coupled to the fiber using a coupling device
If there are any non-linearities there will be a reflected ray from the
fiber,which is coupled to the photodiode using a coupler
A pulse generator controls the LASER DIODE which sends powerful
light pulses to the fiber
These pulses can have a width in the order of 2ns upto 20msec and
a reoccurrence of some KHz

Eagle

Eagle

OTDR
The duration of the pulses can be selected by the operator for
different measuring conditions(The repetition rate is limited to the
rate at which the pulse return is completed, before any other pulse
is launched
The OTDR measures the time difference between the outgoing
pulse and the incoming backscattered pulses and hence the word
Time Domain
The power level of the backscattered and reflected signal is
sampled over time
Each measured sample is called an Acquisition Point

Eagle

OTDR
These points can be plotted on an amplitude scale with respect to relative
timing of launch pulse
It then converts this time domain information into distance based on the
user entered index of fiber
The RI is inversely proportional to the velocity of propogation of light in the
fiber
OTDR uses this data to convert time to distance on the OTDR display and
divide this value by two to take round trip(or two way)into account

Eagle

Typical OTDR Trace

Eagle

Typical OTDR Trace

Eagle

Apparent Signal Gain

Eagle

OTDR Trace with Fiber Break

Eagle

OTDR Time to Distance Conversion

V(Group Delay)=c/n
C: Velocity of light in Vacuum
n: Refractive Index

OTDR Time to Distance Conversion(Round Trip):

L(Distance) = v(Group Delay) * t/2
= (c/n) * t/2
Eagle

OTDR Specifications
Dynamic Range
Dead Zone
Resolution
Accuracy
Wavelength

Eagle

Dynamic Range
Dynamic Range determines maximum observable length of a fiber
and therefore OTDR suitability for analyzing any particular network

The higher the signal to noise ratio,and the better the trace will
be,with a better event detection

Eagle

Dead Zone
OTDR is designed to detect the back scattering level all along the
fiber link, it measures back scattered signals which are much
smaller than the signal sent to the fiber
The device that receives these back scattered signals is an
OTDR, which is designed to receive a given level range
When there is a strong reflection,then the power received by the
photodiode can be more than 4000times higher than the back
scattered power and can saturate the photodiode

Eagle

Dead Zone
The photodiode requires time to recover from the saturated
condition, during this time it will not detect any signal accurately

The length of the fiber which is not characterized during recovery

is termed the dead zone

Eagle

Dead Zone

Eagle

Sampling Resolution
Sampling resolution is the minimum distance between two acquisition
points
This data resolution can go down to centimeters depending on pulse
width and range
The more data points an OTDR can acquire and process, the more
the resolution

Eagle

Distance Resolution
Distance resolution is very similar to sampling resolution,
if OTDR samples acquisition points every 1meter,then
only it can locate a fiber within +/- 1meter

The distance resolution is then like sampling resolution, a

function of pulse width and range

Eagle

Attenuation vs Distance with increasing

Resolution

Eagle

Accuracy
The accuracy of measurement is the capacity of measurement to
be compared with a reference value
Linearity Accuracy: Determines how close an Optical level
corresponds to an electrical level across the whole range
Distance Accuracy: Depends on the accuracy of group
index(Index of refraction refers to a single ray in a fiber,while
group index refers to propogation of all the light pulses in the
fiber)
Eagle

Wavelength
OTDRs measure according to wavelength
The major wavelengths are: 850nm, 1310nm and 1550nm A fourth
wavelength is now appearing for monitoring live systems which is 1625nm
The wavelength is usually specified with central wavelength and spectral
width
The attenuation of wavelength varies with wavelength, and any
measurement should be corrected to transmission wavelength or to the
central wavelength

Eagle

Using an OTDR
We can broadly define the use of OTDR in two process:
Acquisition Step:where the unit acquires data and displays it
graphically or numerically
Measurement Step:Where the operator analyzes the data and
makes a decision based on the results to either store,print or go to
the next acquisition

Eagle

Acquisition
There are three major approaches to configure an OTDR:
A user may simply let the OTDR to auto configure and accept acquisition
parameters selected by OTDR(Automatic)
A user may allow the OTDR unit to auto configure, analyze the results and change
one or more parameters accordingly(Semi Automatic)
A more experienced user may choose not to use auto configuration feature
altogether and enter the acquisition parameters based on his experience(Manual)

Eagle

Acquisition Parameters
Given below are various acquisition parameters and their
effect on the resulting trace:
Injection Level
Wavelength
Pulse Width
Range
Averaging
Eagle

Injection Level
Injection level is defined an the power injected into the fiber under
test,the higher this level the higher the power level
The presence of dirt on connector faces and damaged or low quality
pig tails or patch cords are the primary cause of low injection levels
Mating a dirty connector with a OTDR connector may scratch the
OTDR connector,degrading the OTDR launch conditions
Some OTDRs will display the measured injection level during real
time acquisition or just prior to averaging

Eagle

OTDR Wavelength
A fiber must be tested with same wavelength as that used for
transmission
For a given dynamic range 1550nm will see more distance than
1310nm
Single mode fiber has more mode field diameter at 1550nm that
at 1310nm

Eagle

Eagle

OTDR Wavelength
1550nm is more sensitive bends than 1310nm(as shown in the graph
below)

Eagle

Eagle

Pulse Width
The OTDR pulse width controls the amount of light that
will be injected into the fiber(It is the time for which the
Laser is on and determines the resolution of waveform)
Longer the pulse width, more light is injected into the fiber
Longer pulse widths also produce longer dead zones in the
OTDR trace waveform where the measurements are
impossible
Short pulse widths inject lower levels of light but reduce
dead zone
Eagle

Pulse Width
By reducing the pulse width, there is a reduction in the dead zone of the fiber,compared to that of
a larger pulse width and also an increase

But with the reduction in the pulse width, there is a reduction in the dynamic range, a reduction in
the sensitivity of the receiver and also the distance
By proper selection of pulse width we can optimize the use of OTDR for making fiber
measurements

Eagle

Eagle

Range
Range of an OTDR is the distance over which it can acquire data
samples
The longer this parameter the more distance OTDR will shoot the pulses
This parameter is generally set to twice the distance of the end of fiber

Eagle

Averaging
The OTDR detector works with extremely low optical power levels(as
low as 100 photons per meter of fiber)
Averaging is the process by which each acquisition point is sampled
repeatedly and the results averaged to improve signal to noise ratio
Averaging can be done by selecting the time of acquisition or the
number of averages, the longer the time or higher the number of
averages,the more signal the trace waveform will display in random
noise conditions

Eagle

Modes Of Operation Of OTDR

Free Run Mode(Real Time):
It continually sends laser pulses down the fiber under test and
obtains back scatter
This mode is useful for optimizing fiber alignment
The waveforms obtained in free run mode contain unacceptable
amounts of noise making it impossible to determine small
attenuation changes such as non-reflective splices

Eagle

Eagle

Noise in Free Run Mode

Eagle

Modes of Operation of OTDR

Averaging Mode:
In the averaging mode each pulses are averaged from that of preceding
pulses which makes the trace appear clear for each of the succeeding
pulses
The number of samples that are to be averaged is predefined for an
OTDR
The larger the number, the longer the OTDR takes for displaying the
results
Recent OTDR specifies their averaging in terms of time taken for
display, instead of number of samples
Eagle

Eagle

TESTS PERFORMED USING OTDR

Eagle

Acceptance Test
Acceptance of fiber uses OTDR(TO measure loss per km):
This loss measurement is wavelength dependent, so the OTDR is set
to the wavelength which matches with the fiber systems operating
wavelength
When using an OTDR to make any measurement it is critical to
correctly place reference markers so that the OTDR can display the
loss & distance between them

Eagle

Loss and Span Length

This test has to be conducted in averaging mode, when ever we choose
averaging mode a trace will be displayed
To make any measurements it is critical to correctly place reference
markers so that OTDR can display loss and distance between them
For making this measurement,a trace is obtained on OTDR in real time
mode
Place the reference markers accurately, first reference marker is placed
exactly where the back scatter starts,that is beyond dead zone(correct
point is on the trailing edge of the

Eagle

Span Loss and Span Length

Then move the cursor to end of the trace and place the second
marker before the Refractive fiber end , the correct point is where
the slope starts increasing faster than the normal slope of the trace
To exactly locate these reference markers use the horizontal and
vertical zoom controls
Now choose the averaging mode and the display gives us the loss
per span and the span length

Eagle

Eagle

Attenuation of Splice or
Connector
OTDR can be used to measure splice or connector loss, in order to
do this a marker is placed on either of the aberration of the OTDR
trace
OTDR will then display the attenuation between the two points
The vertical separation of the two marker points is the attenuation of
the splice or the connector

Eagle

Attenuation of Fusion
Splice

Fusion splice has a loss value which is very negligible,so to

accurately measure this value the OTDR is used in averaging
mode
To measure the loss value,first amplify the slope the of the OTDR
trace and then place the two reference points on either side of
the aberration
To accurately place the markers use horizontal and vertical zoom
controls

Eagle

Eagle

Automatic Operation
In two cursor method, sometimes the cursor might not have been
placed properly and the OTDR also adds some losses and there by
increasing the loss value
For short distance applications the effect is negligible,but becomes
highly pronounced for long haul
Fortunately, most OTDRs have the provision to perform automatically
That is, in averaging mode the OTDR displays the splice loss as well as
the connector loss systematically on the trace
Eagle

Eagle

Ghost Reflections
Sometimes there will be Fresnel reflection at points where it is
not expected-usually after end of fiber,this usually happens when
large reflection occurs in a short fiber
The reflected light actually bounces back and forth within a
fiber,causing one or more false reflections to show up at
multiple distances from the initial large reflection

Eagle

Ghost Reflections
Another type of ghosting happens when you set the range shorter
than the actual length of the fiber
This allows OTDR to send additional pulses of light into the fiber
before all the backscatter and reflections from the first pulse have
cleared the whole fiber
When more than one pulse in the fiber at one time,a condition will be
setup where returned light from different pulses arrive at the OTDR at
the same time producing Unpredictable results
Eagle

Ghost Reflections
Ghost Busting Techniques used to determine if ghosts are
occurring and eliminate them:
Measure the distance of the suspect reflection,then place a cursor
half this distance on the fiber if an expected reflection is at half
way mark,then the suspect is probably Ghost
Suppress or reduce the known(true)reflection,by making the
amount of reflected power smaller, the ghost will also be
reduced .To reduce the reflection, index matching gel at the
reflection, or reduce the amount of power going to the reflective

point by selecting a shorter pulse width

Eagle

Ghost Reflection
Ghost Busting Techniques used to determine if ghosts are occurring
and eliminate them:
Change the distance Range(Display Range)of the OTDR.In some
OTDRs,a ghost is caused when the Distance Range is too short
Increase the Range setting and ghost may disappear
If a ghost seems to occur in the fiber,then measure the loss across the
suspected reflection.A ghost will show no loss across it when you do a

splice loss measurement

Eagle

Observations & Conclusion

Eagle

Observations & Conclusion

Eagle

Various Instruments used for Fiber Testing

(Power Meter,Laser Source,OTDR etc)

Eagle

EIA / TIA Standards defining standardized fiber

optic test procedures

Eagle

Power, Laser Source Test

Eagle

OTDR can measure loss then why we measure

the loss with Power meter and Laser source again?
The most accurate way to measure overall attenuation in a fiber is to
inject a known level of light in one end and measure the level when it
comes out the other end.

Eagle

Measurement of Loss in a Fiber using a LASER

Source and a Power Meter

Eagle

BER Test Using a VOA

To measure BER of a Optical Receiver,a VOA is used

along with a BER Transmitter
As the attenuation increases, a technician can see the
value of attenuation that causes a significant increase in
the BER of the receiver

Eagle

Link Loss Budget

Eagle

What is Link Budget?

Computation of all the losses that comes into

account from the source node to the destination
node taking into account all the losses is called link
budgeting for that particular link

Eagle

Losses.
General Losses:

- Fiber Loss
- Total connector loss
- Total Splice loss

Specific Losses:

- Total other component loss

- Manufacturers Specifications
- Total power penalties
Eagle

General Losses(Typical Values)

Fiber Loss
Attenuation for 1310nm:0.3dB/km(G.652)
Attenuation for 1550nm:0.25dB/km
Largely due to impurities and imperfections
in the glass of the fiber

Connector Loss
Connections at the termination points of fiber,patch

panels in a site,

Optical
cross connects(OXC)
Conservative estimate is 0.5dB/connection

Splice Loss
Splices due to construction and repair
Conservative estimate is 0.1dB/splice
Eagle

Span Loss Analysis

Compares the allowable span loss for equipment against

the total losses of the span.
The allowable span loss is the Transmit Power minus
the Receive Power Level.
The total losses on the span is the sum of all attenuation
due to fiber,connections,splices and other factors.
If the total span loss does not exceed the allowable span
loss the system should work on this span.
Eagle

Computation of Span Loss

Margin
Total losses = (fiber length* loss/km) +
(connector loss* No. of connectors) +
(No. of Splices)*(loss/splice) +
(loss due to components) + other losses
Span loss Allowed = Tx power - Receiver sensitivity
Span loss Margin = Total losses - Span loss

Eagle

Link Budget

Eagle

Attenuation/Span Loss Example...

Tx

0.5 dB

0.5 dB

0.5 dB

Rx
Rx input
needed -25
dBm

Tx Output
+0.5 dBm
22km @ .25dB / km

37km @ .25dB/km

= 5.5dB

=9.25 dB

Eagle

Attenuation/Span Loss Example...

Total Attenuation:
Connector: 1.5dB
Fiber1:
5.5dB
Fiber2:
9.25dB
Splices:
0.9dB
Total
21.25dB

Span Loss Analysis:

Tx Power :
0.5dBm
Rx Sensitivity :
-25dBm
Available for span: 25.5dB
Available for span:
25.5dB
Attenuation on span: 21.25dB
Span Loss Margin:
4.25dB

Eagle

Signal/Noise Ratio
Signal is the information carrying optical pulse,Noise is the
optical staticcreated in the system
Optical amplifiers amplify both signal and noise
If the signal travels long enough and through enough
amplifiers,the noise will overwhelm the signal
This limits the number of consecutive amplifiers in an
amplifier based system,before an optical-electrical-optical
conversion is needed to restore the signal to clean low-noise
pulse
Eagle

Eagle