OPTICAL TIME DOMAIN REFLECTOMETER (OTDR)

PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
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 fibers NA ( Rayleighs 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.

5. 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.

OTDR OPERATION

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.

5. 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 45 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.

OTDR TRACE

OTDR TRACE
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.

IMPORTANT PARAMETERS : OTDR

1. Two imp performance parameters of an OTDR are: (a) Dynamic range (b) Measurement range 2. Dynamic Range (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 s pulse width increases dynamicrg to 40 dB. 5. Measurement Range (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 0.5 dB splice is selected as the event to be measured.

ATTENUATION MEASUREMENT

ATTENUATION MEASUREMENT
Raleigh scattering is the dominant loss mechanism in most high quality fibers. Let PD(x1) and PD(x2) be the reflected power levels at distances x1 and x2 where x2 > x1. Then the average attenuation between two points is given by: E=10[log PD(x2) log PD(x1) ]/(2.(x2 - x1))

 The backscattered optical power PRa(t) can be given by: PRa(t) =Pi *S*KR.*W0 *vg*exp(- K* vg*t) where, Pi is the optical power launched into the fiber, S is the fraction of captured optical power, KR is the Rayleigh scattering coefficient, W0 is the input optical pulse width, vg is the group velocity in the fiber, K is the attenuation coefficient per unit length for the fiber.

 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 $ T.NA/(4. T. n1)= (NA) /(4* n1) 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.

FIBER FAULT LOCATION

The max fiber length accessible to OTDR depends on the dynamic range. OTDR could be used to locate breaks and imperfections in an optical fiber. 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. If this time difference is t, then the length L is given by: L = c.t/(2.n1), where n1 is the core refractive index of the fiber.

 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. The resolution of fault detection depends on the length of optical pulse. Finer resolution is achievable with shorter pulse widths. The relationship between spatial resolution (x and pulse width is given by: (x =c. (ts/2n where (ts is the system response time, which is equal to the pulse width if the receiver has a sufficiently fast response.

 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.

 This is done through a composition of individual measurement shots that are delayed by a fraction of the sampling time.
D

B ( 2B D)

The separation of the reflected pulses is S = 2B D, where B is spacing between scatterers & D is pulse width If we define the limit of spatial resolution as S=0, then the smallest spacing that can just be resolved is Bmin = D/2

UNDERSTANDING THE PHYSICS (AND ERRORS) OF THE MEASUREMENT

OVERLOAD RECOVERY
Only a very small portion of the light comes back to the OTDR for analysis. Therefore, the OTDR receiver circuit must be very sensitive. Reflections, which may be one percent of the outgoing signal, will saturate the receiver, or overload it. The receiver requires some time to recover from saturated condition, and until it does, the trace is unreliable for measurement as shown in Figure.

 The most common place you see this as a problem is caused by the connector on the OTDR itself. The reflection causes an overload which can take the equivalent of 50 meters to one KM to recover fully, depending on the OTDR design, wave-length and magnitude of the reflection. It is usually called the "Dead Zone". 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. Also called as "launch cable".

GHOSTS
If you are testing short cables with highly reflective connectors, you are likely to encounter "GHOSTS" . 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. Ghosts are very confusing, as they seem to be real reflective events like connectors, but will not show any loss.

 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.

BACKSCATTER VARIABILITY ERRORS

Depends on backscatter coefficient i.e. the amount of light from the outgoing test pulse that is scattered back toward the OTDR. Only about one-millionth of the light is scattered back for measurement, and that amount is not a constant. The backscattered light is a function of the attenuation of the fiber and the diameter of the core of the fiber. The OTDR looks at the returning signal and calculates loss based on the declining amount of light it sees coming back.

 Higher attenuation fiber has more attenuation because the glass in it scatters more light. 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. 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.

SAME FIBRES ARE SPLICED

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

Splicing a High Loss Fiber to Low Loss Fiber

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.

HIGH LOSS FIBER SPLICED TO LOW LOSS FIBRE

 Splicing a Low Loss Fiber to High Loss Fiber

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 "gain. A difference in attenuation of 0.1 dB/km in the two fibers can lead to a splice loss error of 0.25 dB.

LOW LOSS FIBER SPLICED TO HIGH LOSS FIBRE

 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.

OVERCOMING BACKSCATTER ERRORS

This error can be practically eliminated by taking readings both ways and averaging the measurements to get accurate results. The errors in each direction cancel out, and the average value is close to the true value of the splice or connector loss.

RESOLUTION LIMITATIONS
The OTDR test pulse may only be able to resolve a distance of typically 5 to 500 meters long between two consecutive events while showing the trace on the CRO. 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 . A problem mainly with LANs or any cable plant with patch cords, as they disappear into the OTDR resolution.

 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.

EYE PATTERN TECHNIQUE

 An optical communication system is used for both digital as well as analog transmission systems. Digital light pulses are distorted in many ways, which include the distortion caused by noise and distortion caused by pulse spreading. Pulse spreading limits bandwidth of the system and is caused due to transmitter, fiber and receiver.

 In addition, system introduces timing errors, a phenomenon known as jitter. All these distortions reduce the ability of the receiver to correctly identify the presence of Binary 1s and 0s. A convenient way to measure these distortion is the Eye Diagram.

EYE PATTERN TECHNIQUE

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. The information regarding the signal amplitude distortion, time jitter and system rise time can be derived immediately by a visual observation on the CRO. 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.

EYE-DIAGRAM TEST SETUP

 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. This results in the type of display, known an eye pattern. Note: The word pseudorandom means that the generated combination or sequence of 1s and 0s will eventually repeat but that it is sufficiently random in nature.

EYE DIAGRAM

 It may be observed that the pattern has the shape of a human eye which is open. The decision time corresponds to the center of the opening. 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
T

(a) Binary Signal

(b) Signal after bandwidth limiting

+
T

(c) Eye Pattern

 The (a) illustrates a representative binary NRZ signal. The bit period is T seconds corresponding to data rate of 1/T bps. 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. Figure (c) shows the superimposition of successive pulses as observed on a CRO whose time base would be triggered every T seconds.

 A clear opening as shown illustrates an ideal condition, since no noise and jitter have been shown. 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.

APPLICATION OF EYE PATTERN

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. Information regarding the signal amplitude distortion, timing jitter, and system rise time can be derived.

SIMPLIFIED EYE DIAGRAM

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

 The Height of eye opening is also termed as Noise Margin. If this height correspond to signal voltage V1 and the max signal voltage is V2, Then,
Noise Margin (%) = (V1/V2)*100 The slope of the sides of the eye pattern

determines the sensitivity of the system to timing error. If the slope is small i.e. if the sides are getting horizontal, the possibility of timing error increases.

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 (%) = (T/Tb) *100%, where, Tb is one bit interval.

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 = 1.25 * T20-80

 Similar approach is used for fall time. The asymmetry in the eye pattern indicates nonlinearity of the system. A perfect linear system will provide identical and symmetrical eye patterns.