Optical Time Domain Reflectometer

Pravinkumar V Gareta
Dept. of Electronics Engineering
Institute of Technology
Nirma University
Email: [email protected]

Abstract :
This paper will give you a idea about the pulses is measured and integrated as a
Optical time domain Reflectometer. The function of time, and is plotted as a
actual working principle of the OTDR. function of fiber length.
The operration of the OTDR. Basically, An OTDR may be used for estimating the
the OTDR will be used when there will be fiber's length and overall attenuation,
any fault occur in the fiber optics link. including splice and mated-connector losses.
The modes of operation also disscused in It may also be used to locate faults, such as
this paper. breaks, and to measure optical return loss.
In addition to required specialized optics and
1.Introduction electronics, OTDRs have significant
An optical time-domain reflectometer computing ability and a graphical display, so
(OTDR) is an optoelectronic instrument they may provide significant test
used to characterize an optical fiber. An automation. However, proper instrument
OTDR injects a series of optical pulses into operation and interpretation of an OTDR
the fiber under test. It also extracts, from the trace still requires special technical training
same end of the fiber, light that is scattered and experience.
and reflected back from points in the fiber
where the index of refraction changes. (This 2. Principle of OTDR
is equivalent to the way that an electronic An OTDR is a fiber optic tester
time-domain reflectometer measures characterizing fibers and optical Networks
reflections caused by changes in the The aim of this instrument is to detect,locate
impedance of the cable under test.) The
and measure events at any location in the
strength of the return
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. The OTDR’s ability to
characterize a fiber is based on detecting small
signals returned to OTDR in response to the
Fig 1. Optical time domain reflectometer[1]

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injection of a large signal. OTDR depends
on two types of Optical Phenomena: 4. Fresnel Reflection
Fresnel reflections occur only where the
 Rayleigh Backscattering fiber comes in contact with air or any other
 Fresnel Reflections media such as at a mechanical
. connection/splice or joint.
3. Rayleigh Scattering Reflection of a portion of the Light incident
Rayleigh Scattering is intrinsic to the fiber on a planar Interface between two
material itself and it is present all along the homogeneous media having different
length of the fiber. This type of effect will refractive indices. Fresnel Reflection occurs
at the air-glass interfaces at entrance and
be present in the fiber due to the following
exit ends of an optical fiber. Resultant
reason. Transmission losses (on the order of 4% per
interface) can be virtually eliminated by use
of anti-reflection coatings or index matching
material. The reflection that occurs at the
planar Junction of two materials having
different refractive indices. Fresnel
reflection is not a function of the angle of
incidence.

5. OTDR Block diagram

Light from the source will be coupled with
the coupler and there will be any
nonlinearity it means any reflected ray
which will also coupled by the coupler and
Fig 2. Rayleigh Scattering[5] passed to the photodiode. A pulse generator
controls the laser diode which will passed a
Molecules move randomley through the powerful light into the fiber.
glass in the molten stage during the These pulses have a width 2ns upto 20ms.
manufacturing.The applied heat provide The duration of the pulses can be selected by
the operator for different measuring
energy to the motion of molecules. As the
conditions(The repetition rate is limited to
liguid cools the motion will be seases and the rate at which the pulse return is
random molecules location are frozen within completed, before any other pulse is
the glass these results in the change in the launched.
refractive index. When a beam of light The OTDR measures the time difference
passing through such type of structure then between the outgoing pulse and the
some its energy will be scattered by this incoming backscattered pulses and hence the
word “Time Domain” will be used.
object. This phenomenen will be known as
Rayleigh scattering.

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 Fig 4. OTDR Trace[4]

7.OTDR Operation
Fig 3. OTDR Block diagram[5]
OTDR is a fundamentally a optical radar. It
operates by periodically launching narrow
The power level of the backscattered and
pulses into one end of the fiber using either
reflected signal is sampled over time. Each
a directional coupler or a beam splitter. If
measured sample is called an “Acquisition
there will be no loss then pulse which will
Point”
These points can be plotted on an amplitude
scale with respect to relative timing of
launch pulse..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.

6. OTDR Trace Fig 5. OTDR Operation[7].

Figure shows a typical trace as would be
seen on the display screen of an OTDR. The inserted by the laser diode will passed and
scale of the vertical axis is logarithmic and we don’t get any spike on the screen. But if
measures the returning signal in decibel. The there will be any loss means it will be either
horizontal axis denotes the distance between a fresnal reflection loss or scattering etc then
the instrument point and the measurement some amount of signal will reflected back to
point in the fiber. the OTDR which will be coupled by the coupler
and goes to the photodiode which will convert
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it into the electrical form then it will be sampled require trade-offs which make them
and store and then on the screen we will get application specific.A longer laser pulse
a spike. We will also know this distance by improves dynamic range and attenuation
using the OTDR. So, Faultfinding of the measurement resolution at the expense of
cable become very easy. distance resolution. For example, using a
long pulse length, it may possible to
8. OTDR Time to distance measure attenuation over a distance of more
conversion than 100 km, however in this case an optical
There are some quantity which will be used event may appear to be over 1 km long. This
to find out distance. scenario is useful for overall characterisation
V(Group velocity)=c/n of a link, but would be of much less use
C: Velocity of light in Vacuum when trying to locate faults. A short pulse
n: Refractive Index length will improve distance resolution of
Now, Velocity=distance/time optical events, but will also reduce
So, measuring range and attenuation
L(distance)= V*t(time) measurement resolution
Where,V=c/n
But here we have to take a one round trip so, B.Dead Zone
L= V*t/2 OTDR is designed to detect the back
From this equation we will finding the scattering level all along the fiber link, it
distance from where the fault will be measures back scattered signals which are
occurred. much smaller than the signal sent to the
fiber. The device that receives these back
9. OTDR Specification scattered signals is an OTDR, which is
There will be some specification which will designed to receive a given level range
be considered : When there is a strong reflection,then the
 Dynamic Range power received by the photodiode can be
 Dead Zone more than 4000times higher than the back
 Resolution scattered power and can saturate the
 Accuracy photodiode.
 Wavelenght The photodiode requires time to recover
from the saturated condition, during this
A. Dynamic Range time it will not detect any signal accurately.
The length of the fiber which is not
The optical dynamic range of an OTDR is
characterized during recovery is termed the
limited by a combination of optical pulse
dead zone.
output power, optical pulse width, input
sensitivity, and signal integration time.
Higher optical pulse output power, and C.Resolution
better input sensitivity, combine directly to Resolution is the minimum distance between
improve measuring range, and are usually two acquisition points. This data resolution
fixed features of a particular instrument. can go down to centimeters depending on
However optical pulse width and signal pulse width and range. The more data points
integration time are user adjustable, and
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an OTDR can acquire and process, the more succeeding pulses. The number of samples
the resolution. that are to be averaged is predefined for an
OTDR.
D.Accuracy The larger the number, the longer the OTDR
The accuracy of measurement is the capacity takes for displaying the results.Recent
of measurement to be compared with a OTDR specifies their averaging in terms of
reference value. time taken for display, instead of number of
Linearity Accuracy: Determines how samples.
close an Optical level corresponds to an
electrical level across the whole range 11. References
Distance Accuracy: Depends on the [1] En.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_time-
accuracy of group index(Index of refraction domain_reflectometer.
refers to a single ray in a fiber,while group [2] www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-
index refers to propogation of all the light otdr.htm
pulses in the fiber) [3] ezinearticles.com/?Fiber-Optic-Cable-
OTDR-Basics&id.
E.Wavelength [4] www.scribd.com/doc/4110267/OTDR
OTDR’s measure according to wavelength. [5] www.exsellsales.com/fibertesting
The major wavelengths are: 850nm, 1310nm [6] fdju.com/pdf/article-30395.pdf
and 1550nm A fourth wavelength is now [7] www.scribd.com/12917189/OTDR
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

10. Modes of Operation

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.
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
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