10/21/2019

What is OTDR?
 O T D R (Optical Time Domain Reflectometer) is a versatile
portable instrument that is used widely to evaluate the
characteristics of an installed fiber optic link.

It also measures optical fiber parameters such as

attenuation, length, optical connector ,splices loss and light
reflectance levels, find out fiber breaks.

 O T D R technology is designed to provide a single ended test

of any cable.

 O T D R fundamentally is an Optical RADAR.

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Outlines Basic operational principle

 W h a t is OTDR? Optical
Circulat or
 B a s i c principle of operation.
Input signal
 B a s i c requirements for setup of OTDR. OTDR LASER Fiber under test
 Typ e s of OTDRs available.
 Te s t i n g using OTDR Return
 Tr a c e Analysis Signals

 Limitations
Signal processor
Photodetector
and display

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OTDR Trace
The scale of the vertical axis is logarithmic and
measures the returning (back-reflected) signal in
decibels.

The horizontal axis denotes the distance between the

instrument and the measurement point in the fiber.

• A large initial pulse resulting from Fresnel

reflection at the input end of the fiber
• A long decaying tail resulting from Rayleigh scattering in the
• OTDR Trace reverse direction as the input pulse travels along the fiber
• Abrupt shifts in the curve caused by optical
• The OTDR operates by periodically launching loss at joints or connectors in the fiber line

narrow laser pulses into one end of a fiber • Positive spikes arising from Fresnel reflection at
the far end of the fiber, at fiber joints, and at
under test by using either a directional coupler fiber imperfections
or a circulator.

• The properties of the optical fiber link then are

determined by analysing the amplitude and
temporal characteristics of the waveform of the
reflected and back-scattered light.

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• Fresnel reflection and Rayleigh scattering

principally produce the backscattered light. • Measurement range deals with how far away an
• Fresnel reflection occurs when light enters a OTDR can identify events in the link, such as splice
medium having a different index of refraction. points, connection points, or fiber breaks.
• For a glass–air interface, when light of power P0 is • The maximum range Rmax depends on the fiber
incident perpendicular to the interface, the attenuation α and on the pulse width, that is, on the
reflected power Pref is dynamic range DOTDR. If the attenuation is given in
dB/km, then the maximum range in km is

where nfiber and nair are the refractive indices of the fiber
core and air.

• Two important performance parameters of an OTDR are dynamic

range and measurement range.

• Dynamic range is defined as the difference between the initial

backscatter power level at the front connector and the noise level
peak at the far end of the fiber.
• It is expressed in decibels of one-way fiber loss. Dynamic range
provides information on the maximum fiber loss that can be
measured and denotes the time required to measure a given fiber
loss.

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• Dead zone is the distance over which the photodetector in an OTDR

• Rayleigh scattering reflects light in all directions is saturated momentarily after it measures a strong reflection.
throughout the length of the fiber. This factor is
the dominant loss mechanism in most high-quality • There are two specifications for dead zone.
fibers.
• The optical power that is Rayleigh-scattered in the • An event dead zone specifies the minimum distance over which an
reverse direction inside the fiber can be used to OTDR can detect a reflective event that follows another reflective
event. Typically vendors specify this as the distance between the
determine attenuation. start of a reflection and the –1.5-dB point on the falling edge of the
• the average attenuation between two points x1 and reflection.
x2, where x1 > x2, is
• The attenuation dead zone indicates over which distance the photo
detector in an OTDR needs to recover following a reflective event
before it is again able to detect a splice. This means that the receiver
has to recover to within 0.5 dB of the backscatter value.

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To locate breaks and imperfections in an optical fiber, the Trace Analysis….

fiber length L can be calculated from the time difference
between the pulses reflected from the front of the fiber and the
event location.
If this time difference is t, then the length L is given by-

where n1 is the core refractive index of the fiber. The number

“2” in the denominator accounts for the fact that light travels a
length L from the source to the break point and then another
length L on the return trip.
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• Refl ections of the light in a backward direction occur at various

points in optical links that use laser transmitters. This can occur at
connectors, fiber ends, optical splitter interfaces, and within the
fiber itself due to Rayleigh scattering.
Reference
• The percent of power reflected back from a particular point in a Optical Fiber Communication-----Gerd Keiser
light path is called back reflection.
• If it is not controlled, the back reflections can cause optical
resonance in the laser source and result in erratic operation and
increased laser noise.

Therefore it is desirable to measure the optical return loss (ORL),

The ORL is expressed as a ratio of reflected power Pref to incident
power Pinc

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