Zero dead-zone OTDR with high-spatial resolution for short haul applications

Author

Feced, Ricardo ; Farhadiroushan, Mahmoud ; Handerek, Vincent A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. & Electr. Eng., King´´s Coll., London, UK

Volume

9

Issue

8

fYear

1997

Firstpage

1140

Lastpage

1142

Abstract

The existence of dead-zones is an important drawback for optical time-domain reflectometers (OTDR), specially in short haul applications with a large number of optical components. In this letter, we present an OTDR system with high spatial resolution based on the time-correlated single photon counting (TC-SPC) technique. This system overcomes the deadzone problem by monitoring the spontaneous Stokes Raman emission (SSRE) to avoid the intense Fresnel reflections. The high sensitivity of the TC-SPC technique (-120 dBm) permits a high-loss budget within reasonable measurement integration times.

Keywords

Raman spectra; computerised monitoring; microcomputer applications; optical correlation; optical fibre communication; optical fibre testing; optical resolving power; optical time-domain reflectometry; photon counting; telecommunication computing; OTDR system; high sensitivity; high spatial resolution; high-loss budget; high-spatial resolution; intense Fresnel reflections; optical components; optical time-domain reflectometers; reasonable measurement integration times; short haul applications; spontaneous Stokes Raman emission; time-correlated single photon counting technique; zero dead-zone OTDR; Fresnel reflection; Monitoring; Optical devices; Optical fiber networks; Optical pulses; Optical receivers; Optical scattering; Optical sensors; Raman scattering; Spatial resolution;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.605529

Filename

605529