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- Basic summary - a tool used to measure distance, loss, reflection, and other important variables on a strand of fiber. It uses pulses of laser light and detects the reflections to determine distance to events.
Basics
- An OTDR test cannot be performed on a strand of fiber with light on it (a transceiver transmitting on the other end of the fiber being tested).
Conducting an OTDR test
- Contracting out OTDR testing is common and local splicers and/or fiber installers can be contacted to perform a test (for a fee)
- Purchasing your own
- Brands such as Viavi, Fluke, AFL, and others can provide quotes or sometimes rentals
- There are also some lower cost testers with far less detail that might work in some situations such as FlexOptix's S.OB1612.40.OD
- WiscNet currently does not own an OTDR and we would have to either contract out a fiber splicer or rent an OTDR in order to perform a test.
- WiscNet now owns two very basic OTDR's that can calculate distance. They would not be appropriate for validating the quality of a fiber build but they are nice tools to keep in the optical kits. They're FlexOptics OTDR optics, read about them here: Optical: FlexOptix
OTDR Results Display
The OTDR will likely have an on-screen display to show you results. You should also have the option to save the results to a file for later review.
Here are some annotated displays from the web:is an example of a WiscNet metro backbone link validated for 1550nm (with job details scrubbed):
More information
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The FOA Reference: Fiber Optic Testing
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