Abstract

Fiber-optic components, modules and assemblies for modern networking applications are becoming more complex. At the component and module level, failures such as bad splices, bends, crimps, and other non-reflective events can be extremely difficult to locate and troubleshoot. The available measurement techniques designed to identify these types of failures fall into two basic categories: optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR), and frequency domain reflectometry. Typically, OTDRs lack sufficient spatial resolution to be useful at the component and module level where one might be interested in, say, locating a bad splice in a concatenation of a dozen WDM components.

© 2005 Optical Society of America