Abstract

Various light launching techniques [1] have been employed to measure fiber attenuation accurately and reproducibly. One of the reasons behind such efforts stems from the need for accurate prediction of fiber link attenuation (as well as fiber bandwidth). In this paper, the ’steady-state’ attenuation is recognized as a unique fiber parameter and problems associated with its exact measurement are addressed. Furthermore, link attenuation predictability is evaluated based upon the steady-state measurements of individual fiber sections.