An optical distance to fault measurement system using RF analyzers and optical conversion

As the use of fiber grows in short haul systems such as fiber to the premise and military platforms there is a need to locate failures in fiber optic cables with accuracies to a few centimeters at distances of less than a few hundred meters. The ability to perform DTF measurement over both coax and fiber will be needed as "Fiber to the Antenna" base stations are deployed. Additionally, the elimination of the dead-zone is paramount for close in measurements in aerospace applications. Field use requires that the measurement system be portable, battery operated and low cost. In this paper, we will show a new "dead-zone free fiber optic measurement module [1] that connects to popular RF cable analyzers forming a high resolution and high dynamic range distance to optical fault (DTF) measurement system. We show results of this new measurement system that has the capability of 10 cm spatial resolution; an optical dynamic range of > 40 dB and dead-zone free operation.