Statistical model for the validation of unidirectional OTDR splice loss measurements

Author

Colton, A.L. ; Beech, C. ; Colton, J.R. ; Frost, P. ; Haigh, N.R. ; Tozowonah, E.

Author_Institution

Lucid Training Centre, Lucid Opt. Services Ltd., Sedbergh

Volume

153

Issue

5

fYear

2006

Firstpage

248

Lastpage

255

Abstract

A mathematical model is developed along with an associated software tool which, for two given fibre types and a given one-way optical time domain reflectometer splice loss result, evaluates the probability of the splice being within a set specification. The model includes both mode field diameter (MFD) mismatch splice loss, difference in backscatter levels due to MFD and refractive index (RI) differences for each fibre, and also takes into account the statistical variation of MFD and RI. The mathematical assumptions are validated against Monte Carlo simulations, and the mathematical model against a data set of bi-directional splice loss measurements from 1638 splices between seven fibre types with MFDs ranging from 5.98 to 11.8 mum. Practically, the model is implemented as a stand-alone software package featuring a user-friendly interface

Keywords

backscatter; optical fibre losses; optical fibre testing; optical time-domain reflectometry; probability; refractive index; splicing; statistical analysis; 5.98 to 11.8 mum; Monte Carlo simulations; backscatter levels; bidirectional splice loss; mismatch splice loss; mode field diameter; optical fibre types; optical time-domain reflectometer; refractive index difference; software tool; splice loss measurements; splice probability; stand-alone software package; statistical model; statistical variation; unidirectional OTDR; user-friendly interface;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Optoelectronics, IEE Proceedings

Publisher

iet

ISSN

1350-2433

Type

jour

Filename

1717288