A discussion of two ways of treating measurements of optical fiber loss

The loss measurement errors that arise from cutting optical fibers in fiber links and in pigtailed optical devices are analyzed in detail. Two methods of treating loss measurement data are compared: averaging P_i/P_o measurement and using just the maximum P_i/P_o measurement. Based on a large number of cutting experiments, a block diagram of cutting power distribution was constructed, and the measurement errors for both techniques were calculated. The results show that the measurement error of the maximum value taken at the input and output ends is less than the measurement error of the average value