Experimental Validation of the Inverse Scattering Method for Distributed Characteristic Impedance Estimation

Recently published theoretic results and numerical simulations have shown the ability of inverse scattering-based methods to diagnose soft faults in electric cables, in particular, faults implying smooth spatial variations of cable characteristic parameters. The purpose of the present paper is to report laboratory experiments confirming the ability of the inverse scattering method for retrieving spatially distributed characteristic impedance from reflectometry measurements. Various smooth or stepped spatial variations of characteristic impedance profiles are tested. The tested electric cables are CAN unshielded twisted pairs used in trucks and coaxial cables.