Combined Attenuation and High-Resolution Fault Measurements Using Chaos-OTDR

Abstract

We propose a combined attenuation and high-resolution fault measurement method using chaos optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR). Utilizing the pulse-modulated chaotic light and correlation operation, this technique realizes fiber attenuation measurement and a distance-independent spatial resolution simultaneously. We demonstrate a proof-of-concept experiment for measurements of a single-mode fiber (G.652) and a fiber link consisting of a single-mode fiber (G.652) and a conventional (62.5-μm) multimode fiber. The measurement results show that different attenuation coefficients can be measured, and the coefficients agree well with the values obtained by using conventional OTDR. A 0.6-m resolution is achieved with a data acquisition bandwidth of 200 MHz.