Exfo Inc.

Stephane Perron

Michel Leclerc

Mario L'Heureux

Eric Thomassin

Michael Simard

Pascal Gosselin-Badaroudine

Kristine Palanjyan

Daniel Gariepy

Robert Baribault

Nicolas Caron

Vincent Racine

Antoine-Alexandre Michaud

Jimmy Gagnon

There is provided a system and a method for assisting a technician in fiber optic cable splices and comprising a pair of test units including an OTDR, an optical switch, a tone generator and a tone detector to automate the splicing process and testing. The test units may be in communication with a wireless portable device used by the splicing technician and controlled therefrom. In one embodiment, the test units are driven by a test orchestrator application (e.g., server-based) to switch fibers, perform continuity tests and/or splice quality tests, triggered by the technician's portable device.

System and method for assisting in fiber optic splices

There are provided methods and systems for testing the continuity of optical fiber links under test and/or a fiber arrangement, polarity or mapping of optical fiber connections within optical devices under test using the backscattering pattern as a signature. The device under test may comprises a single fiber, a duplex link, a multifiber cable or another multi-port device such as a backplane device.

Testing optical fiber link continuity using OTDR backscattering patterns

An optical test instrument, in combination with a removable connector cartridge is provided. A method of replacing a damaged or worn optic fiber interface is also provided. The optical test instrument has casing having a cartridge receiving cavity therein with an inner end provided with a test instrument optical port; and an outer end provided with a cartridge receiving opening. The connector cartridge is sized and configured to be inserted in the cartridge receiving cavity. The connector cartridge has a cartridge inner end for facing the test instrument optical port when in use, and a cartridge outer end for receiving an optic fiber from a device under test (DUT). The connector cartridge houses a fiber optic cable extending between the cartridge inner end and the cartridge outer end. The connector cartridge is removably connectable to the instrument casing to allow replacement of the connector cartridge when the cartridge outer end is worn or damaged.

Optical test instrument with removable cartridge

There are provided methods and systems that enable the use of the backscattering pattern produced by an optical fiber in an OTDR trace as a signature (also referred to herein as the 'RBS fingerprint') to recognize an optical fiber. It was found that it may be difficult to obtain repeatable signatures as those are sensitive to the wavelength of the OTDR laser source and the temperature of the fiber. OTDR methods and systems that are adapted to compare the backscattering pattern in a more repeatable manner are therefore provided. Once the repeatability issue is overcome, such signature can be used for identification purposes and enable new applications.

Optical fiber recognition using backscattering pattern

There is provided a test method and system for characterizing an optical fiber link. At least one OTDR acquisition or at least one OLTS acquisition is performed on the optical fiber link. From the acquisition, a value of an excess insertion loss and/or an excess optical return loss associated with the optical fiber link under test is derived, i.e. in excess of a nominal value associated with a hypothetical optical fiber link having a length corresponding to the total length of the optical fiber link under test. A rating value (e.g., as a five-star rating) or a binary pass/fail value associated with the optical fiber link under test can then be derived and displayed.

Test method for characterizing an optical fiber link

There is provided an OTDR receive device and an OTDR system comprising an OTDR receive device wherein the OTDR unit and the OTDR receive device are to be connected at opposite ends of an optical fiber link under test. The OTDR receive device comprises means for the OTDR system to detect an established connectivity between the OTDR unit and the OTDR receive device via the optical fiber link under test and a status indicator to notify a user of the receive device of the connectivity status and optionally an OTDR measurement status. Connectivity detection allows to check for continuity between the OTDR unit and the OTDR receive device before launching an OTDR measurement. A user of the OTDR unit does not need to communicate with the user of the OTDR receive device to know when to start the acquisition.

OTDR receive device with connectivity feedback

There are provided techniques for characterizing and testing a cable routing connection configuration connection arrangement comprising a plurality of optical fiber links connected between at least a first connection device at a first end and a second multi-fiber connection device at a second end. Test light is injected into one or more of the optical fiber links via corresponding optical fiber ports of the first connection device. At least one image of the second multi-fiber connection device is captured. Test light exiting the optical fiber link(s) through optical fiber port(s) of the second multi-fiber connection device is imaged as light spot(s) in the captured image. Positions on the second multi-fiber connection device that corresponds to the optical fiber port(s) are determined based on a pattern of the light spot(s) in the captured image. In some implementations, the provided techniques allow detection or verification of cable routing connection configurations at multi-fiber distribution panels.

Method and system for multi-link connection testing

There is therefore provided an OTDR method for characterizing an optical fiber link, wherein a receive device comprising a reflective optical signature and a receive fiber is connected at a remote end of the optical fiber link under test. The reflective optical signature is detected using an OTDR acquisition and link continuity is verified. Because detection of the reflective optical signature rely on high-intensity reflective peaks of the reflective optical signature and not on RBS level, dynamic range constraints are relaxed and so is the averaging time. Advantageously, the method may be employed to detect the reflective optical signature, verify link continuity, measure total link length, measure total insertion loss and/or determine a polarity of a multi-fiber array cable link.

OTDR method for end-to-end optical fiber link characterization

There is provided an OTDR method and device for characterizing an optical fiber link. At least a first OTDR acquisition is performed toward the optical fiber link. From the at least one first OTDR acquisition, one or more events are identified along the optical fiber link and a value of at least one characteristic associated with each event is estimated. A second OTDR acquisition is performed toward the optical fiber link in order to target a specific event among the identified events. Values of one or more OTDR acquisition parameters for the second OTDR acquisition are determined such that the OTDR acquisition parameters comprise a second pulse width different from the first pulse width used in the first OTDR acquisition.

OTDR method targeting identified event

There is provided a method, system and computer program for detecting duplicate OTDR measurements performed on a same fiber. It is determined whether OTDR traces are likely to have been acquired over the same optical fiber link by comparing the backscattering pattern associated with a given fiber span along the OTDR traces, which corresponds to a continuous optical fiber section.

Duplicate OTDR measurement detection

Display screen or portion thereof with graphical user interface

There is provided a test device and a test method that combine both tunable OTDR and WDM power meter functionalities into the same integrated optoelectronic test hardware, such that the tunable OTDR and the WDM power meter functions share optoelectronic components, thereby reducing the hardware cost and the overall form factor and weight of the test device. With the proposed configuration, both tunable OTDR and WDM power meter functionalities may be provided via a single test port to be connected to the optical fiber link under test. By connecting the fiber to a single test port, the number of manipulations to be performed by technicians is reduced and two tests can be performed in a single connection operation out of the same test port.

Test device with both OTDR and WDM power meter modes

There is provided an OTDR receive device, an OTDR system comprising an OTDR receive device and an OTDR method wherein the OTDR unit and the OTDR receive device are to be connected at opposite ends of an optical fiber link under test. The OTDR receive device comprises means for the OTDR system to detect an established connectivity between the OTDR unit and the OTDR receive device via the optical fiber link under test and a status indicator to notify a user of the receive device of the connectivity status and optionally an OTDR measurement status. Connectivity detection allows to check for continuity between the OTDR unit and the OTDR receive device before launching an OTDR measurement. A user of the OTDR unit does not need to communicate with the user of the OTDR receive device to know when to start the acquisition.

There is provided a method, system and image capture device for determining a polarity of a multi-fiber cable link comprising a plurality of optical fiber links each connected between a first multi-fiber connector and a second multi-fiber connector, according to said polarity. Test light is injected into one or more of the optical fiber links via corresponding injection ports of the first multi-fiber connector, in accordance with a defined injection pattern; at least one polarity-testing image of the second multi-fiber connector is generated in which test light exiting at least one of the optical fiber links through one or more exit ports of the second multi-fiber connector is imaged as one or more spotlight spots in the polarity-testing image; and the polarity of the multi-fiber cable link is determined based on a pattern of said one or more spotlight spots in said polarity-testing image.

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Stephane Perron