Fiber Optic Testing | Fiber Optic Test and Measurement
This page on fiber optic testing covers various types of testing related to fiber optic communication link.
Fiber optic communication system consists of transmitter part, fiber optic cable as transmission medium and receiver part. Transmitter part will have LED (Light Emitting Diode) which converts digital binary data into light waves. Receiver part will have photo diode or detector which converts light waves into digital binary data. Coder and decoder is interfaced when needed.
Fiber optic communication has several benefits over other transmission methods e.g.
copper and data communication etc.
• Signal can be transmitted to longer distances(about 200 Km) without the need of
re-generation.
• The transmission is unaffected from any Electro-Magnetic Perturbations or RF interferences.
• Fiber optic cable has higher capacity compare to copper or coaxial cables.
• Fiber optic cable is lighter and smaller compare to copper cable.
• Optical fiber is not sensitive to any kind of vibrations.
• Optical fiber is reliable.
There various factors which affect light transmission in Fibre optic communication system➤.
They are attenuation, Bandwidth and dispersion.
Attenuation:As light travels from transmit end to receive end, it loses optical power due to absorption,
scattering and radiation losses. Sometimes it becomes difficult to recognize and decode the optical signal
due to presence of noise.
Bandwidth:As we know light signal is composed of different frequencies. Hence fiber will have both upper and
lower frequencies which will limit the information carrying capacity of the optical fiber cable.
Dispersion:When light signal traverses fiber , pulses of light waves will get spread and hence will limit
the information carrying capacity at high bit rates or transmission over long distances.
While analyzing fiber optic cable, series of measurements are being performed.
These include following tests:
• 1. Mechanical Tests
• 2. Geometrical Tests
• 3. Optical Tests
• 4. Transmission Tests
The first of the three measurements listed above are measured just once as there will be very minor variations in the measurement results over the lifetime of the fiber optic cable.
| Mechanical Tests | Geometrical Tests | Optical Tests | Transmission Tests |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traction Torsion Bending Temperature |
Concentricity Cylindricity Core Diameter Cladding Diameter |
Index Profile Numerical Aperture Spot Size |
Bandwidth Optical Power Optical Loss Optical Return Loss Reflectometry Chromatic Dispersion Polarization Mode Dispersion Attenuation Profile |
Reference: ITU-T G650 EN 188 000 Fiber Optic Testing and test procedure
Fiber Optic Related Links
DWDM system basics Fibre optic communication Types of WDM PDH versus SDH SONET versus SDH What is PDMA? What is WDM? SONET SDH tutorial SDH Networks SDH Frame structure SDH Modulation PDH over SONET PDH Frame structure Optical Components
Test and Measurement Equipments
This section covers test and measurement equipments for WLAN, WiMAX, zigbee, Bluetooth, GSM, UMTS, LTE and more standard based device
testing.
It covers spectrum analyzer, VSG, VSA, frequency counter, protocol analyzer, AWG, digitizer, function generator, pulse generator,
RF network analyzer, power meter, logic analyzer and more.
Test and Measurement Equipments
BER Testing equipments
Agilent T & M Solutions
Anritsu T & M Solutions
Rohde & Schwarz T & M solutions
wireless channel emulator
Vector signal generator
Vector signal analyzer
Power Analyzer Equipments
Protocol Analyzer