Outside
Plant Fiber Optics
Lesson 8: Fiber Optic Testing
Objectives: From this lesson you should learn:
What parameters need to be tested
What instruments are used for OSP fiber optic testing
How to perform basic fiber optic testing
Advanced testing for long OSP links
Measurement uncertainty in fiber optic testing
How to troubleshoot problems
This lesson, another extensive one, is on fiber optic
testing, an important subject. After all fiber optic
cables are installed, spliced and terminated, they must be
tested. For every fiber optic cable plant, you generally
need to test for continuity and polarity, end-to-end
insertion loss, verify installation with an OTDR and then
troubleshoot any problems on every fiber in every cable.
If it’s a long outside plant cable with intermediate
splices, you will want to verify the individual splices
with an OTDR test, since that’s the only way to ensure
that each splice is good.
Long distance, high speed links require testing for
spectral attenuation, chromatic dispersion and
polarization mode dispersion. Links where DWDM or CWDM are
used need spectral attenuation testing. These tests, plus
insertion loss and OTDR testing are called "Fiber
Characterization." Videos and links to fiber
characterization are included in this lesson.
If you are the network user, you may also be interested in
testing transmitter and receiver power, as power is the
measurement that tells you whether the system is operating
properly.
Testing involves visual inspection of terminations with a
microscope, tracing fibers visually and finding faults,
measuring optical power and loss with power meters and
light sources, testing with OTDRs and testers for special
issues in long distance links. With this lesson, it's
important to learn what needs testing and why, what are
the potential errors involved in the tests and where
certain tests are appropriate.
Student Assignment:
Watch the videos, read the references and take the quizzes
(Test Your Comprehension)
FOA YouTube Videos
FOA
Lecture 12: Fiber Optic Testing Overview
FOA
Lecture 13: Testing Fiber Visually
FOA
Lecture 14: Testing Optical Power
FOA
Lecture 15: Five Ways To Test Fiber Optic Cable Plants
FOA
Lecture 16: Insertion Loss Testing
FOA
Lecture 17: OTDR Testing
FOA
Lecture 18: OTDR Setup
FOA
Lecture 19: OTDR Measurement Uncertainty
FOA
Lecture 20: Other Fiber Optic Tests
FOA
Lecture 21: Visual Fault Locator Demonstration
FOA
Lecture 28, Fiber Characterization
Online FOA Reference:
Fiber
Optic Testing
Cleaning
and Inspecting Connectors Before Testing
Fiber
Optic Test Instruments
Visual
tracing & fault location
Microscope
Inspection of Connectors
Measuring
Optical Power, Units of Measure (dB, dBm)
Installed
Cable Plant Testing (OFSTP-14) Virtual
Hands-On: Insertion
loss testing, What
Loss Should You Expect?
Patchcord
or Single Cable Testing (FOTP-171)
Data
Link or Network Testing
OTDR
testing Virtual Hands-On: Using
an OTDR, Reading
An OTDR Trace
- 5
different Ways To Test Fiber Optic Cables
According To International Standards
Differences
in OTDR and insertion loss measurements
Fiber
Characterization For Long-haul Networks
Book Chapter:
FOA
Reference Guide to Outside Plant Fiber Optics,
Chapter 8
Optional
- Basic Skills Lab (do-it-yourself "hands-on" lab)
Test Your Knowledge:
Extra Credit Reading
Metrology
(The Science of Measurements) And Fiber Optics
Reference
Cables
Special
Applications/Hybrid Cables
Mismatched
Multimode Fiber Losses
Testing
cables with different types of connectors.
Loss
by Cable Substitution - when other methods will not
work
Connector
and Splice Loss Testing (FOTP-34)
Testing
long haul networks (CD, PMD, Spectral Attenuation)
FAQs
on Fiber Optic Testing
Testing
FTTH
Testing
PON Splitters and Couplers
Next: Lesson
9: Fiber Optic Network Design
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to Lesson Plan
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