Assessment of Events in Fiber Optics Communication Links

Abstract

As signal (light pulse) travels down fiber optics communication links, the signal strength decreases because of possible presence of some events. Events are instances of disturbance to fiber optics signals which have direct impact on the cumulative loss in any communication link. An Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) was used to locate and characterized these events in fiber optics cables as reflective, non-reflective, and positive events at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH) to Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU). The OTDR used backscatter changes to detect the events in the fiber optics under test and are displayed in OTDR traces. Non-reflective events (caused by splices, macrobends or microbends) were seen to have more impact on the cumulative loss than the reflective events (caused by presence of connectors, mechanical splices, or poor quality splices) and positive events (dreaded gainers) because of their high losses. Therefore, minimizing the number of non-reflective events in fiber optics communication links promises a better and quality fiber optics communication network.