By

Demissie Jobir Gelmecha (PhD.) 1

02/20/25
 Chapter 7: Optical Fiber Performance Measurement

7.1 Optical Power Measurements

7.2 Optical Fiber Characterization

7.3 Eye Diagram Tests

7.4 Optical Time Domain Reflectometer

7.5 Optical Fiber System Performance

Measurements
7.1 Optical Power Measurements
 The power meter by itself can be use
to measure source power
 With a source, it can measure the loss
of a cable plant, called insertion loss Image from
lanshack.com
 Most power measurements are in the
range +10 dBm to -40 dBm
 Analog CATV (cable TV) or DWDM (Dense
Wavelength Division Multiplexing) systems
can have power up to +30 dBm (1 watt)
Wavelengths
 Power meters are calibrated at three standard
wavelengths
 850 nm, 1300 nm, 1550 nm

 Typical measurement uncertainty is 5% (0.2 dB)

Sources
• Sources are either LED or laser
– 665 nm for plastic optical fiber
– 850 nm or 1300 nm for multimode
– 1310 nm or 1550 nm for singlemode
• Test your system with a source similar to the
one that will be actually used to send data
Optical Loss Test Set
 Power meter and source in a
single unit
 Normally used in pairs
 Automated, more complex and expensive
than the combination of a source and a
power meter

Rare in field testing

Image from
aflfiber.com
7.2 Optical Fiber Characterization
 Many millions of kilometers of optical fibers have been
fabricated and installed worldwide.

 Various types of equipment for factory use have been

developed to characterize the physical and
performance parameters of these fibers.

 Whereas early equipment tended to specialize on

measuring only one or two parameters, modern cutting-
edge instruments require only one simple fiber
preparation to characterize optical fibers accurately
during the manufacturing process.
 The variation in the detected optical signal level is
proportional to the index change at the fiber end face.

 The RIP parameter can be used to calculate the

geometrical parameters of a fiber and to estimate all
transmission properties

 e.g., chromatic dispersion and the cut-off wavelength)

except attenuation and polarization-mode dispersion.
7.2.2 Transmitted Near-Field Technique


The transmitted near-field measurement method is

recommended by the ITU-T and TIA for measuring
mode-field characteristics. 8
 The manufacturer is generally interested in the
magnitude of the individual contributions to attenuation,
whereas the system engineer who uses the fiber is more
concerned with the total transmission loss of the fiber.
 Here we treat only measurement techniques for total
transmission loss.
 Many methods are available for determining attenuation
in fibers.
 The earliest devised and most common approach
involves measuring the optical power transmitted
through a long and a short length of the same fiber
using identical input couplings. This method is known as
the cutback technique.
 A less accurate but nondestructive method is the
insertion-loss method, which is useful for cables with
connectors on them. 9


 The mode-field diameter (MFD) is important because it
describes the radial optical field distribution across the fiber
core.

 Detailed information of the MFD enables one to calculate

characteristics such as source-to-fiber coupling efficiency,
splice and joint losses, microbending loss, and dispersion.

 A transmitted near-field scan directly provides the intensity

distribution.

6.2.3 Attenuation Measurements

• Attenuation of optical power in a fiber waveguide is a
result of absorption processes, scattering 10

mechanisms, and waveguide effects.

7.3 Eye Diagrams
 The eye diagram is powerful measurement
tool for assessing the data handling ability of
a digital transmission system.

 It is used extensively for evaluating the

performance of wireline systems and also applies
to optical fiber data links.
Eye Pattern
Features
 The eye pattern measurements are made in the time
domain and allow the effects of waveform distortion to
be shown immediately on the display screen of
standard BER test equipment.
Width of the eye opening:
 It defines the time interval over which the received
signal can be sampled without error due to interference
from the adjacent pulses (ISI).
 The best time to sample the received waveform is when
the height of the eye opening is largest. The more the
eye closes, the more difficult it is to distinguish
between ones and zeros in the signal.
Eye Pattern
Features
Height of the eye opening:
• The height of the eye opening at the specified
sampling time shows the noise margin or immunity to
the noise.
Noise margin:
 It is the percentage ratio of peak signal voltage V1 for an
alternating bit sequence to the maximum signal voltage
V2 as measured from the threshold level.

• Noise margin (percent) = V1 / V2 x 100 percent

Eye Pattern
Features
Timing errors:
 The rate at which the eye closes as the sampling
time is varied (i.e the slope of the eye pattern sides)
determines the sensitivity of the system to timing
errors.
 The possibility of timing errors increases as the slop
becomes more horizontal
Timing Jitter:
 It is also referred to as edge jitter or phase distortion. It
arises from the
 noise in the receiver and pulse distortion in the optical
fiber.
 Causes: Bit errors, produce uncertainties in clock timing,
receiver can lose synchronization with the incoming bit
stream thereby incorrectly interpreting logic 1and 0
• The amount of distortion ∆T at the threshold level
indicates the amount of jitter.

• Timing jitter (percent) = ∆ T/Tb x 100 percent

Rise Time
 It is defined as the time interval between the points where
the rising edge of the signal reaches 10 percent of its
final amplitude to the time where it reaches 90 percent of
its final amplitude.
 Conversion from 20 to 80 percent rise time to 10 – 90
percent rise time. Approximately

T 10-90 = 1.25 x T 20- 80

EYE
Diagram

 General configuration of an eye diagram showing the definitions of

fundamental measurement parameters
Simplified eye
diagram

Simplified eye diagram showing the key performance

parameters
7.4 Optical Time-Domain Reflectometer
(OTDR)
• An optical time-domain reflectometer
(OTDR) is a versatile portable instrument
that is used widely to evaluate the
characteristics of an installed optical fiber
link. • The Figure
shows a portable
• In addition to identifying and locating OTDR for
faults or anomalies within a link, this making
instrument measures parameters such as measurements
in the field.
fiber attenuation, length, optical
• connector
An OTDR isand splice losses,
fundamentally anand lightradar.
optical
• reflectance
As shown inlevels.
Fig. above the OTDR operates by
periodically launching narrow laser pulses into one end
of a fiber under test by using either a directional
coupler or a circulator.
• The properties of the optical fiber link then are
determined by analyzing the amplitude and temporal
OTDR Display

Dead
zone
7.5 Optical Fiber System Performance
Measurements
 The evolution of optical fiber communication technology has

resulted in highly reliable telecom transmission systems for

applications that include high-capacity long-distance links and
optical metro, access, and in-building networks.

 A wide variety of communication protocols, data modulation

formats, performance monitoring techniques, and
performance testing methods have been devised to keep
these systems running smoothly and reliably.

 The major measurement methods include the bit-error rate

(BER), the optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR), the Q factor,
timing jitter, and the optical modulation amplitude.
20


7.5.1 Bit-Error Rate Testing

21
7.2.2 Optical Signal to Noise Ratio (OSNR)

Where
S represents the (linear) optical signal power and
N is the (linear) optical noise power

Optical Signal to Noise Ratio (OSNR) [dB] is the measure of

the ratio of signal power to noise power in an optical channel.
• OSNR is important because
Optical Signal WHY ittosuggests a degree of
NoiseOSNR?
impairment when Ratio (OSNR)
the optical signal is carried by an
optical transmission system that includes optical
amplifiers.
Optical signal suffers more than only attenuation. In
amplitude, spectrally, temporally signal interaction with
light- matter, light- light, light-matter-light leads to
other signal disturbances such as: Power reduction,
Dispersion
Polarization, Unbalanced amplification
Thus leading to random noise, which causes
misalignments, jitter and other disturbances resulting in
• Because of all possible influences outlined bits
OpticalBit Error
Signal Rate(OSNR)
SignalRatio
to Noise to
transmitted by source and bits arriving at the receiver
may not have theProbability
Noise same value.Ratio (OSNR)
In actuality a threshold value is set at the receiver,
above the threshold refers to a logic “one” and below
threshold refers to a logic “zero”.

• In order to measure BER in photonic regime, the optical

signal is converted to electrical signal.

• Example: Assuming a confidence level of 99%, BER

threshold set at 10-10 and a bit rate of 2.5 Gb/s the required
number n is 6.64 x 1010
Co-relation between OSNR and BER

Given the OSNR, the empirical formula to calculate BER

for single fiber is
Log10 (BER) = 10.7-1.45 (OSNR)
Example:

Assume that OSNR = 14.5 dB

ThenLog10 (BER) = 10.7-1.45 (14.5) = -10.30

Therefore BER = 10(-10.30) BER is approx 10-10

7.5.3 The Q factor and BER
Thank You