Method for selection of optical fiber and system for inspection of optical fiber

• US 6,943,872 B2
• Filed: 03/25/2003
• Issued: 09/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sumitomo Electric Industries Limited (Sumitomo Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sumitomo Electric Industries Limited (Sumitomo Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Toshiyuki, Nagao, Yoshiaki, Oshima, Toshio, Endo, Shinji
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tu T.
• Application Number:
  US10/395,858
• Publication Number:
  US 20030231297A1
• Time in Patent Office: 903 Days
• Field of Search: 356/73.1, 250/227.14, 250/227.15, 359/337.11, 359/337.12, 398/30, 398/147, 398/193
• US Class Current: 356/73.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 11/3145 Details of the optoelectronics or data analysis

Abstract

An optical fiber inspecting system 1A comprises a waveform measuring unit 2 for measuring an OTDR waveform for an optical fiber F to be inspected and a waveform evaluating unit 3 for evaluating an anomaly within the optical fiber. The waveform evaluating unit 3 comprises a calculating part 4 and a detecting part 5. The calculating part 4 calculates the gradient and the amount of change in gradient of the waveform at each time point. The detecting part 5 determines whether or not the gradient and the amount of change in gradient are within a defined allowable range of gradient and a defined allowable range of amount of change, respectively. This realizes an optical fiber inspecting system, an inspection method and a selecting method, all of which enable to detect reliably an anomaly within an optical fiber through an OTDR waveform.

Claims

1. An optical fiber selecting method for selecting an optical fiber through a use of a waveform of a power of a light beam in the time domain, the light beam being measured by inputting a pulsed light beam to an optical fiber to be selected and detecting the light beam returned from said optical fiber, the method comprising:

an approximated linear line calculating step of determining an approximated linear line for said waveform;

a deviation waveform calculating step of determining a deviation waveform based on a difference between said waveform and said approximated linear line;

a difference value calculating step of determining a first reference value of the maximum or a local maximum of the deviation and a second reference value of the minimum or a local minimum of the deviation for said deviation waveform, and calculating a value of a difference between the first reference value and the second reference value; and

a selecting step of selecting said optical fiber based on a result of a determination, the result of the determination being obtained by determining whether or not a value of a difference meets a specific condition.

2. The optical fiber selecting method according to claim 1, wherein in said difference value calculating step, said deviation waveform is previously divided into plural zones in the time domain and the difference is determined by averaging the difference in each of the plural zones.

3. The optical fiber selecting method according to claim 1, further comprising a dividing point determining step of determining a dividing point, said dividing point being determined such that an anomaly within said optical fiber can be reduced by dividing said optical fiber at said dividing point, in the case that an anomaly within said optical fiber is detected.

4. The optical fiber selecting method according to claim 3, further comprising a waveform dividing step of dividing said waveform at said dividing point, wherein said approximated linear line calculating step, said deviation waveform calculating step, said difference value calculating step and said selecting step are performed for each of waveforms produced by dividing said waveform.

5. The optical fiber selecting method according to claim 1, wherein in said selecting step, a gradient of said waveform at each time point is calculated and whether or not a value of the calculated gradient is within a specific range is determined, and said optical fiber is selected based on the result of the determination.

6. The optical fiber selecting method according to claim 1, wherein in said selecting step, said waveform is divided into plural zones with a specific zone width and a zone approximated linear line is determined for said waveform within each of the plural zones, and whether or not a value of the gradient of said zone approximated linear line is within a specific range is determined, and said optical fiber is selected based on the result of the determination.

7. An optical fiber inspecting system for inspecting an optical fiber through a use of a waveform of a power of a light beam in the time domain, the light beam being measured by inputting a pulsed light beam to an optical fiber to be inspected and detecting the light beam returned from said optical fiber, the system comprising:

approximated linear line calculating means for determining an approximated linear line for said waveform;

deviation waveform calculating means for determining a deviation waveform based on a difference between said waveform and said approximated linear line;

difference value calculating means for determining a first reference value of the maximum or a local maximum of the deviation and a second reference value of the minimum or a local minimum of the deviation for said deviation waveform, and calculating a value of a difference between the first reference value and the second reference value; and

difference value determining means for determining whether or not a value of a difference meets a specific condition.

8. The optical fiber inspecting system according to claim 7, further comprising dividing point determining means for determining a dividing point, said dividing point being determined such that an anomaly within said optical fiber can be reduced by dividing said optical fiber at said dividing point, in the case that an anomaly within said optical fiber is detected.