Optical frequency multiplexing coherent OTDR, testing method, signal processing device, and program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11385127-B2
Application number	US-201917252311-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 12, 2019
Priority date	Jun 20, 2018
Publication date	Jul 12, 2022
Grant date	Jul 12, 2022

Abstract

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a frequency division multiplexing coherent OTDR, a test method, a signal processing apparatus, and a program that can maintain, even in a case where a DFB laser is used, a spatial resolution equivalent to a spatial resolution achieved when a fiber laser or an external resonant laser is used. An OTDR according to the present disclosure includes a light incidence unit configured to change an optical frequency of light from a light source by a predetermined frequency interval at a predetermined time interval to generate test light pulses and cause the test light pulses to sequentially enter a fiber under test, a light reception unit configured to use the light from the light source as local light to coherently detect backscattered light from the fiber under test to acquire a received signal, and a computation unit configured to separate the received signal into signals with frequencies obtained by changing the optical frequency by the predetermined frequency interval, square amplitudes of the signals resulting from frequency separation to generate square values, perform Wiener filter processing on the square values, compensate values resulting from the Wiener filter processing for delay time when the test light pulses are caused to enter the fiber under test, and calculate an arithmetic mean of the compensated values.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A frequency division multiplexing coherent Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) comprising:
a light incidence unit configured to change an optical frequency of light from a light source by a predetermined frequency interval at a predetermined time interval to generate test light pulses and cause the test light pulses to sequentially enter a fiber under test;
a light reception unit configured to use the light from the light source as local light to coherently detect backscattered light from the fiber under test to acquire a received signal; and
a computation unit configured to separate the received signal into signals with frequencies obtained by changing the optical frequency by the predetermined frequency interval, square amplitudes of the signals resulting from frequency separation to generate square values, perform Wiener filter processing on the square values, compensate values resulting from the Wiener filter processing for delay time when the test light pulses are caused to enter the fiber under test, and calculate an arithmetic mean of the compensated values.

2. The frequency division multiplexing coherent OTDR according to claim 1 , wherein
the Wiener filter processing is processing of performing inverse Fourier transform on a value obtained by multiplying a square value of the square values resulting from Fourier transform by a value obtained by dividing a complex conjugate of a frequency spectrum of the light source resulting from Fourier transform by a value obtained by adding any value to a second power of the frequency spectrum of the light source resulting from Fourier transform.

3. The frequency division multiplexing coherent OTDR according to claim 1 , wherein
the light incidence unit superimposes, on each of the test light pulses, dummy light having a wavelength different from a wavelength of the light from the light source.

4. A test method executed by a frequency division multiplexing coherent OTDR, the test method comprising:
changing an optical frequency of light from a light source by a predetermined frequency interval at a predetermined time interval to generate test light pulses and causing the test light pulses to sequentially enter a fiber under test;
using the light from the light source as local light to coherently detect backscattered light from the fiber under test to acquire a received signal; and
separating the received signal into signals with frequencies obtained by changing the optical frequency by the predetermined frequency interval, squaring amplitudes of the signals resulting from frequency separation to generate square values, performing Wiener filter processing on the square values, compensating values resulting from the Wiener filter processing for delay time when the test light pulses are caused to enter the fiber under test, and calculating an arithmetic mean of the compensated values.

5. The test method according to claim 4 , wherein
the Wiener filter processing is processing of performing inverse Fourier transform on a value obtained by multiplying a square value of the square values resulting from Fourier transform by a value obtained by dividing a complex conjugate of a frequency spectrum of the light source resulting from Fourier transform by a value obtained by adding any value to a second power of the frequency spectrum of the light source resulting from Fourier transform.

6. A frequency division multiplexing coherent OTDR comprising:
a light incidence unit configured to change an optical frequency of light from a light source by a predetermined frequency interval at a predetermined time interval to generate test light pulses and cause the test light pulses to sequentially enter a fiber under test,
a light reception unit configured to use the light from the light source as local light to coherently detect backscattered light from the fiber under test to acquire a received signal,
a computer processor; and a recording medium having a computer program recorded thereon, when executed by the computer processor, performs:
separating the received signal into signals with frequencies obtained by changing the optical frequency by the predetermined frequency interval, squaring amplitudes of the signals resulting from frequency separation to generate square values, performing Wiener filter processing on the square values, compensating values resulting from the Wiener filter processing for delay time when the test light pulses are caused to enter the fiber under test, and calculating an arithmetic mean of the compensated values.

7. The frequency division multiplexing coherent OTDR according to claim 6 , wherein
the Wiener filter processing is processing of performing inverse Fourier transform on a value obtained by multiplying a square value of the square values resulting from Fourier transform by a value obtained by dividing a complex conjugate of a frequency spectrum of the light source resulting from Fourier transform by a value obtained by adding any value to a second power of the frequency spectrum of the light source resulting from Fourier transform.

Assignees

• Nippon Telegraph & Telephone

Inventors

• Iida Hiroyuki
• Manabe Tetsuya
• Koshikiya Yusuke
• Hirota Hidenobu
• Uematsu Takui

Classifications

• H04B10/071

  using a reflected signal, e.g. using optical time domain reflectometers [OTDR] · CPC title

• G01M11/3145

  Details of the optoelectronics or data analysis · CPC title

• G01M11/3109 Primary

  Reflectometers detecting the back-scattered light in the time-domain, e.g. OTDR · CPC title

• G01M11/3127 Primary

  using multiple or wavelength variable input source · CPC title