What You Need to Know About OTDR Trace Analysis and Interpretation

Gone are the days of fiber being the domain of backbone capacity. Today, fiber is literally run along the sides of homes, prompting the need for providers to qualify and troubleshoot their fiber-optic networks using tools such as OTDRs. Understanding how to setup, analyze and interpret OTDR traces is critical to reducing OPEX and mean time to restore/recovery (MTTR), because inaccurate assessment could lead to the following problems:

• Inaccurate or inconsistent loss and distance measurements
• Hidden events
• Ghost or fake events
• Merged events