Patent ID: 11885707
Assignee: II-VI DELAWARE, INC.
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 16:
17. The method as defined in claim 16 wherein the step of estimating the optical path length of the optical fiber span utilizes a time-of-flight process including the steps of:
providing a common time clock signal to the near-end OTDR module and the far-end OTDR module;
at a defined start time from the common time clock signal, transmitting an optical probe, operating at a known wavelength, from a light source in the near-end OTDR module along the optical fiber span to a receive component in the far-end OTDR module;
recording an arrival time of the optical probe at the far-end OTDR, based upon the common time clock signal, and defining an elapsed time-of-flight as a time interval between the defined start time and the recorded arrival time; and
using the defined time interval, in combination a constant value of the speed of light, estimating the optical path length as a multiplicative product of the speed of light and the defined time interval.