METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING OPTICAL TIME DOMAIN REFLECTOMETRY

Abstract: In a method and a corresponding apparatus for performing optical time domain reflectometry predetermined time sequences of light signals (A′, B′) are injected into an optical fiber and the signals backscattered from the fiber are correlated with the injected sequences. The injected time sequences are selected according to a specific code such that after each element in the code represented by "1" or "-1" a predeter­ mined number of elements represented by "0" is provided. Depending on the number of inserted "0"s after each "1" or "-1" sidelobes in the correlation product appear at certain predictable positions. By choosing the numbers of inserted "0"s differently for different injections, the resulting sidelobes appear at different positions in the cor­ responding correlation products. From the correlation products of such different in­ jections, a composite fiber response can be derived wherein sidelobes are substantially eliminated. The codes used can be derived, for example, from Golay complementary codes.

Description: The invention relates to a method and a corresponding apparatus for performing optical time domain reflectometry according to the preamble of claim 1. Such a method can be used in optical fiber testing to determine faults and losses in a fiber under test. A method and a corresponding apparatus as in the preamble of claim 1 are known from EP-A-0 269 448 . According to the known optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR), sequences of light pulses are injected into an optical fiber and the backscattered light pulses are correlated with the injected sequences of light pulses to generate a representation of the amplitude of the backscattered signal as a function of the time elapsed since the injection of the sequence or as a function of the distance from the input end of the fiber. The pulse sequences injected into the fiber are, for example, complementary pseudorandom sequences such as sequences in accordance with Golay codes. A pair of complementary sequences A and B has the property that the autocorrelation product of A has sidelobes which are complementary to the sidelobes of the autocorrelation product of B, i.e., sidelobes which are located at the same point in the time spectrum and which have amplitudes of equal magnitudes, respectively, but of opposite sign. Consequently, if the correlation products corresponding to the complementary sequences are superposed, the sidelobes cancel, and there remains only a signal originating from actual reflections in the fiber. Ideally, the superposed correlation products of the injected complementary pulse sequences with the signals reflected from a distinct reflection location in the fiber such as a fracture, is a single sharp peak, a so-called delta function. The use of complementary pulse sequences provides a better signal-to-noise ratio than conventional reflectometry wherein only a single pulse is injected into the fiber and the reflection of this particular pulse is detected. In practice, the sidelobe cancellation is not perfect because of the non-ideal characteristics of the signal processing circuitry. For example, saturation of electronic components such as receiver or analog-to-digital converter due to strong power levels of the reflected signal can lead to non-linearities which destroy the complementary nature of the correlation products. As a consequence thereof, correlation sidelobes may appear on the measured backscattering curve that are large enough to distort or even mask a large reflection peak. Relative to the prior art, the invention according to claim 1 or 8 solves the problem to provide a method and a corresponding apparatus for performing optical time domain reflectometry on a light transmitting medium according to the preamble of claim 1 or 8 which avoids the disadvantages caused by the mentioned non-linearities. According to an underlying principle of the invention, at least two different time sequences of light signals are injected into the light transmitting medium and afterwards correlated with the corresponding reflected signals from the medium, respectively. The different injected time sequences can be described as being derived from a common basic sequence by insertion of a predetermined number of light signals of zero power level after each light signal of the basic sequence. Stated in other words, if the basic sequence is represented by a sequence of "+1" and "-1" , the injected time sequences can be described as being derived from the basic sequence by insertion of a predetermined number of "0"s after each "+1" or "-1". The different injected time sequences differ from each other by the number of light signals inserted after each light signal of the basic sequence, i.e., by the number of "0"s inserted after each "+1" or "-1". Thus, a first injected sequence according to the invention is obtained by inserting a first number m of "0"s after each of the "+1" and "-1" of the basic sequence, and a second injected sequence is obtained by inserting a second number n of "0"s after each of the "+1" and "-1" of the basic sequence. The insertion of a predetermined number of light signals of zero power level has the important effect that sidelobes in the correlation result of the backscattered with the injected sequences appear at well-defined, predictable positions whereas other positions are free of sidelobes. By selecting different numbers of inserted light signals for different injections of sequences of light signals, the sidelobe positions in the backscatter spectrum can be varied. Thus, if a data value obtained during a first injection is obscured by a sidelobe, the true sample value which is unaffected by sidelobes can be obtained by injecting a second sequence with a different number of inserted light signals such that the resulting sidelobe is not at the position of the sample value. In that way, a backscatter spectrum can be composed which is substantially free of sidelobes. According to an embodiment of the invention, the time sequences of light signals injected into the light transmitting medium are derived from complementary sequences, for example from Golay complementary sequences or generally from pseudorandom sequences. The sequences according to the invention can be understood as modified conventional sequences, whereby the modification relative to conventional Golay or pseudorandom sequences consists in that a predetermined number of light signals of zero power level is inserted after each light signal of the conventional sequence. For obtaining a fiber response curve which permits to determine faults and losses, the backscattered sequences of light signals are correlated with the injected sequences. According to an embodiment of the invention, the overlapping of sidelobes for different injections is avoided by proper selection of the number of inserted "0"s. The number of inserted "0"s increased by one, subsequently called the "extension factor", for a first injection and the extension factor for a second injection are chosen to be prime relative to each other, i.e., non-divisible by each other. By this selection of extension factors, sidelobe overlap is not possible. Subsequently, an embodiment of the invention is explained in detail with reference to the drawings: Figure 1 is a block diagram of an apparatus for performing optical time domain reflectometry according to an embodiment of the invention. Figure 2 shows two complementary Golay code sequences A and B as they are used in the prior art. Figure 3 illustrates the incomplete cancellation of sidelobes due to non-linear behaviour in the prior art. Figure 4 shows modified complementary Golay code sequences A' and B' according to an embodiment of the invention. Figure 5a shows the fiber response curve for injection of a single pulse. Figure 5b shows the fiber response curve for injection of modified sequences according to the invention. Figure 6 shows an example of a fiber response curve with peaks corresponding to strong reflections and associated sidelobes. Figures 7a and 7b illustrate the substitution of data values at sidelobe positions if no peaks corresponding to a reflection are adjacent. Figures 8a and 8b illustrate the substitution of data values at side lobe positions if a peak corresponding to a reflection is adjacent. Figure 9 shows the fiber response curve after substitution of data values at sidelobe positions. Figure 1 schematically depicts an OTDR according to the invention and an optical fiber 10 under test coupled to the OTDR by an optical coupler 9. The OTDR comprises a timing control circuit 1 which provides timing signals to a word generator 2, to an A/D converter 3 , to an averaging circuit 4, to a signal processor 5 , and to a display circuit 6. In response to a signal from the timing control circuit 1, the word generator 2 provides a modified complementary code sequence to a pulse driver 7. Further details of the modified complementary code sequence are explained below with reference to Figure 4. The electrical pulses provided by the pulse driver 7 are supplied to a light source 8 , for example a laser, for controlling the light output of the light source in accordance with the sequence of electrical pulses. The sequence of light pulses emitted by the laser 8 is injected via a wavebridge 9 such as a 3 dB coupler to an input end 10 of the optical fiber 11 under test. Each launched sequence of light pulses produces a return signal in the optical fiber which is transmitted through the coupler 9 to a detector 12 which converts the impinging light signals into electrical signals. These electrical signals are amplified in a receiver 13 which also acts as an input buffer for a subsequent analog-to-digital converter 3. The output signal of the receiver 13 is digitized by the A/D converter 3 and the digitized signals are then supplied to an averaging circuit 4. In the averaging circuit 4 , the return signals from successive injections of sequences of light signals are added as digital data in order to average the return signals of these successive injections. In that way, the signal-to-noise ratio of the test result is improved. The averaged results are provided to a signal processor 5 that extracts the fiber impulse response by correlating the return signals with the injected sequences. Further details of this procedure are explained below. The impulse response is then displayed on an output display device 6, for example a CRT. In the following, the correlation method for generating the impulse response is explained in more detail. For this purpose, some general explanations regarding optical time domain reflectometry using complementary sequences are given first. The sequences injected into a fiber under test can be described as sequences of "1"s and "-1"s or as digital words having a predetermined number of bits. The number of bits will subsequently be denoted as L. In the following, two complementary Golay code sequences having a length of L bits, respectively, are designated as A (n) and B (n). The argument n indicates that the impulse response is measured at discrete points in time t = n·T A , whereby n is any of the numbers 0, 1, 2, ..., and T A is the sampling period. Strictly speaking, the notation for a sequence should be A (n·T A ) , but in the following the abbreviated notation A (n) will be used. The term "complementary" means that the following relationship applies: whereby denotes correlation of two sequences , δ is the delta function, i.e. a sharp peak. The signal backscattered from a fiber in response to an injected signal is a convolution between the injected signal and the fiber impulse response h(n) which can also be denoted as single pulse return function. When two complementary sequences A(n) and B(n) are injected into a fiber, the backscattered signals S A (n) and S B (n) which are detected are a convolution (denoted by the symbol * ) of the fiber impulse response h(n) and the injected sequences, respectively, i.e., the following equations apply: S A (n) = h(n) * A(n) (2a) S B (n) = h(n) * B(n) (2b) Correlation of equation (2a) with A(n) and of equation (2b) with B(n) and addition of the two intermediate results yields: Due to the distributive and associative properties of convolution and correlation the parentheses can be regrouped so that equation (3) can be rewritten as Using the autocorrelation property according to equation (1), the final result is then y(n) = h(n) * 2L δ(n) = 2L·h(n) (5) As can be seen from equation (5) the reconstructed response is 2L times larger than the response to a digital impulse. From this it becomes clear that reflectometry using sequences of injected light signals with subsequent correlation of the backscattered signals leads to an improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio as compared with single pulse reflectometry without impairing the resolution. The foregoing considerations regarding the sequences A(n) and B(n) use an abbreviated notation for these sequences. In practice, since there are no negative light power levels, i.e., a "-1" cannot be realized by light signals, the sequences are split up in two subsequences, respectively. The two subsequences for the A sequence are designated as A⁺ and A⁻ ,whereby A⁺ is obtained from A by replacing all the "-1"s in A by "0"s and leaving all "1"s unchanged. The subsequence A⁻ is the logical complement of the subsequence A⁺ , i.e., a "1" in the sequence A⁺ corresponds to a "0" in the subsequence A⁻ and vice versa. Thus, the equation applies: A = A⁺ - A⁻ . The sequence B is correspondingly split up into two subsequences B⁺ and B⁻ such that B⁻ is the logical complement of B⁺ and the equation applies: B = B⁺ - B⁻ . In a practical measurement situation, the sequences A⁺ and A⁻ are successively injected into the fiber under test and the measured backscatter signals are h(n) * A⁺(n) and h(n) * A⁻ (n) , respectively. These two expressions are then subtracted from each other to yield the backscatter signal S A (n) (see the above equation (2a)) for the whole sequence A(n): S A (n) = h(n) * A(n) = A⁺(n) * h(n) - A⁻(n) * h(n). Similarly, the sequences B⁺ and B⁻ are successively injected into the fiber and for the backscatter signal S B (n) (see the above equation (2b)), the following applies: S B (n) = h(n) * B(n) = B⁺(n) * h(n) - B⁻(n) * h(n). The splitting-up of the sequences A and B in subsequences A⁺, A⁻ and B⁺ , B⁻ is per se known in optical time reflectometry, for example from the above mentioned document EP-A-0 269 448 (see in this document, for example, Figure 8 with accompanying description). In the following, the abbreviated notations A(n) and B(n) for injected sequences will be used, but it is understood that these sequences can be split up in two subsequences, respectively, as described before. The above considerations resulting in equations (5) are valid for ideal systems which have a linear behaviour. In real measurement situations, however, the OTDR can be confronted with an extremely wide range of optical power levels due to strong reflections so that the receiver has difficulties to stay within its range of linear operation. Furthermore, all analog circuitry, such as laser driver, receiver, buffer-amplifier and analog-to-digital converter always have slightly non-linear behaviour. In order to illustrate such non-linear, behaviour reference is made to Figures 2 and 3 where two complementary Golay code sequences A and B and the resulting summed autocorrelation functions are shown. The complementary sequences A and B in Figure 2 have a code length of L=8 bits. The sequences shown are thus be represented by the following codes: Sequence A: 1, 1, 1, -1, 1, 1, -1, 1 Sequence B: 1, 1, 1, -1, -1, -1, 1, -1 The corresponding subsequences would thus be, according to the mentioned construction principle: A⁺: 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1 A⁻ : 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0 B⁺ : 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0 B⁻ : 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1 Figure 3 illustrates the incomplete cancellation of sidelobes because of non-linearities. It can be seen that the peak at position 0 is surrounded by sidelobes at positions up to L-1 points apart to the left and to the right. As a consequence thereof, a measured signal will be distorted in the neighbourhood of strong reflections. These distortions are substantially eliminated by the present invention. The basic step to overcome the sidelobe problems is now explained with reference to Figure 4. The basic idea according to the invention is to modify the conventional code sequences such as the sequences A and B in Figure 2 by inserting a predetermined number of zero bits between each pair of bits in the sequences A and B. In the example shown in Figure 4, three additional bits are inserted such that the modified code sequences A' and B' have the following form: Sequence A': 1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0, -1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0, -1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0 Sequence B': 1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0, -1,0,0,0, -1,0,0,0, -1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0, -1,0,0,0 In Figure 4, some of the elements ("1" , "-1" , "0") of the injected sequence A' are indicated. It can also be seen from Figure 4 which depicts the time sequence of injected signals, that the duration of an inserted "0" signal corresponds to the duration of the "1" or "-1" signals. Since three "0" signals are inserted in the example shown, the time interval during which "0" signal is applied is three times as long as the time interval during which a single "1" or "-1" signal is applied. In practice, the modified sequences are also split up in two subsequences, respectively, which are successively injected into the fiber under test as described above. The subsequences are formed from the modified sequences A' and B' according to the above construction principle (replacing "-1" by "0" to obtain A⁺ , and forming the complement of A⁺ to obtain A⁻) with the understanding that the inserted "0 s" remain unaffected by these two transformations. In other words, the subsequences for the modified sequences A' and B' are obtained by inserting the predetermined number of zero bits between each two bits of the subsequences A⁺ , A⁻ , B⁺ , B⁻ of the unmodified sequences A and B. To give a practical example, the subsequences for the modified sequences A' and B' in the above example are as follows: A'⁺: 1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0 A'⁻ : 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0 B'⁺ : 1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0 B'⁻ : 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0 Generally, the number of zero bits inserted between each pair of bits in a conventional sequence is X-1 , whereby X is an integer greater than 1 and is called "extension factor". The modified code sequences A' and B' thus have lengths of L=X L . In the example shown in Figure 4, L is 8 and X is 4. The calculated sum of the autocorrelation functions A' A' and B' B' now has the important property that sidelobes can only appear at positions which are given by the relations: SP = PP ± i X ; with i = 1,2,3, ... , L-1 (6) whereby SP means sidelobe position and PP means peak position. Stated in other words, equation (6) means that all sample values which are positioned a distance of +/- D apart from the peak position can never be distorted by sidelobes, whereby D is given by the relationship: This property of the modified sequences of the invention permits to generate fiber response curves with sidelobes located at well-defined positions and the variation of the extension factor X in successive measurements permits to generate different response curves wherein the sidelobes are at different locations, respectively, and the peaks caused by actual reflections in the fiber are at the same locations, respectively. The property expressed in equation (7) can be proved by considering the autocorrelation of the modified sequence x k with The autocorrelation z k is defined as The term z k can only be unequal to zero for k =±i·X , i=0,1, ... , L-1 . In order to reduce computation time it is sufficient to calculate only the terms of the autocorrelation z k which are not zero. Consequently, the index m in equation (9) could be incremented in steps of X. According to the invention, modified code sequences are injected into an optical fiber, the return signal is measured and the sum of the individual autocorrelations is computed according to equations (3) - (5). Then, one or several post-processing procedures are employed to get a final result without disturbance either by sidelobes due to inherent non-linearities in analog circuitry nor by sidelobes due to saturation of any circuit block. Three post-processing procedures are described in the following. Procedure I According to this procedure, the fiber is successively probed with modified code sequences A ' / i and B ' / i with different extension factors X i , i.e. the number of zero bits inserted is different for different injections. The individual correlated results are then summed up to generate a final result y F . The final result y F can be written as : whereby, using equation (4), the following relationship applies: As explained above, the expresssions A i ' and B i ' are abbreviated notations. It applies: In this final result, the magnitudes of the sidelobes are reduced relative to magnitudes of the peaks caused by reflections in the fiber as compared to the invidual correlated results since the peak positions remain the same for different injections whereas the sidelobe positions vary from injection to injection in accordance with the varying extension factors. In that way, the peak-to-sidelobe ration is virtually increased. It might happen that the sidelobe positions of successive measurements overlap, i.e. that a sidelobe of a measurement with a first extension factor occurs at the same location as another sidelobe of a measurement with a second extension factor. Such overlap of sidelobes can be avoided by proper selection of the extension factors X i ; a convenient way, for example, is to select the extension factors prime to each other , i.e. such that the numbers X i cannot be divided by each other. In that way excellent results can be achieved as demonstrated in Figures 5a and 5b. Figure 5a shows the fiber response to a single injected pulse , and Figure 5b shows the response to a modified 64 bit sequence processed according to the just described procedure. The curves shown in Figures 5a and 5b were measured in equivalent measurement times. The quality improvement achieved by the invention can clearly be seen. The procedure No.I is preferably used as a first processing step at the beginning of each new measurement for rapidly decreasing the noise imposed on the fiber response h(n) and for roughly determining the positions of reflections. Particularly when using very short pulse widths which, in the prior art would cause a noisy backscattering impulse response, procedure No. I provides the advantage that a representation of the fiber response can be obtained quickly that allows to perceive some rough fiber characteristics. Procedure II This procedure is applied if the positions of reflections can be clearly determined and if a slight degradation of the spatial resolution is tolerable. As an example, Figure 6 shows a typical fiber response with strong reflections causing sidelobes due to a non-linear behavior of transmitter and receiver circuits. The probing signal in this example is a modified Golay code pair of length L = 8 and with an extension factor X = 9. First, all peak positions have to be determined. This can be done quickly (typically within a second) by a pre-measurement step using conventional single-pulse reflectometry and subsequent computer evaluation of the measured backscatter data to determine the peak positions. From the peak positions, all possible sidelobe positions can be calculated according to equation (6). Then, according to an essential step of the procedure, the sample values at the sidelobe positions are replaced by the mean value of the two adjacent sample values. If, however, at least one of the two adjacent data points represents a sidelobe or even a reflection, this point cannot be used for computation of the substitution value. Then, two cases have to be distinguished: 1.) If two or more sidelobes are arranged adjacent to each other and no reflection borders on this group of sidelobes, each substitution value is calculated as lying on a straight line that connects the two outer non-distorted samples of the fiber response. Figure 7a shows a detail of the fiber response curve of Figure 6 and with sidelobes indicated by the sample values or data points 71, 72, and 73. Figure 7b shows the resulting curve after performing the procedure just described. The sample values 71, 72, and 73 have been replaced by sample values indicated by * 's such that a straight line connecting the two outer non-distorted sample values 70 and 74 is formed. 2.) If a reflection is located adjacent to a sidelobe, then the sample value at the sidelobe position is calculated by a straight line approximation as illustrated in Figure 8. In Figure 8a, the sidelobe position is at 81 and the peak position is at 82. The approximation is performed such that a straight line is extended from the left across the undisturbed sample point 80 as indicated by the dotted line in Figure 8a. The sample value on the other side of the reflection peak cannot be used since in most cases a reflection is followed by a splice or other discontinuity. The result of the approximation is shown in Figure 8b. Generally, a dense concentration of sidelobes can be avoided by choosing an extension factor X which is great enough. Figure 9 shows the result after application of the procedure II to the data in Figure 6. Procedure III After application of the procedures I and/or II , procedure III serves for further sidelobe cancellation. The key step of this procedure is to substitute all disturbed sample values at sidelobe positions by "correct" values from earlier measurement results. For that purpose, the fiber is successively probed, as in procedure I, with modified code sequences with different extension factors. In order to obtain a good noise reduction for all samples during the whole measurement process, multiple overlap of sidelobe positions in successive measurements has to be avoided. The only parameter that affects the sidelobe positions is the extension factor X .All chosen extension factors should be prime relative to each other, i.e., the extension factors should not be divisible by each other. Each of the three described procedures or a combination of these procedures offers the possibility to improve the sidelobe to peak ratio or even to eliminate sidelobes that may appear in nonlinear systems. According to an embodiment of the invention, a corresponding apparatus for performing optical time domain reflectometry comprises a memory of 4 k words allowing 2000 data points for representing the fiber impulse curve, and a code length of the modified Golay codes A' or B' of up to 1000 bits, respectively. Therefore, during each measurement the following condition has to be fulfilled: L' = X·L < 1000 (11) whereby L' is the number of bits of the modified sequence and L is the number of bits of the unmodified sequence. The extension factor varies in the range from three to ten times the number R of strong reflections in the fiber. Consequently, the maximum usable code length L is given by the relationship: For example, if 9 strong reflections have been detected in a measurement , i.e., if R = 9 , then X will be varied between 27 and 90. But only such numbers are used which are prime relative to each other. In order to achieve the optimum signal-to-noise ratio, the code length is determined according to equation (12). In the present example, the maximum code length determined according to eqauation (12) would be a number between 11 and 37. Since L has to be a power of 2, the possible code lengths would thus be 2, 4, 8, 16, or 32, depending on the extension factor X. Preferably, the longer code lengths 8, 16, or 32 are used since they give better results than the shorter code lengths (2 or 4). The above embodiment of the invention has been described in connection with complementary sequences such as Golay complementary sequences. It is understood, however, that the invention is not limited to such sequences. The invention can also be used in connection with non-complementary sequences, i.e., pseudorandom sequences which do not have the property of sidelobe cancellation (in the ideal case when non-linearities are not a problem). In such cases, the variation of the extension factors for different injections into the light transmitting medium also permits to derive a fiber response curve in which unwanted sidelobes are substantially reduced or even completely missing. Thereby, sidelobes due to the non-complementary nature of the used sequences or due to non-linearities in the measuring system can be reduced or avoided. If, for example, a data value obtained during a first injection is obscured by a sidelobe, the true sample value which is unaffected by sidelobes can be obtained by injecting at least one other sequence with a different extension factor such that the sidelobe for this injection is at a different position.

Claims: A method of performing optical time domain reflectometry on a light transmitting medium, for example an optical fiber, the method comprising the following steps: a) injecting time sequences of light signals into the medium, the sequences comprising light signals of two different power levels, wherein a time sequence (A,B) comprises two complementary sequences (A and B), b) detecting the light signals reflected from the light transmitting medium , c) correlating the detected signals from the light transmitting medium with the injected signals , characterized in that d) at least two different time sequences (A₁', B₁') and (A₂', B₂') of light signals are successively injected into the light transmitting medium (10) and correlated with the detected signals, respectively, with each of the different time sequences (A₁', B₁'),(A₂', B₂') being derived from a common basic time sequence (A,B), with the first time sequence (A₁' , B₁') being derived from the common basic time sequence (A,B) by insertion of a first predetermined number (X₁ -1) of light signals of the same power level after each light signal of the common basic time sequence (A,B) , and with the second time sequence (A₂' , B₂') being derived from the common basic time sequence (A,B) by insertion of a second predetermined number (X₂ -1) of light signals of the same power level after each light signal of the common basic time sequence (A,B), wherein the second predetermined number differs from the first predetermined number. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the common basic sequence is a set of complementary sequences (A,B), for example a set of two Golay complementary sequences (A,B) , such that the at least two different time sequences injected into the light transmitting medium are modified complementary sequences with the modification relative to the basic complementary sequences consisting in that a predetermined number of light signals are inserted after each light signal of the conventional complementary sequence. A method according to claim 1 or 2 , characterized by the following steps : successively injecting a plurality of modified complementary sequences into the fiber (10) with the numbers (X₁ -1 ; X₂ -1 ) of inserted light signals of the modified sequences being different from each other for different injections, superposing the correlation results of the individual injections for generating a composite measurement result, thus leading to a reduction of the magnitudes of sidelobes relative to the magnitudes of peaks originating from reflections in the fiber. A method according to claim 2 or 3, characterized by the following additional steps: determining the positions of peaks originating from reflections in the fiber (10), calculating all possible sidelobe positions according to the equation SP = PP +/- i·X₁ ; whereby SP denotes the sidelobe positions, PP denotes the peak positions, and i may be any integer from 1 to L-1 , L being the code length of the basic sequence , and replacing the measured data values at sidelobe positions by calculated data values such that the calculated data values aproximate adjacent sample values. A method according to claim 2 or 3, characterized by the following steps : successively injecting a number of modified complementary sequences into the fiber (10) with the numbers (X₁ -1 ; X₂ -1) of inserted light signals of the modified sequences being different from each other for different injections such that the sidelobe positions for different injections do not overlap, and replacing data values representing distortions by sidelobes by sample values from another injection wherein the sample values at the sidelobe positions are not disturbed, thus obtaining sample values which are substantially free of distortions by sidelobes. A method according to claims 3 or 5, characterized in that the numbers of inserted light signals of the modified sequences increased by one (i.e. extension factors X₁ ; X₂ ) for different injections are prime relative to each other. A method of performing optical time domain reflectometry comprising the procedures of claims 3,4,5 in any combination. An apparatus for performing optical time domain reflectometry on a light transmitting medium, for example an optical fiber, comprising a) light injection means (7,8,9) for injecting predetermined time sequences of light signals into the medium (10), the sequences comprising light signals of two different power levels , wherein a time sequence (A,B) comprises two complementary sequences (A and B), b) a word generator (2) connected to the light injection means (7,8,9) for generating sequences of electrical pulses for activating the light injection means (7,8,9) for injecting the predetermined time sequences of light signals into the light transmitting medium (11), c) detection means (12,13) for detecting the light signals reflected from the light transmitting medium (11), d) signal processing means (4,5) for correlating the detected signals from the light transmitting medium with the injected signals, e) display means (6) for displaying the correlated results, characterized in that f) the word generator (2) comprises means for generating at least two different time sequences (A₁', B₁') and (A₂', B₂') of electrical pulses for activating the light injection means for successively injecting at least two different time sequences (A₁', B₁') and (A₂', B₂') of light signals into the light transmitting medium (10), with each of the different time sequences (A₁', B₁') , (A₂', B₂') being derived from a common basic time sequence (A,B), with the first time sequence (A₁', B₁') being derived from the common basic time sequence (A,B) by insertion of a first predetermined number (X₁ -1) of light signals of the same power level after each light signal of the common basic time sequence (A,B) , and with the second time sequence (A₂', B₂') being derived from the common basic time sequence (A,B) by insertion of a second predetermined number (X₂-1) of light signals of the same power level after each light signal of the common basic time sequence (A,B), wherein the second predetermined number differs from the first predetermined number , and g) means (1) for controlling the word generator (2) are provided for successively generating at least two different time sequences (A₁', B₁') and (A₂', B₂').

Inventors: BELLER, JOSEF
Applicants: HEWLETT-PACKARD GMBH
Application year: 1989
Main classification: G01M11
IPC codes: G01M11