OTDR (Optical Time Domain Reflectometer) is used for test a fiber cable. By OTDR, users can get these parameters of a fiber,

  1. Fiber Length
  2. Total attenuation
  3. Event List
  4. Point Loss
  5. Break Location
  6. Micro Bending
  7. Loss @wavelengths (1310nm, 1550nm, etc)
  8. Splitter’s insertion loss
  9. Return Loss
  10. etc

Some modern OTDRs integrates with many other common functions,

  1. VFL Visual Fault Locator
  2. OPM Optical Power Meter
  3. OLS Optical Laser Source
  4. Insertion Loss Testing (OPM & OLS turn on same time)
  5. Microscope (For fiber end face inspection)
  6. RJ45 Cable Sequence Testing
  7. RJ45 Cable Distance Testing
  8. RJ45 Cable Searching
  9. Event Map
  10. etc

OTDR, as a complex tesing instrument, is in high demand in real field fiber cable testing. And many manufacturers have make mini OTDRs to make price lower, but performance is not bad.