On-field distributed first-order PMD measurement based on pOTDR and optical pulse width sweep.

A method for PMD distributed localization and estimation based on polarization optical time domain reflectometer technique, pOTDR and pulse width sweep is used on-field for the first time. The method consists in launching light pulses with variable widths in an optical fiber under test and then analyzes the Rayleigh backscattered signal spatial power distribution after passing through a polarizer. Both localization and PMD magnitude are function of OTDR pulse width and can be obtained from the ripple analysis, enabling the characterization of the fiber links.