Optical cable fault locating using Brillouin optical time domain reflectometer and cable localized heating method

A novel optical cable fault location method, which is based on Brillouin optical time domain reflectometer (BOTDR) and cable localized heating, is proposed and demonstrated. In the method, a BOTDR apparatus is used to measure the optical loss and strain distribution along the fiber in an optical cable, and a heating device is used to heat the cable at its certain local site. Actual experimental results make it clear that the proposed method works effectively without complicated calculation. By means of the new method, we have successfully located the optical cable fault in the 60 km optical fiber composite power cable from Shanghai to Shengshi, Zhejiang. A fault location accuracy of 1 meter was achieved. The fault location uncertainty of the new optical cable fault location method is at least one order of magnitude smaller than that of the traditional OTDR method.