USE OF FIBRE OPTICS INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR CALIBRATION LABORATORY ACCREDITATION INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION

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1 USE OF FIBRE OPTICS INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR CALIBRATION LABORATORY ACCREDITATION INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION

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3 USE OF FIBRE OPTICS INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR CALIBRATION LABORATORY ACCREDITATION 1

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5 IEC INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS TO BE USED IN ALL AREAS FROM FIBRE OPTIC FIELD APPLICATIONS TO CALIBRATION LABORATORIES Field, equipment area Set of tests and measurements Calibration lab area Set of calibration standards ISO/IEC General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories 3

6 A CONTINUOUS CHAIN OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR FIBRE OPTICS IEC Technical Committee 86 prepares standards for fibre optic systems, modules, devices and components intended for use with communications equipment. In particular, publications cover the area of tests, measurements and calibration. ISO/IEC is a guide published in 2005 by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization and the IEC, containing all of the requirements that testing and calibration laboratories have to meet if they wish to demonstrate that they operate a quality system, are technically competent and are able to generate technically valid results. Calibration documents issued by Working Group 4 of IEC TC 86 provide calibration procedures that can be used to comply fully with the technical requirements of ISO/IEC They are directly related to 12 IEC International Standards concerned with fibre optic tests and measurements. 4

7 TC86 s WORKING GROUP 4 About 30 experts from more than 10 countries make up WG4. They represent calibration labs such as NIST and NPL, optical fibre manufacturers, measurement device manufacturers and telecom carriers. WG4 has published calibration standards for various types of equipment: Optical power meters. Optical time-domain reflectometers (OTDRs). Optical spectrum analyzers (OSAs). Chromatic dispersion measuring systems. Fibre geometry measuring systems. 5

8 IEC 61315: CALIBRATION OF FIBRE OPTIC POWER METERS Fibre optic power meters are designed to measure accurately optical power from fibre optic sources. IEC defines all the steps involved in the calibration process: Establishing calibration conditions. Carrying out calibration. Evaluating, calculating and reporting. Uncertainty and traceability issues. The calibration processes cover: Absolute power calibration. Nonlinearity calibration. Change in optical transmittance IEC Optical fibres - Part 1-46: Measurement methods and test procedures - Monitoring of changes in optical transmittance Interconnecting devices attenuation IEC Fibre optic interconnecting devices and passive components - Basic test and measurement procedures - Part 3-4: Examinations and measurements - Attenuation 6 The calibration processes cover absolute and nonlinearity calibration. Calibrated fibre optic power meters are required for the following International Standards: Optical fibre attenuation Cut back or insertion method IEC Optical fibres - Part 1-40: Measurement methods and test procedures - Attenuation Output optical power IEC Fibre optic communication subsystem basic test procedures - Part 1-1: Test procedures for general communication subsystems - Transmitter output optical power measurement for single-mode optical fibre cable

9 IEC 61746: CALIBRATION OF OPTICAL TIME-DOMAIN REFLECTOMETERS OTDRs are designed to measure backscattering from optical fibres as accurately as possible. IEC defines all the steps involved in the calibration process: Establishing calibration conditions. Carrying out calibration. Calculating and reporting uncertainty and traceability issues. The calibration processes cover: Calibration of horizontal and vertical axis. Calibration of reflectance measurements. Calibrated OTDRs are required for the following International Standard: IEC Optical fibres - Part 1-46: Measurement methods and test procedures - Monitoring of changes in optical transmittance IEC/TS Attenuation uniformity in optical fibres IEC/TR Guidance for the interpretation of OTDR backscattering traces IEC Fibre optic interconnecting devices and passive components - Basic test and measurement procedures - Part 3-4: Examinations and measurements - Attenuation IEC Optical fibres - Part 1-40: Measurement methods and test procedures - Attenuation IEC Optical fibres - Part 1-22: Measurement methods and test procedures - Length measurement 7

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11 IEC 61744: CALIBRATION OF FIBRE OPTIC CHROMATIC DISPERSION TEST SETS Chromatic dispersion is the variation with optical light wavelength of the light propagation delay time in a length of fibre. IEC defines all the steps involved in the calibration process of chromatic dispersion test sets to ensure that: The programmed wavelengths are calibrated. The measured delays are calibrated. Calibrated chromatic dispersion test sets are required for the following International Standard: IEC Optical fibres - Part 1-42: Measurement methods and test procedures - Chromatic dispersion 9

12 IEC 61745: END-FACE IMAGE ANALYSIS PROCEDURE FOR THE CALIBRATION OF OPTICAL FIBRE GEOMETRY TEST SETS Geometry of optical fibre can be measured with test sets which perform end-face image analysis, also known as near-field or grey-scale analysis. IEC defines a standard procedure for calibrating test sets for measuring the glass geometry of optical fibres. Calibrated test sets for measuring the glass geometry are required for the following International Standard: IEC Optical fibres - Part 1-20: Measurement methods and test procedures - Fibre geometry 10

13 IEC 62129: CALIBRATION OF OPTICAL SPECTRUM ANALYZERS An optical spectrum analyzer measures the power distribution of an optical spectrum. IEC defines all the steps involved in the calibration process of an optical spectrum analyzer to ensure that: Wavelengths are calibrated. Power amplitude is calibrated. IEC also defines vacuum wavelengths (nm) of common gas laser lines and common reference gas. Calibrated optical spectrum analyzers (OSAs) are required for the following International Standards: IEC IEC IEC/TR Calibrated optical spectrum analyzers (OSAs) are required for the following International Standards: Fibre optic interconnecting devices and passive components - Basic test and measurement procedures - Part 3-7: Examinations and measurements - Wavelength dependence of attenuation and return loss Single-mode optical fibres - Raman gain efficiency measurement using continuous wave method - Guidance 11

14 FUTURE WORK The work programme for TC86/WG4 includes developments in many domains, including: Calibration of single-wavelength meters. Calibration of optical time-domain reflectometers for multimode fibres. Calibration of tunable sources. Other domains are open for discussion and include: Calibration of the frequency response of timedomain optical measurement equipment. Calibration of return loss measuring devices. 12

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