By project, from survey to handover
Survey and quote free of charge, execution by our own crews with no subcontracting, testing and documentation delivered together with the work. From Modena and Emilia-Romagna, project by project nationwide.
Services · OTDR certification and testing
A report someone can actually re-verify.
Tier 1 for insertion loss, tier 2 for event analysis. Bidirectional measurements to ITU-T G.650.3, declared pulse width and launch cords, native traces handed over alongside the PDF.
The PDF arrives with the invoice, and nobody reads it.
The OTDR report is often the last document of the contract: signed, filed, never opened. Yet it is the only one that says whether the network you paid for really works, and what is missing matters more than the values. Without the pulse width, nobody knows what the instrument was able to see. Without the launch cord length, the first connector of the link stayed inside the dead zone. Without measurement in both directions, a splice can appear as an impossible gain.
Pulse width is the setting that weighs most, and it is almost always the one the specification never mentions. In fibre a 100 ns pulse occupies about ten metres: two connectors three metres apart, inside a patching cabinet, become a single event. ITU-T G.650.1 requires the pulse width to be presented with the result; G.650.3 requires launch and tail cords typically 1 to 2 km long, measurement in both directions and at least two wavelengths. A report without those data is not verifiable, today or at the next maintenance visit.
Services
How a link is tested.
01
Parameters first, then the measurement.
We set the pass/fail thresholds from the specification — not the instrument’s factory defaults — and the parameters they will be checked with: pulse width, launch and tail cords, number of acquisitions, wavelengths. Survey and quote are free of charge, and the crews are our own.
02
Tier 1 and tier 2, for what each answers.
Power meter for the insertion loss of the whole link, OTDR for the analysis of events along the route: two different questions, two different measurements. On a new link you need both.
03
Two passes, two directions.
A short pulse across the patching and a long pulse along the link, measured from both ends at 1310 and 1550 nm. The value of an event is the bidirectional average, not the more convenient of the two numbers.
04
A verifiable handover.
One report per link with the parameters next to the values, native traces (.sor or equivalent) and a record usable in a dispute. The files stay yours: on-premise or on a dedicated cloud in Italy.
An example, step by step.
Illustrative case, not a real client. A public body with nine sites on its own fibre network: 14 links, one patching cabinet per site, and a test campaign handed over by the installer as a single PDF. On a 6 km link with five splices the document lists four events; inside the cabinet, however, there are two connectors three metres apart that appear in the report as one.
-
Read the setting, not the verdict
Before the values, look at the pulse the trace was taken with. In this example it is 100 ns: about ten metres of fibre, so two events three metres apart necessarily fall inside the same dead zone. Nobody cheated; the instrument could not separate them.
-
Two passes, not one
The link is measured again: a short pulse across the patching to separate close events, a long pulse along the route to reach the far end without noise. A single acquisition is not a test campaign.
-
Launch cords declared by length
Measurement uses launch and tail cords — typically 1-2 km in outside plant, as ITU-T G.650.3 requires — so that the first and last connectors come out of the dead zone and become measurable.
-
From both ends
Every fibre is measured in both directions at 1310 and 1550 nm. A splice reading 0.36 dB one way and −0.06 dB the other is not a gain: the true value is the average, 0.15 dB, and only that is compared with the threshold.
-
The report redone in full
The new report carries pulse, cords and direction next to every value, with the native files attached. The client can set the two reports side by side and discuss them with the installer on data, not opinions.
In this example the second campaign brings out, across the 14 links, six events the first report did not show, two of them above threshold: the estimate is 3-4 measurement days to redo the testing, against an emergency call-out on a link already in service and a dispute opened after the work is closed. Native traces and reports remain the client’s property, inside their perimeter: on-premise or on a dedicated cloud in Italy.
An illustrative example on a typical case: the assumptions are recalibrated on your own data.
What you are left with.
- One report per link, with pulse width and launch cord length declared next to every value.
- Native traces delivered alongside the PDF: without the measurement files nobody can re-verify anything, today or in five years.
- Events identified and matched to the real position of splices, patch points and building entries.
- Pass/fail thresholds written together with the pulse they apply to: a 0.1 dB splice at 1 µs and the same splice at 30 ns are not the same statement.
- Records usable in a dispute with suppliers and client. For an operational trial we start from a single link or a single room.
Who has this problem.
- Clients who must accept, or challenge, a test campaign handed over by someone else.
- Technical departments writing the testing clauses of a tender who need to know which thresholds to demand.
- Operators and network contractors handing over new links who want to close them without rework.
- Anyone with a live link showing unexpected loss who needs to know whether the cause is a splice, a connector or a bend.
Two ways of working.
On call 24/7 for faults and restorations
The damage located by OTDR before any digging, splicing in the field in agreed windows including nights, the link re-certified before service is restored.
In both cases measurements, native traces and as-built records stay yours: on-premise in your own environment or on a dedicated cloud in Italy, in directly staffed data centres.
Frequently asked questions
The questions we are asked most often.
-
What is the difference between tier 1 and tier 2 testing, and which should I require in the spec?
Tier 1 measures the insertion loss of the whole link with a source and a power meter: it says whether the link sits inside the optical budget, not where the loss is. Tier 2 adds the OTDR trace, that is the event-by-event analysis along the route. On a new link you need both: the OTDR characterises, the power measurement certifies the total loss.
-
What pulse width and launch cord should I require so that close events are not lost?
The pulse width must be declared for every trace: in fibre 100 ns occupies about ten metres, so two connectors three metres apart become a single event. At least two acquisitions are needed, a short pulse across the patching and a long pulse along the link. ITU-T G.650.3 requires launch and tail cords typically 1 to 2 km long, declared by length.
-
Why do the loss values of a splice change depending on which end I measure from?
The OTDR infers loss from backscattered light, and two spliced fibres can have different backscatter coefficients: from one side the same splice can appear as a gain, which is physically impossible. The true value is the average of the two directions, as ITU-T G.650.3 indicates. A one-way report showing splices “with gain” is documentary proof that the average was never taken.
-
Is the report my installer handed over trustworthy? How do I check it before accepting the work?
Look first at what is missing: pulse width, launch cord length, the second wavelength, the second direction, the pass/fail thresholds of the specification and the native traces. Then three questions are enough for whoever hands it over: which direction did you measure in, with which thresholds, may I have the native files. If the answer to the last one is no, the first two are already answered.
-
Can a third party re-verify a test campaign that has already been accepted?
Yes, provided the native files exist (.sor or equivalent): without the measurement files nobody can re-verify anything, today or in five years. With the traces, sample links are measured again with declared parameters and the two reports are set side by side. The outcome is a record usable in a dispute, on data rather than opinions.
Other services
Optical-fibre splicing ODN/PON design and optical budget As-built documentation, labelling and network records Support on tender specifications and compliance
The first step
A site survey. Then the numbers.
Tell us the environment and the need; we tell you times, methods and costs. Before we start, not after.
30 minutes video call or site survey €150 free July promotion
Request an intervention We reply within one business day. Survey and quote are free.