ADAPTATION OF THE APPLICATION QUALIFO TO COMMUNICATE
WITH THE PHOTON KINETICS 8000 OTDR
A. Hidalgo, A. Mànuel
SARTI Resea ch G oup. Uni e si a Poli ècnica de Ca alunya (UPC). Rambla Exposició 24, 08800, Vilano a i la Gel ú. Ba -
celona. Spain. +(34) 938 967 200
Abs ac In his pape we p esen he adap a ion o QUALIFO, a
so wa e designed o assu e and con ol he quali y o op ic ibe
cables, o a new OTDR model, conc e ely he Pho on Kine ics 8000.
While he communica ion wi h he es o OTDRs is done h ough
a Na ional Ins umen s GPIB in e ace, his new model equi es o
be p og ammed wi h a Visual Basic sc ip , and i is connec ed o
QUALIFO ia a simple local a ea ne wo k.
In oduc ion
The so wa e QUALIFO acqui es da a om ibe s wi h he help o
di e en models o OTDR (Op ical Time Domain Re lec ome e ),
such as he An i su 9060, bu hey we en’ able o acqui e da a
om di e en measu emen windows a he same ime. This
made he measu ing ime o inc ease, and so he whole p ocess
became less e icien .
To sol e his si ua ion, i was decided o acqui e a new OTDR
capable o measu e he ibe s in di e en windows a he same
ime. In his case, he chosen equipmen was he Pho on Kine -
ics 8000. This model adds his unc ionali y, bu i also needs o
be p og ammed in a di e en way. While he p e ious models
communica ed wi h he so wa e h ough a GPIB po , his one
is connec ed wi h an E he ne cable, and so we need o es ab-
lish a new local a ea ne wo k in o de o ha e access o he
measu ed da a. I also needs a Visual Basic sc ip o p og am he
measu ed pa ame e s.
P og amming he sc ip and acqui ing he measu ed da a
Fi s o all, we designed a Visual Basic sc ip ha de ines he
measu ing pa ame e s and o de s he OTDR o pe o m a se ies
o measu emen s. This was possible hanks o he OTDR own Vi-
sual Basic API, which con ained mos o i s mo e use ul pa am-
e e s and unc ionali ies. The esul s o he measu emen s a e
s o ed in a ex ile a he OTDR, which he QUALIFO so wa e is
able o ead h ough he local a ea ne wo k.
The second issue needed o sol e was o make he QUALIFO
o o de he execu ion o he designed sc ip , because he p o-
g am and he OTDR a e loca ed a di e en compu e s. The so-
lu ion was o use he Mic oso applica ion ‘PsExec’, ha allows
o execu e p ocesses in a emo e sys em o he ne wo k. Thanks
o i , synch oniza ion be ween he QUALIFO and he OTDR was
possible, o de ing he execu ion o he sc ip and wai ing o he
esul o be w i en in he ex ile o ob ain i .
Conclusions and u u e addi ions
Fo he momen , only he Pho on Kine ics 8000 has been a -
ached o he sys em, bu hanks o his p ocess o adap a ion,
mo e simila equipmen s will be able o in eg a e wi h he sys-
em o imp o e u he mo e i s e iciency.
Ins umen a ion Viewpoin / 10 / Win e
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