Performance limit of a multi-frequency probe based coherent optical time domain reflectometry caused by nonlinear effects

The nonlinear effects that limit the performance of the multi-frequency probe(MFP)based coherent optical time domain reflectometry(C-OTDR)are investigated.Based on theoretical analysis and experimental results,compared with conventional C-OTDR,when the probe pulse has power gradient within the pulse width,self-phase modulation(SPM)and cross-phase modulation(XPM)are strengthened in the new C-OTDR scheme.The generation of four-wave mixing(FWM)is dependent on SPM and XPM,and with modulation frequency of phase modulator higher than 40 MHz,the stimulated Brillouin scattering(SBS) threshold can be enhanced by more than 5 dB,which benefits the maximum dynamic range of the MFP C-OTDR.