A novel method for wire fault location using reflectometry and iterative deconvolution

Abstract

The novelty of this paper is to propose an efficient method for the detection and location of wiring faults with transfer function analysis using time domain reflectometry (TDR), iterative deconvolution and optimization techniques. The paper shows how iterative deconvolution and optimization techniques are used to locate hard faults, small discontinuities and enhance the signal-to-noise ratio. The developed method can also be applied to characterize the wire faults in the branches of the network. The adaptive filters are applied to reduce the deconvolution noise. The performance of three frequency domain deconvolution techniques, the short window function, the optimum compensation and the automated-regularization technique are applied to solve the ill-posed inverse problem for the transfer function between incident and reflected waves. The proposed approach was applied to locate faults on the shielded coaxial cables and twisted pair cables.