Testing fiber arrangement in multi-fiber cables

An optical reflectometry method for identifying a fiber arrangement in a multi-fiber cable link comprising a number of optical fiber links each connected between a front multi-fiber connector, at a near end of said cable link, and an end multi-fiber connector, at a far end, according to said fiber arrangement, the method comprising:

• launching optical reflectometry acquisitions toward a plurality of said optical fiber links, each one of said optical reflectometry acquisitions being performed onto a single pair of a set of pairs of said optical fiber links, the optical fiber links in each pair being looped back together according to a loopback arrangement of a loopback device coupled to said multi-fiber cable link at said far end, wherein no more than two optical fiber links of said multi-fiber cable link are looped together;
• detecting at least one optical signature of an array of signatures coupled to said cable link at one of said far end and said near end on at least two of said optical reflectometry acquisitions;
• identifying a fiber arrangement in said multi-fiber cable link from the detected signature in said optical reflectometry acquisitions, from a characterization of the loopback arrangement of the loopback device and from a characterization of said array of signatures;
• using the detected at least one optical signature, pairing optical reflectometry acquisitions that are performed toward optical fiber links that are looped back together;
• and
• performing a bidirectional optical reflectometry analysis using the paired optical reflectometry acquisitions to characterize said optical fiber links that are looped back together.