Methods and devices for optical data communication with integrated data-transparent otdr

An optical data communication system, comprising:

• a first multi-fiber connector comprising a plurality of data communication ports and at least one unused port that is separate from said data communication ports;
• one or more transmitters optically coupled to respective one or more ports of the plurality of data communication ports of the first multi-fiber connector;
• and
• an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) optically coupled to the at least one unused port of the first multi-fiber connector,
• wherein the plurality of data communication ports are ports of the first multi-fiber connector that are dedicated for data communication, and the at least one unused port is a port of the first multi-fiber connector that is dedicated for OTDR measurement.

A method for detecting a fault in a data communication optical path of a fiber optic network, the method comprising:

• optically coupling one or more data communication ports of a multi-fiber connector to respective one or more transmitters;
• optically coupling an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) to an unused port of the multi-fiber connector;
• based on the coupling, providing an optical path coupled to the OTDR that follows one or more data communication optical paths coupled to the respective one or more transmitters;
• performing an OTDR measurement on the optical path coupled to the OTDR;
• and
• based on the performing, using a detected fault as an indication of a fault in the one or more data communication optical paths,
• wherein the one or more data communication ports are ports of the multi-fiber connector that are dedicated for data communication, and the unused port is a port of the multi-fiber connector that is dedicated for the OTDR measurement.