Multiple Faults Detection and Location in Bus-Shaped Cable Networks by Distributed Time-Domain Reflectometry

Cables are the primary transmission media for electric power and communication in modern systems. Faults in cable networks affect the system’s reliability and have serious consequences, leading to significant interruptions, failures, and accidents. In this letter, we propose a new method for detecting and locating multiple faults in bus-shaped cable networks based on distributed time-domain reflectometry. The proposed method can detect multiple faults existing simultaneously within one or more network branches. We use analytical modeling and adjacency matrix to categorize reflections measured at the terminations of a bus-shaped network. The proposed method can recognize redundant reflections by distinguishing the first reflection of each error. It detects the faults and identifies their corresponding network branches. The method has been validated on a network with two junctions, one soft fault, one open circuit, and one short circuit. It achieves a maximal relative position deviation of 1.05% and a maximal absolute deviation of 0.98 m.