Optical Time-Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) troubleshooting of a passive
optical network (PON) can be enhanced by deploying cascaded splitters, at
least some of which have multiple inputs. That is, at least some of the
splitters in the PON have not only a first input coupleable to the
optical line terminator (OLT) or output of another splitter but also a
second input directly coupleable to an Optical Time-Domain Reflectometer
(OTDR). Optical time-delay reflectometry can be performed upon a selected
portion or segment of the PON by selecting a splitter and transmitting an
optical test signal from the OTDR directly to the input of the selected
splitter and analyzing the reflected signal.