Optical path?

[chad-earthscope]

Submitted by @rmellors

The PRODML standard has a concept called 'Optical Path', which resembles our cable/fiber but is intended to capture the entire optical path during a single acquisition and would map to an OTDR measurement (which might be linked as an ancillary file). In this way the entire response could be captured including any splices or connections and could be validated by comparison with an OTDR measurement, which is usually conducted prior to data collection anyway. Perhaps something to think about.

[chad-earthscope]

The optical path concept can be represented with the current schema as multiple cables and fibers, it is not described as "optical path", but such a description could be added. An optical path could also be defined in the metadata as a combination of the other components. Also, fields could be added to the fiber element to define splice, etc. that identify important characteristics of an optical path.