Time Domain Reflectometer. A hardware tool that locates breaks or faults in copper cables by sending a signal and measuring the reflection.

Time Domain Reflectometer. A hardware tool that locates breaks or faults in copper cables by sending a signal and measuring the reflection.

• A. TDR
• B. Wireshark
• C. Cable Tester
• D. OTDR

Answer: (A)

Time-domain reflectometry is about pinpointing faults along a copper cable by sending a fast signal and watching what comes back. When you inject a pulse into the line, any impedance change—like a break, a loose connector, or a junction—causes part of that signal to reflect back toward the source. By measuring how long the reflected signal takes to return and knowing how fast the signal travels in the cable, you can calculate the distance to the fault. This makes the tool ideal for locating breaks or faults in copper networks, such as Ethernet or coax runs. This matches the described purpose: a hardware instrument that locates breaks or faults in copper cables by sending a signal and measuring the reflection. Other options serve different roles: a fiber-focused instrument uses light pulses, not electrical signals, and is suited for fiber optics; a general cable tester may check continuity without precisely locating the fault along the run; a protocol analyzer like Wireshark investigates data traffic rather than physical inspection of cables.

Time-domain reflectometry is about pinpointing faults along a copper cable by sending a fast signal and watching what comes back. When you inject a pulse into the line, any impedance change—like a break, a loose connector, or a junction—causes part of that signal to reflect back toward the source. By measuring how long the reflected signal takes to return and knowing how fast the signal travels in the cable, you can calculate the distance to the fault. This makes the tool ideal for locating breaks or faults in copper networks, such as Ethernet or coax runs.

This matches the described purpose: a hardware instrument that locates breaks or faults in copper cables by sending a signal and measuring the reflection. Other options serve different roles: a fiber-focused instrument uses light pulses, not electrical signals, and is suited for fiber optics; a general cable tester may check continuity without precisely locating the fault along the run; a protocol analyzer like Wireshark investigates data traffic rather than physical inspection of cables.