Abstract:Cable to equipment is like blood to people. It plays an important role in power operation and signal transmission. Its quality directly determines the safety of equipment operation. Starting from the requirement of cable testing, the application scope and requirement characteristics of cable testing in military and civil fields are analyzed. The development status and product form of cable testing at home and abroad are introduced separately. Aiming at the test items of cable conduction, insulation, voltage withstanding and fault location, the important test indexes and test methods are summarized. The key technologies used in cable testing are introduced in detail, including time domain reflection technology, distributed parallel testing technology and boundary scan technology. Finally, the development trend of cable testing technology is prospected from the aspects of cable fault location, on-line testing, irreversible damage of withstand voltage testing, health management and evaluation and prediction. In the future, the cable testing system will be formed by integrating new technologies and new means, such as intellectualization, self-learning and fault predictability