Analyzing Distributed Vibrating Sensing Technologies in Optical Meshes

Abstract

Hundreds of kilometers of optical fibers are installed for optical meshes (OMs) to transmit data over long distances. The visualization of these deployed optical fibers is a highlighted issue because the conventional procedure can only measure the optical losses. Thus, this paper presents distributed vibration sensing (DVS) estimation mechanisms to visualize the optical fiber behavior installed for OMs which is not possible by conventional measurements. The proposed technique will detect the power of light inside the optical fiber, as well as different physical parameters such as the phase of transmitted light inside the thread, the frequency of vibration, and optical losses. The applicability of optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) and optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR) DVS techniques are validated theoretically for various state detection procedures in optical fibers. The simulation model is investigated in terms of elapsed time, the spectrum of a light signal, frequency, and the impact of many external physical accidents with optical fibers.

Keywords

• frequency division multiplexing
• phase optical time/frequency domain reflectometry
• optical meshes
• distribution vibration sensing