Fiber optic systems are deployed in a variety of settings as strain sensors to locate small disturbances along the length of the optical fiber cable, which is often tens of kilometers long. This technology has the advantages of low cost and design simplicity, as the sensor is its own source of telemetry and may be easily repaired or replaced. One of the limitations of current technology is noise from optical backscatter events in the fiber resulting in a degraded signal in individual spatial zones leading to signal fading. Detection within these zones along the length of the fiber is then obscured. Signal multiplexing may be used to increase sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio and reduce signal fading. In such an architecture, multiple channels are multiplexed together and transmitted along the fiber. In this article, we report on results from two different systems that were tested using such techniques. Results are then compared with a single channel system.

Date Published: 13 May 2016
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 9834, Laser Technology for Defense and Security XII, 98340X (13 May 2016);

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9834:
Laser Technology for Defense and Security XII
Mark Dubinskii; Stephen G. Post, Editor(s)