Abstract
The use of Optical Time Domain Reflectometry (OTDR) is well established for monitoring the local attenuation along a fiber line, through the variation of backscattered light. This technique has been applied to the multiplexing of lossy optical transducers along a single fiber, providing thus a simple way of achieving an optical fiber sensors network [1]. The capabilities of these networks have been demonstrated with microbend-loss inducing transducers, as well as with bend-loss inducing transducers [2]. However, these lossy mechanisms are rather limited in terms of the number of sensors which can be multiplexed along a single fiber. The backscattering coefficient in a typical multimode fiber is usually less than 10−4 and it even decreases proportionally to the light pulse width. This means that the light signal which is available for making the measurement is only 0.01 % of the light power lost in the transducer.
© 1986 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
R. Kist
91 Optical Fiber Sensors (OFS) 1986
A. DANDRIDGE, J. J. COLE, and F. BUCHOLTZ
TuB1 Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) 1986
Takashi Nakayama and Kazuo Kyuma
FR1 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO:S&I) 1986