Brillouin optical time-domain analyzer for extended sensing range using probe dithering and cyclic coding

Abstract

We present an enhanced performance Brillouin optical time-domain analysis sensor that uses dual probes waves with optical frequency modulation and cyclic coding. The frequency modulation serves to increase the probe power that can be injected in the fiber before the onset of non-local effects and noise generated by spontaneous Brillouin scattering. This leads to higher detected signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which is further increased by the coding gain. The enhanced SNR translates to extended range for the sensor, with experiments demonstrating 1-m spatial resolution over a 164 km fiber loop with a 3-MHz Brillouin frequency shift measurement precision at the worst contrast position. In addition, we introduce a study of the power limits that can be injected in the fiber with cyclic coding before the appearance of distortions in the decoded signal.