Distributed Temperature and Strain Sensing is the use of optical fibers to continuously measure temperature and mechanical strain over long distances. NEC Labs America applies this technique to monitor power lines, subsea cables, pipelines, and structural systems. By integrating AI with fiber optic signals, these systems provide real-time insights into infrastructure health. Distributed Temperature And Strain Sensing enables predictive maintenance, reduces risks, and ensures the resilience of critical networks.

Posts

Optical Flow Processing for Chirp-Pulse Coherent OTDR

/in /by

We propose a novel optical flow processing technique for distributed temperature and strain sensing with the chirped-pulse coherent OTDR. Unlike conventional 1-dimensional cross-correlation methods, the technique treats the 2-dimensional waterfall data as sequential video frames, estimating local shifts through optical flow. The weighted least square approach with adaptive window size enables pixel-level optical flow calculation, providing accurate local shifts via accumulative tracks with enhanced spatial resolution. Preliminary experimental results over 20km fiber demonstrate its effectiveness for dynamic temperature and strain sensing, addressing limitations of traditional methods and improving sensing capabilities.

Read more