NEC Laboratories America

Optical Sensing & Solutions

From early concepts and laboratory validation to proven field deployments on live infrastructure, we develop technologies that sense the physical world, transform observations into intelligence, and enable informed action. Building on our expertise in optics and photonics, we are expanding toward multimodal sensing, AI-powered understanding, and intelligent systems that interact with the physical world.

Deployed telecom cables, urban fiber networks, and emerging optical sensors provide a powerful foundation for observing the physical world at scale. Our research spans forward-looking theoretical studies, cutting-edge experiments, artificial intelligence, and world- and industry-first field trials. We transform existing infrastructure into dense, real-time sensing platforms capable of monitoring complex environments over large areas.

Our research follows a broad sense–understand–act vision. We develop optical and distributed fiber sensing technologies that capture physical phenomena; AI methods that interpret complex signals, combine information across sensors, diagnose events, and predict changing conditions; and intelligent solutions that translate these insights into decisions and responses. Looking ahead, we envision extending this foundation beyond optical sensing to multimodal sensing and autonomous systems, including robotics, that can perceive, reason about, and respond to the physical world.

Our current work spans optical sensing, infrared imaging and spectroscopy, radio-frequency spectrum sensing and AI-enabled sensing analytics. These technologies can detect, localize, and characterize vibrations, intrusions, equipment conditions, and environmental changes along an infrastructure network’s physical route. By integrating sensing with edge computing and AI, we seek to move beyond data collection toward real-time understanding, prediction, and automated response.

By uniting advanced sensing, physical-world AI, and intelligent action, Optical Sensing & Solutions aims to create safer, more resilient, and more autonomous systems for infrastructure, utilities, transportation, environmental monitoring, public safety, smart cities, and intelligent manufacturing.

Join Us

Are you interested in joining us? We seek the next generation of thought leaders in optical sensing for researcher positions. Outstanding applicants pursuing a career in optical sensing are encouraged to visit our careers page to learn more and apply for available positions.

Summer 2026 Internship Applications are now closed.

Exciting internship opportunities for Summer 2027 will be available on our internship page this fall.  We are looking for students pursuing advanced degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Internships are typically 3 months long during the summer. The benefits of working for us include the opportunity to quickly join a project team applying cutting-edge technology to industry-leading concepts.

To apply for a Summer Internship, visit our Internship page.

Learn More

Want to learn more about our optical sensing & solutions department? Meet our team of experts, check out our blog posts, or read our latest publications.

Featured Optical Sensing & Solutions Research Projects

Latest Optical Sensing & Solutions News

Local and Global Optimization Methods for Optical Line Control Based on Quality of Transmission

The ever-increasing demand for data traffic in recent decades has pushed network operators to give importance to the aspect of infrastructure control to facilitate its scalability and maximize its capacity. A generic lightpath (LP) is deployed starting from a traffic request between a given pair of nodes

Radio-Frequency Linear Analysis and Optimization of Silicon Photonic Neural Networks

Broadband analog signal processors utilizing silicon photonics have demonstrated a significant impact in numerous application spaces, offering unprecedented bandwidths, dynamic range, and tunability. In the past decade, microwave photonic techniques have been applied to neuromorphic processing, resulting

Low-rank Constrained Multichannel Signal Denoising Considering Channel-dependent Sensitivity Inspired by Self-supervised Learning for Optical Fiber Sensing

Optical fiber sensing is a technology wherein audio, vibrations, and temperature are detected using an optical fiber; especially the audio/vibrations-aware sensing is called distributed acoustic sensing (DAS). In DAS, observed data, which is comprised of multichannel data, has suffered from severe noise

Link Loss Analysis of Integrated Linear Weight Bank within Silicon Photonic Neural Network

Over the last decade, silicon photonic neural networks have demonstrated the possibility of photonic-enabled machine learning at the edge. These systems enable low-latency ultra-wideband classifications, channel estimations, and many other signal characterization tasks within wireless environments. While

4D Optical Link Tomography: First Field Demonstration of Autonomous Transponder Capable of Distance, Time, Frequency, and Polarization-Resolved Monitoring

We report the first field demonstration of 4D link tomography using a commercial transponder, which offers distance, time, frequency, and polarization-resolved monitoring. This scheme enables autonomous transponders that identify locations of multiple QoT degradation causes.

Field Implementation of Fiber Cable Monitoring for Mesh Networks with Optimized Multi-Channel Sensor Placement

We develop a heuristic solution to effectively optimize the placement of multi-channel distributed fiber optic sensors in mesh optical fiber cable networks. The solution has beenimplemented in a field network to provide continuous monitoring.