A method of optical sensing is disclosed. The method comprises coupling an excitation optical signal into a first optical fiber to induce Rayleigh backscattering, thereby providing a backscattered signal; coupling the backscattered signal into a second optical fiber, spatially separated from the first optical fiber; and optically amplifying the backscattered signal in the second optical fiber, thereby generating a sensing signal.

An integrated fiber interferometry interrogator for generating superimposed waves is disclosed. The system is optimized for efficiency and vibration attenuation. The system comprises an optical light source for generating a first signal, a first signal splitter which splits the first signal into a reference signal and an interrogation signal, optical modulators for modulating the signals, a fiber coupler connected to a fiber under test, an isolator, a circulator with a plurality of connections for directing the signals, a signal mixer for mixing the signals into superimposed waves, and photo diodes for receiving the superimposed waves.

An optical fiber characteristic measuring device acquires a Brillouin Frequency Shift (BFS) from a measuring position of an optical fiber disposed in an object to be measured, generates temperature distribution in a longitudinal direction of the optical fiber by converting the acquired BFS into a temperature, calculates a physical property change of the optical fiber based on the generated temperature distribution, and corrects the measuring position of the optical fiber based on the calculated physical property change.

A method and a system for ultimately fast frequency-scanning Brillouin optical time domain analysis are provided herein. The method may include: simultaneously launching two pairs each having a pulsed pump wave and a counter-propagating constant wave (CW) probe wave, into an optical fiber, wherein the pulsed pumps have orthogonal States of Polarization (SOPs), and wherein the two CW probe waves have a same SOP; scanning common pump-probe frequency difference, over a frequency range that encompasses a respective Brillouin Gain Spectrum (BGS) and current and expected spectral shifts of the BGS along the optical fiber; deriving, a local Brillouin Frequency Shift (BFS), in a distributed manner along the optical fiber, which is defined as the pump-probe frequency difference which maximizes the Brillouin gain on the BGS; and determining strain and/or temperature in a distributed manner along the optical fiber, based on the respective local BFS.

A method and system for operating fiber optic monitoring systems utilizing solar panels, batteries, and an interrogator system with associated electronics for operating in cold climates.

Reflectometric vibration measurement system to monitor multiphase flows in production wells or pipelines using multimode fibers comprising: a sensing multimode optical fiber; an optical source with at least one fiber output port, which generates optical pulses which are to be sent to the sensing fiber; an optical receiver with at least one multimode fiber input port; an optical device with at least 3 multimode fiber ports, in which one port is connected to the optical source, one port to the optical receiver, and one port to the sensing multimode fiber; a system for processing the output signals from the optical receiver, further comprising more than one spatial mode filter. A process for reconfiguring an optical reflectometry system which has already been installed in a monitoring structure is also described.

An optical fiber characteristics measurement apparatus includes a first optical splitter that splits modulated light into pump light and reference light, a second optical splitter that causes the pump light to be incident on a fiber under test from one end and extracts Brillouin scattered light generated within the fiber under test, an adjuster that changes frequency of at least one of the reference light and pump light to a plurality of frequencies, and a calculator that measures characteristics of the fiber under test based on a second harmonic component among frequency components of a signal yielded by homodyne detection of interference light between the Brillouin scattered light and the reference light at each frequency, the second harmonic component having a frequency that is two times the modulation frequency of the modulated light.

An optical module includes an optical amplifier configured to amplify Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) channels transmitted on a fiber; and an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) configured to transmit an OTDR signal on the fiber and detect a back-scattered signal based thereon to test the fiber, wherein a wavelength of the OTDR signal is one of i) between one or more wavelengths associated with the optical amplifier and one or more wavelengths associated with the WDM channels and ii) greater than the one or more wavelengths associated with the WDM channels, for in-service operation of the OTDR.

A measurement system includes a cable having a length, a light source, at least one detector, and at least one processor. The light source is operably coupled to the cable and is configured to transmit an optical signal to the cable. The at least one processor is operably coupled to the cable and configured to: receive a scattered signal from the cable responsive to the optical signal transmitted to the cable; map the scattered signal to the length of the cable; and de-convolve a spatial averaging effect of the scattered signal using a weighting profile corresponding to the light source and the cable to generate a distributed property profile defined along the length of the cable.

Embodiments of the invention include an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) device having a transmitter for transmitting a series of optical pulses, a processor for controlling the duration and frequency of the transmitted optical pulses, an optical coupler for directing the transmitted optical pulses to a device under test coupled to the OTDR and receiving light reflected back from the device under test, a detector for converting light reflected back from the device under test to an electrical signal, a display for displaying a plot of the electrical signal, and a gating function device for removing at least one saturation event from the light reflected back from the device under test. The operation of the gating function device is controlled by a gating signal provided by the processor to the gating function device. The gating signal is based on at least one characteristic of the saturation event.