Performance enhancement of optical pulse coding phase-sensitive OTDR system with genetic-optimized code

Abstract

Optical pulse coding (OPC) in phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry (φ-OTDR) traditionally relies on standard coding sequences as probe pulse trains, which usually suffer the problem of distorted probe pulse caused by the gain saturation in erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA). To improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and mitigate distortion caused by the EDFA gain saturation, a genetic-optimized code (Go-code) based OPC φ-OTDR (GOPC φ-OTDR) scheme is proposed in this paper. The unique Go-code sequence generated by the distributed genetic algorithm (DGA) is explored in the field of φ-OTDR for the first time, and the coding sequence was optimized to adapt to the vibration sensing requirements in φ-OTDR. Theoretical analyses focused on EDFA gain saturation effects and coding gain were conducted. The experiment of GOPC φ-OTDR demonstrated significant improvements compared with Golay φ-OTDR, achieving less distortion in decoding response and approximately 7.48 dB phase demodulation SNR enhancement within a 10-km sensing range. This research marks Go-code's pioneering exploration into φ-OTDR, demonstrating substantial advancements in optimization metrics, and opening avenues for exploring advanced OPC technologies.