Performance Optimization for Phase-Sensitive OTDR Sensing System Based on Multi-Spatial Resolution Analysis

Abstract

This paper proposes and demonstrates a phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometry (Φ-OTDR) sensing system with multi-spatial resolution (MSR) analysis property. With both theoretical analysis and an experiment, the qualitative relationship between spatial resolution (SR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the length of the vibration region has been revealed, which indicates that choosing a suitable SR to analyze the vibration event can effectively enhance the SNR of a sensing system. The proposed MSR sensing scheme offers a promising solution for the performance optimization of Φ-OTDR sensing systems, which can restore vibration events of different disturbance range with optimum SNR in merely a single measurement while maintaining the same detectable frequency range.