Abstract
Fully distributed optical-fiber sensing (FDOFS) systems are
developing rapidly and offering significant advantages for
measurement functions in a variety of industrial applications.
Polarization techniques are well established in FDOFS and the
analysis of polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) for optical-fiber
telecommunications. However, a major problem has been of
determining, from one end of the fiber, the complete spatial
distribution of the full polarization properties of a monomode
optical fiber, along its length, with some specified spatial
resolution (~1 m). This paper will present the
theoretical framework for provision of this full
polarization-profile information and thus for measuring the spatial
distribution of any parameter, external to the fiber, which can
modify its polarization behavior, such as strain. The techniques
comprise a wavelength-diverse extension of polarization-optical
time-domain reflectometry and necessitate on-line processing.
Details of the physical principles and the polarimetry will be
presented. The practical techniques can be extended, importantly for
the oil and gas industries, to the distributed measurement of fluid
pressure. Extensions also are possible to electric and magnetic
field distributions. Finally, it is possible fully to characterize
the PMD profile of a telecommunications fiber and, in particular, to
identify any sections with anomalously large values of
PMD.
© 2011 IEEE
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