Unified Multi-channel Spectrum-sliced WDM-PON Transmission System with Embedded FBG Sensors Network

Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors are passive components with high immunity to electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequency interference (RFI). Optical FBG sensors are typically used for remote monitoring purposes of physical parameters (e.g., strain, temperature, acceleration, pressure, load, vibration, etc.) over large optical fiber distances — 20 km. As the number of end-user equipment (smartphones, computers and other devices) is generating a large amount of data needed to be transmitted, it is necessary to look for new efficient solutions on how to fulfill the worldwide rising requirement for transmission capacity. In the same time, it is important to maintain openness for transmission systems and networks, to combine them with sensing networks, therefore making them more resource and cost-efficient. In this paper, we successfully demonstrate the realization and coexistence of multi-channel (32 channels) spectrum-sliced wavelength-division-multiplexed passive optical network (SS-WDM PON) with FBG sensors network containing at least 5 optical sensors. The investigated system was designed in RSOFT OptSim mathematical simulation software based on the ITU-T G.694.1 DWDM frequency grid to maintain maximum compatibility of the system. The system with spectrum-sliced WDM-PON data and optical FBG sensors channels is cost and energy efficient solution in optical transmission part because it is realized by using one broadband light source (BLS), for example, light-emitting diode (LED), superluminescent light-emitting diodes (SLED) or amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) sources. SS-WDM PON system with embedded FBG sensors network showed successful data transmission over 20 km of transmission distance with bitrates 10 Gbit/s per channel and non-return-to-zero on-off-keying (NRZ-OOK) coding scheme. The key strength of the proposed system is that the unified SS-WDM PON system and embedded FBG sensor network is operating based on just one broadband light source, shared by data and sensor channels.