Deployment Optimization for One-Dimensional Optical Fiber Sensor Networks

One-dimensional optical fiber sensor networks (OFSNs) consisting of optical fiber sensors arranged in a straight line are the foundation of complex networks. To enhance the networks robustness, this paper presents a deployment optimizing method for one-dimensional OFSNs based on a robustness evaluation model. It first determines the maximum, minimum, and optimum neighboring sensor distance under the mutual influence of two identical sensors. Then, the case of different type of sensors is also considered. Therefore, a deployment scheme for one-dimensional OFSNs is established, including sensor arrangement and sensor number required for monitoring over a length L. An attenuation coefficient experiment of fiber Bragg grating was designed. The deployment as well as the other three schemes was applied to the same 400 cm long monitoring area. The robustness was analyzed under different deployment methods. Compared with any other deployment method, the OFSN under our deployment scheme proved to be more robust than others, and this result validates our deployment scheme to be useful for practical networks.