FBG Sensors Network Embedded in Spectrum-sliced WDM-PON Transmission System Operating on Single Shared Broadband Light Source

With the development of modern communication technology industry and expansion of user needs in daily life, more and more applications, as well as systems, are being created and upgraded. Part of them, for example, sensor and data transmission systems, in a lot of scenarios are based upon the use of available frequency spectrum. Given that the overall amount of information that needs to be collected or exchanged is growing exponentially, there is a constant need to develop new system models that provide faster data transmission rates, increased capacities, simplified architecture, and resource optimization. In line with previously mentioned, it is important not to forget providing the availability to ensure interaction between systems and their models in scenarios where that could be required. For instance, merging data transmission systems with optical sensor ones, therefore establishing resource and finance optimization. Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) technology is one of the appealing ways for fiber optical sensor systems that provide immunity to radio frequency interference (RFI) and electromagnetic interference (EMI) as well as operate passively, provide multiplexing applications and remote real-time monitoring within large distances. In this research, we demonstrate a successful realization of a unified 7 FBG sensors network with the 32-channel spectrum sliced wavelength-division-multiplexed passive optical network (SS-WDM PON) data transmission system. As the length of standard single mode (SMF) optical fiber span between each sensor on the 7-sensor network is 4 km, we show the sustainable remote operation of this embedded sensor network over a distance of 28 km. We provide a resource and cost-efficient solution in an optical part of the developed system by unifying input light sources as we implemented the single broadband light source (BLS) shared between both merged systems, instead of using different light sources for each of them. For the development of this merged system model, its characterization and performance evaluation the mathematical modeling and simulation software was used. Performance evaluation was made for 4 different scenarios with and without collaboration between both systems and at bit rates of 2.5 Gbit/s and 10 Gbit/s per each and every data transmission channel, confirming that the successful operation of data transmission and sensing network in one merged system is achievable.