Optical fibers first appeared in the mid-1960s as a revolutionary means of fast and low-loss communication via a drawing glass made of silica with a dimension similar to human hair. Distributed Fiber Optic Sensors (DFOS) appeared around the same time and are a clever way of repurposing regular optical fibers to sense environmental phenomena such…

In urban environments, monitoring wide-area traffic is a crucial challenge. The effectiveness of this monitoring is critical in determining the time it takes to respond to accidents, congestion,  rock falls, landslides, and other issues. Fiber optics sensing technology can conquer this challenge with its ability to measure the vibration of passing objects along the length…

Distributed temperature sensing is the use of a whole fiber optic cable as a sensor to detect temperature changes in pipes, electrical systems, power cables etc. DTS technology is of particular interest to electrical industry since these fiber optic sensors are not affected by electromagnetic waves. So, how does this technology work? How do we…

So far, we have examined the principles of the scattered laser light in the cable; but what about the cable itself? How do we protect the ultra-thin glass fiber? What are fibers made of? Well, the optic fibers are made of either transparent plastic or glass, so that the light can travel inside the tube.…