Eavesdropping G.652 vs. G.657 fibres: a performance comparison

With increasing dependence on secure access to digital services and the ultra-high traffic volumes running on the optical fibre communication infrastructure, the protection of this infrastructure from eavesdropping is extremely important, especially in defense and military applications. The G.657 fibre is recommended to be deployed in in-building installations for its improved bending performance compared to the G.652 fibre. However, the easiness to be eavesdropped, which reflects the security level of those two types of fibres has not yet been investigated. In this paper, we study the eavesdropping of fibre from a system perspective and compare the bending property of G.652 and G.657 fibres. The measurement results show that G.657 can be bent sharper than G.652 without causing any additional power attenuation at the receiver. This indicates that the so-called bending-insensitive G.657 fibre can potentially be eavesdropped more easily than their G.652 counterparts. The paper also shows that the power level measurement at the receiver may not be sufficient for unambiguous eavesdrop detection.