Detection, Localization and Emulation of Environmental Activities Using SOP Monitoring of IMDD Optical Data Channels

Optical telecommunications networks have become pervasive to satisfy the continuously growing internet traffic demand. At the same time, there’s a huge interest in deploying a wide sensor network for in order to offer enhanced network services for environmental monitoring, such as early detection of earthquakes. In this context, there’s a large interest in using the large infrastructure deployed for telecommunications also for environmental sensing. In this paper we employ the state of polarization (SOP) monitoring of intensity modulated channels, still widely deployed in metro and access network. We show experimental demonstration of environmental events’ detection and localization and propose a waveplate model-based simulative tool aimed at emulating the SOP variation induced by seismic waves propagated along fiber network segments, to test their detection and localization in presence of further SOP noise induced by anthropic activities.