An Overview of the Recent Advances in FBG-Assisted Phase-Sensitive OTDR Technique and its Applications

In this paper, we discuss the operation principles, sensing mechanism, challenges and application areas of FBG-assisted phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry. A special emphasis is given to the interrogation of fiber Bragg grating arrays for vibration sensing application. Results obtained by different research groups are compared in terms of performance characteristics and future perspectives. Recent progress obtained through our research collaboration are also presented. In particular, the detrimental spectral shadowing effect and multiple reflection crosstalk are analysed and mitigation techniques are proposed.