Optical and Quantum Electronics (2020) 52:326

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-020-02439-w

150 km φ‑OTDR sensor based on erbium and Raman

amplifiers

Abdollah Malakzadeh1 · Rasoul Pashaie2 · Mohsen Mansoursamaei2

Received: 23 January 2020 / Accepted: 9 June 2020 / Published online: 13 June 2020
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract
Extending the sensing range for monitoring the railways, pipelines, borders, long struc-
tures, etc., has great importance in distributed fiber optic sensors development. Phase-
sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry (φ-OTDR) sensors are the best candidate
for this purpose. Optical fiber amplifiers in φ-OTDR sensors have increased the sensing
range. A φ-OTDR sensor using combination of Erbium and Raman amplifiers has been
demonstrated with a sensing range of 128 km. In this paper, we presented a disturbance
monitoring up to 150 km utilizing Erbium and bi-directional Raman amplifications. In the
proposed sensor, disturbances at 30, 70 and 120 km distances are applied and Rayleigh
backscattered signals are investigated.

Keywords φ-OTDR · Erbium amplifier · Raman amplifier · Sensing range

1 Introduction

Among optical fiber sensors, distributed optical fiber sensors (DOFSs) are very impor-
tant because they can localize and measure disturbance over the entire length of the fiber.
These sensors are very applicable because they can indicate time and space information,
simultaneously (Taylor and Lee 1993; Malakzadeh and Mansoursamaei 2018). The main
mechanism of the DOFSs is the detection of Raman or Brillouin or Rayleigh scattered
waves along the sensing fiber according to any of the desired scattering processes (Singh
et al. 2007). The detection and measurement methods are classified into two categories:
(i) optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR) (ii) optical frequency-domain reflectometry
(OFDR). The OTDR has attracted much more attention because of its more applicabil-
ity for safety monitoring, although the results of these methods can be converted to each
other by applying Fourier transformation (Xiaoyi and Chen 2012). In recent studies, a
number of time-domain techniques have been employed for these purposes: Raman OTDR
(Wu et al. 2017), Brillouin OTDR (BOTDR) (Zhihua et al. 2018), Brillouin optical time-
domain analysis (BOTDA) (Malakzadeh and Mansoursamaei 2018; Minardo et al. 2015),

* Abdollah Malakzadeh
afard77@gmail.com
1
School of Astronomy, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2
Department of Physics, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

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326 Page 2 of 8 A. Malakzadeh et al.

polarization-OTDR (POTDR) (Wang et al. 2018) and phase-sensitive OTDR (Φ-OTDR)

(Liu et al. 2016; Kong et al. 2018). The Raman OTDR sensor uses Stokes and anti-Stokes
ratio during Raman scattering processing for distributed temperature sensing (Wu et al.
2017). The longer wavelength Stokes is only weakly temperature-sensitive whereas the
backscattered light at the shorter anti-Stokes wavelength increases with higher tempera-
tures (Hoffmann et al. 2007). The Brillouin sensor that is based on Brillouin scattering, has
been presented for temperature and strain measurement. In Brillouin sensors, BOTDA has
higher accuracy and has a longer sensing than BOTDR. It requires two end side for con-
trolling the sensor (Minardo et al. 2015). Rayleigh sensors are classified into two catego-
ries: POTDR and Φ-OTDR. The major problem of the POTDR sensor is that it cannot be
utilized over long sensing ranges. Because it works based on polarization detection, hence
the accuracy of the localization task is decreased in long distances (Wang et al. 2018).
The Φ-OTDR sensor is one of the most used sensors that works based on Rayleigh back-
scattered light detection which identifies disturbances in the forms of strain, tension, and
vibration. It is applicable for safety monitoring of huge structures such as bridges, dams,
subways, railways and runways‫‏‬, as well as energy transmission pipelines, perimeter secu-
rity such as the borders, etc. (Zhang et al. 2017; Chen and Xu 2019; He et al. 2019; Merlo
et al. 2017; Zhao et al. 2019). This sensor has shown a good performance at high dis-
tances when optical amplifiers such as Erbium and Raman are used. Increasing the power
of launched laser into the fiber by utilizing the combination of these amplifiers is a means
to improve sensing length (Peng 2014). Amplification bandwidth of Erbium-doped fiber
amplifier (EDFA) is limited to conventional band and long-band while fiber Raman ampli-
fier (FRA) has a broader amplification bandwidth; It needs a terahertz frequency difference
between the pump and the anti-stokes waves to boost performance. On the other hand, the
gain of EDFA is greater than FRA while the FRA has a lower noise figure. Therefore,
the combination of both amplifiers will result in a low noise figure and larger gain (Islam
Mohammed 2004; Martini 2010; Beninca et al. 2011; Tiwari et al. 2009).
Yun-Jiang Rao presented a Φ-OTDR sensor with a 62 km sensing range by using
the combination of Erbium and bi-directional Raman amplifiers in Rao et al. (2009). A
Φ-OTDR sensor using a combination of the EDFA and Raman amplifiers having 128 km
sensing length have been presented in Peng (2014). In this paper, a scheme with the combi-
nation of Raman and Erbium amplifiers is used to increase the sensing range up to 150 km.
In this study, all simulation results are numerically performed. In addition, these amplifiers
can be used in multiplexing optical fiber sensors such as fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors
which are cheaper compared to other sensors.

2 Operating principle

Φ-OTDR system is a sensor based on the Rayleigh scattering. The light propagates along
the fiber and its backscattering is detected by a detector. When the fiber is disturbed, a
phase shift will be induced to the light. The phase shift can be measured by analyzing
the created interference between the backscattered light in disturbed and undisturbed sit-
uations. The disturbance position is determined by analyzing the phase shift (Park et al.
1998). In the laboratory, a piezoelectric tube (PZT) is commonly used to apply the distur-
bance to the sensor. For this purpose, a few meters of the optical fiber is wrapped around
the PZT and the sensor is perturbed by applying the voltage to the PZT. The disturbance
is sensed by continuous monitoring of Rayleigh backscattered light on the detector. The

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150 km φ‑OTDR sensor based on erbium and Raman amplifiers Page 3 of 8 326

position of the disturbance can be extracted from the phase shift in the superposition term.
The generated phase shift by the PZT is directly related to its applied voltage (V). By
increasing the voltage, the phase shift becomes larger (Meiqi et al. 2016). In this paper,
perturbations to the Φ-OTDR system are considered and simulated as a sinusoidal wave
with a frequency of 600 Hz and the amplitudes of 2, 1.75 and 1. 5. The piezoelectric sensi-
tivity is also considered as 1.
The simulated Φ-OTDR sensor scheme having the EDFA and Raman amplifiers is
shown in Fig. 1. It is assumed that a 50 mw power CW laser at 1550 nm is modulated by an
acousto-optic modulator and is passed through an isolator to reach to the first wavelength
division multiplexer (WDM1). It is very important to use an optical isolator behind the
laser to prevent the laser from damage by back-scattered optical signals. In the following,
the incident signal arrives at the EDFA. In this step, the 1550 nm signal is amplified by.
As shown in Liang et al. (2000), Mao et al. (1999) and Malakzadeh et al. (2020), a suit-
able scheme for the EDFA is a bi-directional scheme with 1480 nm pumping. EP1 and
1550 nm signal are injected into the EDFA simultaneously by wdm1. Also, EP2 is sent to
the EDFA by the coupler simultaneously to stimulate the erbium ions from the other end of
the EDFA. Therefore, the pulsed laser is amplified in a bi-directional scheme by two identi-
cal pumps EP1 and EP2.
For amplifiers, all simulation results are numerically performed. The model proposed
in Giles and Desurvire (1991) is used for the amplification process in a silica fiber doped
by ­Er3+. We assumed a two-level, homogeneously broadened model for EDF with the
1480 nm pump (Saleh et al. 1990). The signal and pump power flowing through EDF are
formulated by differential equations (Cheng and Xiao 2006). Computer analysis and simu-
lation is discrete, hence, the continuous spectrum of the optical waves should be broken
into discrete optical beams with a frequency bandwidth of Δνm and the power of Pm cen-
tered at frequency νm or wavelength λm. We solved a differential equation for each one of
the optical beams to find the propagation of optical powers along the fiber. Therefore, L
ordinary differential equations should be solved, where L is the number of the pump and
signal channels. Rate equations of the excited level of ­Er3+ ions are computed as a summa-
tion of the emission and absorption contributions of all the L optical beams (Cheng and

Fig. 1  Scheme of the simulated Φ-OTDR sensor with sensing length of 150 km

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326 Page 4 of 8 A. Malakzadeh et al.

Xiao 2006). Rate equations in the steady-state condition have to be solved to acquire the
metastable level population of ­Er3+ ions (Cheng and Xiao 2006). Coupled ordinary dif-
ferential equations govern the propagation of the average optical power of pumps, signals,
ASEs, and Rayleigh backscattering beams in Erbium and Raman amplifiers (Liu and Lee
2003; Bromage 2004). For co-propagating pumps, an initial value problem must be solved
and for the case of counter-propagating or bi-directional pumps, two-point boundary value
problems must be solved. Here, we have counter-propagating pumps, hence a two-point
boundary value problem has to be solved. The four-step predictor-corrector method based
on the Adams–Bashforth–Moulton formula (Liu and Lee 2003) and shooting algorithm
(Liu and Lee 2003) are used to solve this problem numerically (Mowla and Granpayeh
2008). Several studies have been performed to investigate the influence of pump power
on this amplifier (Beninca 2011; Othman et al. 2012). Hence, threshold power for 10-m
optimum length is set to 100 mw. The achieved gain of amplification is 4.7 dB and the
generated noise figure is 1.1 dB. The values of the used parameters for the EDFA is shown
in Table 1.
The amplified signal arrives at the port1 of circulator and the laser spectrum is cleaned
from intruding wavelengths except for 1550 nm by the Bragg grating filter by port2 and
at the end, the signal comes out of port 3. At the next step, the spectrally cleaned laser
and the first Raman pump laser (RP1) at 1450 nm enter to the port1 of circulator by the
second wavelength division multiplexer (WDM2), simultaneously. They are injected into
the 150 km fiber including three fiber loops by port2 of circulator. Likewise, the second
Raman pump (RP2) with identical features of the RP1 is coupled from the right side of
the fiber by coupler. At the end, the back scattered Rayleigh signal is comes out of port3
of circulator and detected by a photo-detector. Losses of isolator, couplers, and WDMs
are considered as 0.1 dB, 0.2 dB, and 0.4 dB, respectively. Two fiber loops are standard
conventional single-mode fiber and the other one is a dispersion compensator fiber. The
length of the two types of fibers is chosen in a way to satisfy the zero-dispersion condition
in whole fiber length. The relation between the lengths of these fibers can be expressed as:
LSMF DSMF + LDCF DDCF = 0 (1)
where ­DSMF and ­LSMF are dispersion coefficient and length of the single-mode fiber (SMF),
respectively, and D­ DCF and ­LDCF are dispersion coefficient and length of the dispersion
compensation fiber (DCF), respectively. The analysis of results has shown that by length-
ening the DCF, the gain increases (Othman et al. 2012). In the fiber with 150 km length,
considering Eq. 1, Tables 2 and 3, optimum lengths for SMF and DCF are 128.4 km and
21.6 km, respectively. The values of the used parameters for SMF and DCF in these two
types of fibers are shown in Tables 2 and 3 (Islam Mohammed 2004; Ajoy and Thyagara-
jan 1998).
To avoid dispersion effects on the launched signal along the fiber, 128.4 km fiber is
divided into two equal parts and the DCF is placed in between. We will also see the impact
of the distance on the gain and the noise figure in the first and third loops.
About Raman amplification, the Raman pumps have a central wavelength of 1450 nm
and maximum output power of ~ 2.5 w. Initially, several powers were considered for RPs
and different gains and noise figures were achieved. The 2.5-watt power is a bit higher than
the threshold power needed for running the sensor.

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 Table 1  Characteristics of the EDFA for 1480 nm pumping
Parameter Value Parameter Value

Radius of the effective region erbium ions (µm) 2.2 Fiber core radius (µm) 2.2
Er3+ (ppm) 1000 Upper level life time (ms) 10
Numerical aperture 0.24 Spontaneous emission bandwidth (nm) 25
Pump eff. absorption cross-section ­(m2) 1.6 × 10−25 Transition coefficient of the erbium atoms ­(m3/s) 2.6 × 10−25
150 km φ‑OTDR sensor based on erbium and Raman amplifiers

Signal eff. emission cross-section ­(m2) 2.6 × 10−25 Pump eff. emission cross-section ­(m2) 0.19 × 10−25
Overlay factor pump 0.4 Effective area (µm2) 0.3
Cut-off pump wavelength 1400 Attenuation of 1480 nm pump (dB/km) 0.25
ASE cross-section ­(m2) 1.4 × 10−25 Attenuation of signal (dB/km) 0.2
Rayleigh scattering (dB/km) 0.15 Temperature (ok) 300
Page 5 of 8 326

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326 Page 6 of 8 A. Malakzadeh et al.

Table 2  Characteristics of parameters of SMF for FRA

Parameter Value Parameter Value

Coefficient of dispersion (ps/nm2 km) 16.5 Dispersion slope (ps/nm2 km) 0.075
RDS (1/nm) 0.0075 Effective area (µm2) 72
Attenuation of signal (dB/km) 0.2 Attenuation of pump 1450 (dB/km) 0.23
Raman gain coefficient (1/w km) 0.3 Rayleigh scattering (dB/km) 0.15

Table 3  Characteristics of parameters of DCF for FRA

Parameter Value Parameter Value
2 2
Coefficient of dispersion (ps/nm km) − 98 Dispersion slope (ps/nm km) − 0.23
RDS (1/nm) 0.0023 Effective area (µm2) 20
Attenuation of signal (dB/km) 0.55 Attenuation of pump 1450 (dB/km) 0.72
Raman gain coefficient (1/w km) 3 Rayleigh scattering (dB/km) 0.4

(a) (b)

(c)

(d)

Fig. 2  The received Rayleigh backscattered signals to the detector in Φ-OTDR sensor a at the presence of
disturbations at 30, 70 and 120 km locations. b close-up view of the first disturbation, c close-up view of
the second disturbation and, d close-up view of the third disturbation

3 Simulation results

The gain to noise figure ratios of ~ 5.4 dB, ~ 1.2 dB, and ~ 0.3 dB are achieved at the
end of the first, second and third loops of fiber, respectively. Perturbations to the Φ-OTDR
system are considered as the sine waves with a frequency of 600 Hz and amplitudes of 2,
1.75 and 1. 5. The piezoelectric sensitivity is also considered as unit meaning that the gen-
erated perturbation by PZT is transmitted to the fiber without any loss. The disturbances
are applied to the fiber at 30, 70 and 120 km distances. Figure 2a indicates the simulated

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150 km φ‑OTDR sensor based on erbium and Raman amplifiers Page 7 of 8 326

Rayleigh backscattered signal received at the detector in presence of the disturbances. Fig-
ure 2b–d are magnified diagrams of the three peaks in Fig. 2a from left to right, respec-
tively. The horizontal axis is the time which can be converted to the fiber length as L = CT/
(2 ng), where L is the fiber length, ng is group index of the fiber and C is the light velocity
in vacuum. As can be seen, there are three peaks at 30, 70 and 120 km which demonstrate
the disturbances positions. It is also observed that when the amplitude of intruder signal is
higher, the amplitude of the detected signal is larger and clearer. According to (Meiqi et al.
2016), we expected that the backscattered signal shaping to be similar to the Bessel func-
tion which is seen in Fig. 2.

4 Conclusions

The Φ-OTDR sensor is one of the most powerful DOFSs used to measure strain, tension,
and vibration. It is employed for safety monitoring of huge structures such as bridges as
well as energy transmission pipelines, perimeter security, etc. In this study, the simulation
of a Φ-OTDR sensor using the EDFA and Raman amplifiers is presented. Previously, the
length of Φ-OTDR sensor reached up to 128 km in the experimental work. In this article,
we increased sensing length up to 150 km using the combination of Erbium and bi-direc-
tional scheme Raman amplifiers.

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