Fiber’s expanding sensing opportunities

As fiber continues to proliferate throughout the nation through federal and private investment, new and exciting opportunities to utilize it are opening beyond delivering high-speed, low-latency broadband to unserved and underserved areas of the country. Technologies using fiber as a sensor have been around for decades, but the growth of fiber deployments worldwide is opening up new applications in everything from monitoring cicadas to locating new energy sources. Fiber optic sensing measures changes in an optical fiber's naturally occurring light scattering. It can measure changes in the fiber's physical state through vibration, strain, and temperature, using the fiber as a sensor of its entire length. The fiber provides real-time information on its physical surroundings, and the information collected can pinpoint the precise location of events and conditions at or near the sensor cable. We’re just starting to fully grasp fiber optics' potential to monitor our civil infrastructure and environment.