Measurement of distributed strain and temperature in a branched optical fiber network by use of Brillouin optical-domain reflectometry

This paper describes a novel technique for sensing of strain and temperature distribution in a branched optical fiber network, which applies Brillouin scattering as the sensing mechanism, along with Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometry for analysis of the Brillouin-scattered light waves from the different branches, after the different frequencies have been assigned to them. Experimental validation of the scheme is demonstrated with a branched optical network consisting of two optical fiber branches and one trunk fiber.