This paper presents a remote 16 Ch × 200 GHz dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM)-passive optical fiber sensor (OFS) network. We particularly investigate the remote water-level monitoring capability of the OFS network based on an optical power measurement that features simplicity and a fast processing speed. The OFS network utilizes a seeded amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) light that is spectrum-sliced and distributed by an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) towards multiple sensing units (SU), where each SU is installed at a different height in the water pool. Then, each SU reflects either of the two different optical powers according to the medium (air vs. water) back to the monitoring station. Therefore, the total received optical power at the monitoring station linearly changes according to the water level. We can simply recognize the water level by utilizing the optical power meter (OPM) at the monitoring station rather than the optical spectrum analyzer (OSA), which is bulky and expensive and requires a relatively long processing time. Consequently, we can reduce the system complexity, processing time, and cost (both installation and maintenance). However, the OPM-based OFS network requires a new methodology to derive the water level from the measured optical power. Thus, we come up with the reference-to-power ratio (RPR) analysis, which can be used for the maximum distance analysis as well as water level recognition. Based on the new reception architecture supported by the new post-processing scheme, the OFS network can distinguish 17 different water levels of the SFP at the monitoring station, which is >40 km away from the SFP, without using any active devices (such as optical amplifiers) at the remote places.
Keywords: dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM); optical fiber sensor network; power measurement method; remote passive sensing; water-level monitoring.