Sensitivity Limits for $φ$-OTDR
2026-08-24 • Information Theory
Information Theory
AI summaryⓘ
The authors show a way to improve how sensitive a specific type of optical sensor, called φ-OTDR, is at detecting signals. They use a method called Kalman filtering to estimate the phase, which helps them detect weaker signals better. Their tests suggest this method can reduce the noise level needed to detect signals by about 35 decibels compared to traditional methods.
φ-OTDRphase estimationKalman filteringsensitivitysignal-to-noise ratiooptical sensingnumerical analysisminimum detectable signaldecibel
Authors
Juan M. Marin, Roman Ermakov, Huwei Wang, Francesco Da Ros, Darko Zibar
Abstract
We demonstrate a new lower bound on the sensitivity of $φ$-OTDR by estimating phase using Kalman filtering. Numerical analysis shows a $\sim$35-dB reduction in the minimum detectable SNR, compared to when using conventional phase estimation.