Search

EP-3722773-B1 - FIBER OPTIC VIRTUAL SENSING SYSTEM AND METHOD

EP3722773B1EP 3722773 B1EP3722773 B1EP 3722773B1EP-3722773-B1

Inventors

  • CHAMPAVERE, ANDRE

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20200317

Claims (14)

  1. A fiber optic virtual sensing system (100) comprising: a virtual sensor generator (102), operatively connected to a device under test (104), DUT, to generate at least one virtual sensor (106) along the DUT (104) by generating at least one first virtual sensor (106) to sense a property of the DUT (104) along a specified length of the DUT (104) that is less than an entire length of the DUT (104), and generating at least one second virtual sensor (106) to sense another property of the DUT (104) along the entire length of the DUT (104), or generating the at least one second virtual sensor (106) to sense the other property of the DUT (104) at a point along the DUT (104); and a DUT interrogator (108), operatively connected to the DUT (104), to: transmit a stimulus optical signal into the DUT (104); analyze reflected light resulting from the transmitted stimulus optical signal; and determine, based on the analysis of the reflected light, an attribute of the DUT (104) sensed by the at least one virtual sensor (106).
  2. The fiber optic virtual sensing system (100) according to claim 1, wherein the DUT (104) includes an optical fiber.
  3. The fiber optic virtual sensing system (104) according to claim 1, further comprising: an Internet of Things IoT, interface (110), operatively connected to an object, to transmit the attribute of the DUT (104) to the object, wherein an operation of the object is to be controlled based on the transmitted attribute of the DUT (104).
  4. The fiber optic virtual sensing system (100) according to claim 1, wherein the virtual sensor generator (102) is operatively connected to the DUT (104) to: move an existing virtual sensor (106) from a first location to a second location along the DUT (104); or remove an existing virtual sensor (106).
  5. The fiber optic virtual sensing system (100)according to claim 1, wherein the DUT interrogator (108) is operatively connected to the DUT (104) to analyze reflected light resulting from the transmitted stimulus optical signal by: analyzing Rayleigh scattering resulting from the transmitted stimulus optical signal.
  6. The fiber optic virtual sensing system (100) according to claim 1, wherein the DUT interrogator (108) is operatively connected to the DUT (104) to analyze reflected light resulting from the transmitted stimulus optical signal to measure insertion loss of a fiber optic component disposed at a location along the DUT (104).
  7. The fiber optic virtual sensing system (100) according to claim 6, wherein the at least one virtual sensor (106) includes: a loss test sensor that includes an optical source and a power meter to measure event loss associated with the fiber optic component; a fiber section optical loss sensor to measure optical attenuation associated with a section of the DUT (104); a fiber section temperature sensor to measure temperature associated with a section of the DUT (104); and/or a fiber section strain sensor to measure strain associated with a section of the DUT (104).
  8. The fiber optic virtual sensing system (100) according to claim 1, wherein the DUT interrogator (108) is operatively connected generally adjacent to a first end of the DUT (104), further comprising: another DUT interrogator operatively connected generally adjacent to a second end of the DUT (104) that is generally opposite to the first end of the DUT (104), to: transmit a further stimulus optical signal into the DUT(104) in a direction from the second end of the DUT (104) towards the first end of the DUT (104); analyze further reflected light resulting from the transmitted further stimulus optical signal; and determine, based on the analysis of the further reflected light, another attribute of the DUT (104)sensed by the at least one virtual sensor.
  9. The fiber optic virtual sensing system (100) according to claim 1, wherein the virtual sensor generator (102) is operatively connected to the DUT (104) to generate the at least one virtual sensor (106) along the DUT (104) by: utilizing distributed fiber-optic data from along the DUT (104) and non-distributed fiber-optic data that includes a point measurement from a device connected to the DUT (104) to generate the at least one virtual sensor (106).
  10. The fiber optic virtual sensing system (100) according to claim 1, wherein the DUT (104) includes the optical fiber that is deployed in a three-dimensional geometric pattern.
  11. A fiber optic virtual sensing system (100) comprising: a virtual sensor generator (102), operatively connected to a device under test (104), DUT, to generate at least one virtual sensor (106) along the DUT (104), and move at least one existing virtual sensor (106) from a first location to a second location along the DUT (104); and a DUT interrogator (108), operatively connected to the DUT (104), to: transmit a stimulus optical signal into the DUT (104); analyze reflected light resulting from the transmitted stimulus optical signal; and determine, based on the analysis of the reflected light, an attribute of the DUT (104) sensed by the generated at least one virtual sensor (106) and the moved at least one existing virtual sensor (106).
  12. A fiber optic virtual sensing method comprising: moving at least one existing virtual sensor (106) from a first location to a second location along a device under test (104), DUT; transmitting a stimulus optical signal into the DUT (104); analyzing reflected light resulting from the transmitted stimulus optical signal; and determining, based on the analysis of the reflected light, an attribute of the DUT (104) sensed by the moved at least one existing virtual sensor (106).
  13. The fiber optic virtual sensing method according to claim 12, wherein the DUT (104) includes a fiber optic cable.
  14. The fiber optic virtual sensing method according to claim 12, further comprising: transmitting the attribute of the DUT (104) to an Internet of Things, loT, object; and controlling, based on the transmitted attribute of the DUT (104), an operation of the object.

Description

BACKGROUND A fiber optic cable may include one or more optical fibers. The optical fibers may transmit light from a source to a destination. The transmitted light may be backscattered and reflected. The backscattered and reflected light may be analyzed to determine properties of the optical fibers. US 2016/252414 discloses systems and methods related to fiber optic sensing, and in particular to distributed acoustic sensing (DAS). US 2012/143521 is related to determining a deformation of a tubular having multiple tubular sections. US 2006/028637 discloses a natural fiber span reflectometer providing a virtual differential signal sensing array capability. US 5,757,487 discloses methods and apparatus for distributed optical fiber sensing of strain or multiple parameters. SUMMARY According to the invention, there is provided a fiber optic virtual sensing system as defined in claims 1 and 11 and a fiber optic virtual sensing method as defined in claim 12. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS Features of the present disclosure are illustrated by way of example and not limited in the following figure(s), in which like numerals indicate like elements, in which: Figure 1A illustrates an operational layout of a fiber optic virtual sensing system in accordance with an example of the present disclosure;Figure 1B illustrates further details of an operational layout of the fiber optic virtual sensing system of Figure 1A in accordance with an example of the present disclosure;Figure 2 illustrates a linear sensor array configuration where multiple independent measuring sensors are deployed in a geometric pattern to cover a full length of a sensing path to illustrate operation of the fiber optic virtual sensing system of Figure 1A in accordance with an example of the present disclosure;Figure 3 illustrates a simplified architecture of a device under test (DUT) interrogator of the fiber optic virtual sensing system of Figure 1A in accordance with an example of the present disclosure;Figure 4 illustrates deployment of virtual sensors to illustrate operation of the fiber optic virtual sensing system of Figure 1A in accordance with an example of the present disclosure;Figures 5A-5C illustrate application in a telecommunications domain to illustrate operation of the fiber optic virtual sensing system of Figure 1A in accordance with an example of the present disclosure;Figure 6 illustrates different types of sensors to illustrate operation of the fiber optic virtual sensing system of Figure 1A in accordance with an example of the present disclosure;Figure 7 illustrates an application on a telecommunications network that interconnects multiple equipment by fiber links to illustrate operation of the fiber optic virtual sensing system of Figure 1A in accordance with an example of the present disclosure;Figure 8A illustrates a physical and hardware approach, and Figure 8B illustrates an application oriented approach to illustrate operation of the fiber optic virtual sensing system of Figure 1A in accordance with an example of the present disclosure;Figure 9 illustrates a graphical user interface display to generate virtual sensors to illustrate operation of the fiber optic virtual sensing system of Figure 1A in accordance with an example of the present disclosure;Figure 10 illustrates a flowchart of an example method for fiber optic virtual sensing in accordance with an example of the present disclosure; andFigure 11 illustrates a computer system, according to an example of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION For simplicity and illustrative purposes, the present disclosure is described by referring mainly to examples. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. It will be readily apparent however, that the present disclosure may be practiced without limitation to these specific details. In other instances, some methods and structures have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure the present disclosure. Throughout the present disclosure, the terms "a" and "an" are intended to denote at least one of a particular element. As used herein, the term "includes" means includes but not limited to, the term "including" means including but not limited to. The term "based on" means based at least in part on. Fiber optic virtual sensing systems, and methods for fiber optic virtual sensing are disclosed herein. The systems and methods disclosed herein provide for the configuration of a physical location of a measurement area of a plurality of virtual sensors along an optical fiber for measuring physical parameters of interest, such as optical loss, based, for example, on fiber optic reflectometry measurement. With respect to an infrastructures, such as an Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure, such an infrastructure may include objects equipped with sensors, actuators, and processors that communicate with each other to serve