BOTDA using OFDM channel estimation

A novel Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA) system is proposed using intensity-modulated optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing probe signal and direct detection (IM-DD-OOFDM) without frequency sweep operation. The influence of peak to average power ratio (PAPR) of OFDM probe signal on the recovery of Brillouin gain spectrum (BGS) is analyzed in theory and experiment. The complex BGS is reconstructed by channel estimation algorithm and Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) is located by curve fitting of intensity spectrum. The IM-DD-OOFDM BOTDA is demonstrated experimentally with 25m spatial resolution over 2 km standard single mode fiber.