Influence of phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometer on community antenna television transmission

Abstract. Multiple studies have been carried out to analyze the mutual interaction of a phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometer (Φ-OTDR) and parallel digital data traffic. However, interactions with analog transmission, e.g., community antenna television (CATV), have not been addressed. Our study examines and presents the influence of a developed sensing system Φ-OTDR when operated simultaneously on parallel fibers with the transfer of data from an analog CATV system. Three scenarios are suggested and discussed for the measurements and optimization of the data network in the analog CATV data transfer. These scenarios are suggested to enable the verification of the mutual interactions between data networks with the analog data transfer and suggested sensing system and to determine how the data network with the analog data transfer may or may not be influenced by the sensing system. The optimization and measurements prove that the analog CATV data transfer was negatively influenced by the sensing system Φ-OTDR, and the channel bit error rate increased by nearly half. The implementation of the sensing system Φ-OTDR was realized for a data network, followed by the testing and optimization, which proved that the safe spectral distance between the CATV and the sensing system is 150 GHz and higher.