A fiber sensor network using fiber optic power supply

A wide-area sensor network based on fiber optic power supply is reviewed. This sensor network is composed of hundreds of sensor nodes driven by the laser power. Each sensor node produces optical signals by modulating a part of the supplied laser light and sends these signals to a monitoring station. The optical power required for driving one sensor node is less than 2 mW. Because each sensor node can control two or three sensors, a single laser diode with 1 W is sufficient for driving 1,000 sensors. The proposed sensor network can also be integrated with wireless sensors, which enables ubiquitous sensing.