Reducing Trade-Off Between Spatial Resolution and Frequency Accuracy in BOTDR Using Cohen's Class Signal Processing Method

A novel series of methods, called Cohen's class, are proposed for the signal processing of Brillouin optical time domain reflectometer (BOTDR), in order to reduce the trade-off between the spatial resolution and the frequency accuracy of BOTDR, which is a drawback of the existing signal processing methods. The influence of the Heisenberg-Gabor uncertainty principle on the existing methods and the cause of the trade-off are interpreted, and the advantage of Cohen's class over the existing ones is illuminated. The experimental signal of BOTDR is analyzed with different methods and the comparison between the results verifies the validity and the advantage of Cohen's class.