Optical Fibers, Connectors, and Cables

This chapter introduces the types of fibers available in the industry for distributed temperature sensing (DTS) applications, the types of optical connectors, and their relevance in the context of distributed sensing applications. The high signal bandwidth of optical fibers provides significantly greater information‐carrying capacity. Some power cable manufacturers can provide optical fibers in metal tubes for integration into power cables during manufacturing. Multiple‐mode fiber has a bigger core than the single‐mode fiber and allows for more optical power to be launched into it, bringing higher temperature resolution. Fiber optic links require a method to connect the transmitter to the fiber optic cable and the fiber optic cable to the receiver. High‐quality optical fiber connections and fusion splices are important because they affect light attenuation and thereby the ability of DTS systems to detect faint backscattered light, which in turn affects measurement accuracy, spatial resolution, calculation time, and so on.