SNR enhancement of Raman-based long-range distributed temperature sensors using cyclic Simplex codes

Presented is a novel approach for enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of optical fibre distributed temperature sensors. The proposed method is based on cyclic codes and it can be implemented by high-power lasers, which are required for long-range applications but are unsuitable for conventional coding techniques. The expected performance improvement, in terms of temperature resolution, sensing range and measurement time, is confirmed by simulations. © 2010 The Institution of Engineering and Technology.