A novel fiber-laser-based sensor network with self-healing function

We present a novel fiber-laser-based sensor network with self-healing function and demonstrate its effectiveness. The network survivability and capacity for a multipoint sensor system are enhanced by adding switches in a self-healing ring architecture. The fiber laser adopted in this system is a linear-cavity fiber Bragg grating (FBG) laser leading to the signal-to-noise ratio over 52 dB for the sensor network. The network survivability of a ten-point FBG sensor is experimentally examined. The experimental results show that the proposed system can facilitate reliable sensing networks for a large-scale and multipoint smart structure.