Analysis of crosstalk effects in phase-OTDR system using fiber Bragg grating array

In this paper, the parasitic components (i.e., multi-reflections, Rayleigh scattering, photodetector noise, and phase variations due to external perturbations) are analysed and based on this analysis, a new signal to noise ratio (SNR) definition is provided suitable for the FBG-assisted Phase-OTDR system. A detailed analysis of performance parameters in the presence of multi reflection crosstalk (including its first- and second-order components) and spectral shadowing crosstalk is presented. SNR was calculated for different reflectivity and spacing lengths showing that the maximum number of cascaded FBGs can be significantly increased by using lower FBG reflectivity. It was also observed that the spacing length distance does not have a significant impact on the maximum number of FBGs that can be interrogated. By comparing single-pulse and double-pulse configurations, the use of double pulse was shown to provide higher SNR values when the number of FBGs is around 100 FBGs. The multi-reflection crosstalk when combined with the spectral-shadowing effect was demonstrated to create secondary crosstalk components making the interpretation of spectral analysis more difficult.