Konstantinos Alexoudis explores multi-modal fiber sensing for subsea infrastructure at OFC 2026
Session will show how combining acoustic, polarization and Brillouin sensing captures storm-induced fiber strain
- Speakers: Konstantinos Alexoudis, research engineer at Adtran
- Topics: Multi-modal fiber sensing for offshore environmental and infrastructure monitoring
- When: Tuesday, March 17, 2 p.m. PT
- Where: OFC 2026, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, California, USA https://www.ofcconference.org
While monitoring offshore infrastructure is highly complex, subsea optical telecommunication cables provide long and stable baselines that are ideal for environmental sensing. Distributed fiber sensing can be realized using different techniques, such as distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), state-of-polarization (SOP) and distributed temperature and strain sensing (DTSS), differing in sensitivity and resolution.
In this session, Konstantinos Alexoudis will present the first coordinated deployment of DAS, SOP and DTSS on an operational 118 km subsea cable. By analyzing continuous real-world data captured during storm "Floris" in Norway, the presentation will explore the limitations of single sensing methods while showcasing how these technologies can be combined to overcome individual blind spots, enabling the simultaneous observation of both immediate dynamic events and slower strain variations. This session will also demonstrate how using multiple sensing approaches provides operators with a complete, actionable picture of the marine environment's impact on subsea infrastructure.