Real-time FPGA prototyping of Doppler frequency shift compensation using DSP-assisted automatic frequency control.

This Letter presents a real-time coherent receiver using digital signal processing (DSP)-assisted automatic frequency control (AFC) to compensate for the Doppler frequency shift (DFS). DFS compensation range of ±8 GHz and the frequency shifting rate of 33 MHz/s are demonstrated in an FPGA-based 2.5 Gbaud QPSK coherent optical system. The experimental results indicate that the scheme achieves a sensitivity of -47 dBm at a bit error rate (BER) of 2E-4. The power penalty induced by the DFS compensation is less than 1 dB.

Causal Role for Neutrophil Elastase in Thoracic Aortic Dissection in Mice.

BACKGROUND: Thoracic aortic dissection (TAD) is a life-threatening aortic disease without effective medical treatment. Increasing evidence has suggested a role for NE (neutrophil elastase) in vascular diseases. In this study, we aimed at investigating a causal role for NE in TAD and exploring the molecular mechanisms involved. METHODS: ß-aminopropionitrile monofumarate was administrated in mice to induce TAD. NE deficiency mice, pharmacological inhibitor GW311616A, and adeno-associated virus-2-mediated in vivo gene transfer were applied to explore a causal role for NE and associated target gene in TAD formation. Multiple functional assays and biochemical analyses were conducted to unravel the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms of NE in TAD. RESULTS: NE aortic gene expression and plasma activity was significantly increased during ß-aminopropionitrile monofumarate-induced TAD and in patients with acute TAD. NE deficiency prevents ß-aminopropionitrile monofumarate-induced TAD onset/development, and GW311616A administration ameliorated TAD formation/progression. Decreased levels of neutrophil extracellular traps, inflammatory cells, and MMP (matrix metalloproteinase)-2/9 were observed in NE-deficient mice. TBL1x (F-box-like/WD repeat-containing protein TBL1x) has been identified as a novel substrate and functional downstream target of NE in TAD. Loss-of-function studies revealed that NE mediated inflammatory cell transendothelial migration by modulating TBL1x-LTA4H (leukotriene A4 hydrolase) signaling and that NE regulated smooth muscle cell phenotype modulation under TAD pathological condition by regulating TBL1x-MECP2 (methyl CpG-binding protein 2) signal axis. Further mechanistic studies showed that TBL1x inhibition decreased the binding of TBL1x and HDAC3 (histone deacetylase 3) to MECP2 and LTA4H gene promoters, respectively. Finally, adeno-associated virus-2-mediated Tbl1x gene knockdown in aortic smooth muscle cells confirmed a regulatory role for TBL1x in NE-mediated TAD formation. CONCLUSIONS: We unravel a critical role of NE and its target TBL1x in regulating inflammatory cell migration and smooth muscle cell phenotype modulation in the context of TAD. Our findings suggest that the NE-TBL1x signal axis represents a valuable therapeutic for treating high-risk TAD patients.

Real-time low-complexity diversity combining algorithm for free space coherent optical communication systems over atmospheric turbulence channel.

A novel diversity combining scheme, in conjunction with the complex-valued decision-directed least mean square (CV-DD-LMS) algorithm, is evaluated, and a real-time experimental validation is presented. This proposed scheme employs the CV-DD-LMS algorithm to concurrently perform beam combination and carrier phase recovery (CPR), thereby effectively reducing the overall complexity of digital signal processing. Furthermore, in the numerical simulation, under a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), a scheme utilizing the CV-DD-LMS algorithm effectively avoids cycle slips (CS) and outperforms schemes employing independent CPR modules. We experimentally validate this novel scheme by implementing it on an FPGA in a real-time 2.5Gb/s QPSK diversity-receiving system with three inputs. The back-to-back sensitivity is assessed using static received optical power, while the dynamic performance is evaluated by employing variable optical attenuators (VOAs) to simulate a power fluctuation at a frequency of 100kHz. The result proves that the implementation of the CV-DD-LMS algorithm yields stable performance while effectively reducing computational complexity.

Nonlinear transmission performance comparison employing 60 × 416.7-Gb/s TPS-64QAM and UD-16QAM systems with limited bandwidth.

The impacts of limited bandwidth on the nonlinear transmission performance are investigated by employing a truncated probabilistic shaped 64-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (TPS-64QAM) and a uniformly distributed 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (UD-16QAM) over a bandwidth-limited 75-GHz spaced 25-Tb/s (60 × 416.7 Gb/s) 6300-km transmission system. In terms of nonlinear performance measured by optimal launch power, theoretical analyses show that a 0.4-dB improvement could be introduced by UD-16QAM with respect to TPS-64QAM over a 6300-km transmission without limited bandwidth. However, contrary results would be observed that TPS-64QAM would outperform UD-16QAM by about 0.8 dB in terms of optimal launch power when the impacts of limited bandwidth are considered. Besides, numerical simulations and experimental results could both validate that about 1.0-dB optimal launch power improvement could be obtained by TPS-64QAM under bandwidth-limited cases, which is roughly similar to the results of theoretical analyses. Additionally, WDM experimental results show that all 60 tested channels could agree with the BER requirements by employing TPS-64QAM, further validating the superiority of TPS-64QAM compared to UD-16QAM under bandwidth-limited cases.

Distributed measurement of mode group effective refractive index difference in a few mode optical fibers.

The possibility to perform distributed measurements of the effective refractive index difference between distinct modes in few mode optical fibers is demonstrated using phase sensitive optical time domain reflectometry. Effective refractive index differences between LP02, LP21a and LP21b modes are measured with for a spatial resolution of 24m.

Closed-loop technique based on gain balancing for real-time Brillouin optical time-domain analysis.

A closed-loop servo control based on balancing the gain of two probing frequencies is proposed for real-time Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA) without post-processing. With the most basic BOTDA hardware setup, the system can perform measurement in 150 ms and track a sudden Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) change in excess of 300 MHz (corresponding to a temperature change of more than 250°C) over ∼5 km of fiber with a spatial resolution of 2 m. Moreover, the feedback loop is independent of the loss experienced by the probe and pump, with no requirement on the BFS uniformity along the fiber. All these advantages make the proposed system suitable for field applications in harsh environments.

Enlarging the frequency dynamic range of DMZI sensors based on the switching control feedback system.

The feedback loop in dual Mach-Zehnder interferometer (DMZI) sensors stabilizes the system operating at the quadratic point for the highest sensitivity but requires the minimum measurable vibration frequency out of the feedback bandwidth, resulting in a limited dynamic range. In this paper, we point out that the feedback operation is unnecessary while vibration is occurring and propose a strategy to adaptively enable/disable the feedback phase compensation depending on the vibration state, lowering the minimum measurable vibration frequency tenfold. Moreover, the state variable employed enables direct extraction of vibration-related data, with no need of complicated postprocessing algorithms.

Long-distance distributed pressure sensing based on frequency-scanned phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry.

In this paper, a long-distance distributed pressure sensing system based on a special fiber and using frequency-scanned phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry is proposed. The fiber shows high pressure sensitivity (159 MHz/bar) and low loss (3 dB/km) owing to its simple structure made of two large air holes in the cladding. The pressure response of the two orthogonal polarization axes of the fiber is explored distinctively. Distributed pressure sensing over a long sensing range (720 m) and high spatial resolution (5 cm) is demonstrated, resulting in 14,400 resolved sensing points with uncertainty on pressure of 0.49 bar. Discrimination between the temperature/strain and pressure responses is demonstrated, taking advantage of the different pressure and temperature sensitivities of the two polarization axes. In addition, the temperature response of the fiber is studied and the simulation results show the possibility of scaling the temperature sensitivity by adjusting the size of the core. The sensing distance limit due to crosstalk between the polarization axes is also discussed.

Impact of optical noises on unipolar-coded Brillouin optical time-domain analyzers.

Noise models for both single-pulse and coded Brillouin optical time-domain analyzers (BOTDA) are established to quantify the actual signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) enhancement provided by pulse coding at any fiber position and in any operating condition. Simulation and experimental results show that the polarization noise and spontaneous Brillouin scattering (SpBS) to signal beating noise could highly penalize the performance of coded-BOTDA, depending on the code type and the interrogated fiber position. The models also serve as a useful tool to optimize the SNR improvement by trading off the accumulated Brillouin gain and optical noises.

Study on the signal-to-noise ratio of Brillouin optical-time domain analyzers.

The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of Brillouin optical time-domain analyzers (BOTDA) is modelled and experimentally validated, using direct detection with and without the use of optical pre-amplification. The behavior of SNR as a function of the Brillouin gain and the probe power reaching the photo detection is analyzed in depth using this developed model and checked using two photodetectors with different specifications. It proves that a pre-amplification associated to a good-quality photodetector and a well-matched post-processing filtering can secure the highest SNR for direct-detection BOTDA. Such an optimal SNR presents only a 2.3 dB penalty compared to the ideal shot-noise-limited case that can only be reached using rather sophisticated configurations. In addition, the model here established predicts the SNR at any fiber position in any given experimental condition.

Short spatial resolution retrieval from a long pulse Brillouin optical time-domain analysis trace.

A novel, to the best of our knowledge, postprocessing technique is proposed to extract with a flexible and variable spatial resolution the information from Brillouin optical time-domain analyzers, obtained using a pulse longer than the acoustic settling time. The negative impact of the acoustic transient effect is suppressed, enabling a Brillouin response proportional to the spatial resolution and a Brillouin gain spectrum keeping its natural linewidth. This leads to a better overall sensing performance, in particular for submetric spatial resolutions, with no compromises on sensing range and measurement time.

Distributed and dynamic strain sensing with high spatial resolution and large measurable strain range.

A distributed and dynamic strain sensing system based on frequency-scanning phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometry is proposed and demonstrated. By utilizing an RF pulse scheme with a fast arbitrary waveform generator, a train of optical pulses covering a large range of different optical frequencies, short pulse width, and high extinction ratio is generated. Also, a Rayleigh-enhanced fiber is used to eliminate the need for averaging, allowing single-shot operation. Using direct detection and harnessing a dedicated least mean square algorithm, the method exhibits a record high spatial resolution of 20 cm, concurrently with a large measurable strain range (80µÎµ, 60 demonstrated), a fast sampling rate of 27.8 kHz (almost the maximum possible for a 55 m long fiber and 60 frequency steps), and low strain noise floor (<1.8nε/Hz for vibrations below 700 Hz and <0.7nε/Hz for higher frequencies).

High-resolution distributed shape sensing using phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry and multicore fibers.

In this paper, a highly-sensitive distributed shape sensor based on a multicore fiber (MCF) and phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry (φ-OTDR) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The implemented system features a high strain sensitivity (down to ∼0.3 µÉ›) over a 24 m-long MCF with a spatial resolution of 10 cm. The results demonstrate good repeatability of the relative fiber curvature and bend orientation measurements. Changes in the fiber shape are successfully retrieved, showing detectable displacements of the free moving fiber end as small as 50 µm over a 60 cm-long fiber. In addition, the proposed technique overcomes cross-sensitivity issues between strain and temperature. To the best of our knowledge, the results presented in this work provide the first demonstration of distributed shape sensing based on φ-OTDR using MCFs. This high-sensitivity technique proves to be a promising approach for a wide range of new applications such as dynamic, long distance and three-dimensional distributed shape sensing.

Performance analysis of frequency shift estimation techniques in Brillouin distributed fiber sensors.

The performance of post-processing techniques carried out on the Brillouin gain spectrum to estimate the Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) in standard Brillouin distributed sensors is evaluated. Curve fitting methods with standard functions such as polynomial and Lorentzian, as well as correlation techniques such as Lorentzian Cross-correlation and Cross Reference Plot Analysis (CRPA), are considered for the analysis. The fitting procedures and key parameters for each technique are optimized, and the performance in terms of BFS uncertainty, BFS offset error and processing time is compared by numerical simulations and through controlled experiments. Such a quantitative comparison is performed in varying conditions including signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), frequency measurement step, and BGS truncation. It is demonstrated that the Lorentzian cross-correlation technique results in the largest BFS offset error due to truncation, while exhibiting the smallest BFS uncertainty and the shortest processing time. A novel approach is proposed to compensate such a BFS offset error, which enables the Lorentzian cross-correlation technique to completely outperform other fitting methods.

Design rules for optimizing unipolar coded Brillouin optical time-domain analyzers.

The performance of unipolar unicolor coded Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA) is evaluated based on both Simplex and Golay codes. Four major detrimental factors that limit the system performance, including decoded-gain trace distortion, coding pulse power non-uniformity, polarization pulling and higher-order non-local effects, are thoroughly investigated. Through theoretical analysis and an experimental validations, solutions and optimal design conditions for unipolar unicolor coded BOTDA are clearly established. First, a logarithmic normalization approach is proposed to resolve the linear accumulated Brillouin amplification without distortion. Then it is found out that Simplex codes are more robust to pulse power non-uniformity compared to Golay codes; whilst the use of a polarization scrambler must be preferred in comparison to a polarization switch to mitigate uncompensated fading induced by polarization pulling in the decoded traces. These optimal conditions enables the sensing performance only limited by higher-order non-local effects. To secure systematic errors below 1.3 MHz on the Brillouin frequency estimation, while simultaneously reaching the maximum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), a mathematical model is established to trade-off the key parameters in the design, i.e., the single-pulse Brillouin amplification, code length and probe power. It turns out that the optimal SNR performance depends in inverse proportion on the value of maximum single-pulse Brillouin amplification, which is ultimately determined by the spatial resolution. The analysis here presented is expected to serve as a quantitative guideline to design a distortion-free coded BOTDA system operating at maximum SNR.

Hybrid Golay-coded Brillouin optical time-domain analysis based on differential pulses.

Different approaches to implement unipolar Golay coding in Brillouin optical time-domain analysis based on a differential pulse pair (DPP) are investigated. The analysis points out that dedicated post-processing procedures must be followed to secure the sharp spatial resolution associated with the DPP method. Moreover, a novel hybrid Golay-DPP coding scheme is proposed, offering 1.5 dB signal-to-noise ratio improvement with respect to traditional unipolar Golay coding, while halving the measurement time, constituting a 3 dB overall coding gain enhancement. Proof-of-concept experiments validate the proposed technique, demonstrating a 50 cm spatial resolution over a 10.164 km long sensing fiber with a frequency uncertainty of 1.4 MHz.

Brillouin gain bandwidth reduction in Brillouin optical time domain analyzers.

This paper proposes a novel method based on differential π-phase-shift long-pulse-width pair to narrow the Brillouin gain spectrum for improving the frequency accuracy in Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA) system. This is the first approach to reduce the bandwidth of Brillouin gain spectrum for distributed sensing to the best of our knowledge. The temporal and spectral Brillouin responses for the proposal are analytically solved, and the key parameters such as pulse width and the length of π-phase-shift pulse section are investigated. Theoretical analysis and experimental results demonstrate that the proposal could achieve 17 MHz Brillouin gain spectrum bandwidth and a fixed spatial resolution of 2.5 m simultaneously, without signal-to-noise ratio penalty. This Brillouin gain spectrum is 3 times narrower than that obtained using standard single-pulse based BOTDA method with same spatial resolution, resulting in3times frequency accuracy improvement. Furthermore, such a significantly narrowed Brillouin gain spectrum provides more tolerance to the small temperature change when hot spots are introduced, giving rise to the sharper rising/falling edge of the Brillouin frequency shift profile along the sensing fiber. This way, more precise temperature/strain measurement can be obtained.

Increasing robustness of bipolar pulse coding in Brillouin distributed fiber sensors.

The robustness of bipolar pulse coding against pump depletion issues in Brillouin distributed fiber sensors is theoretically and experimentally investigated. The presented analysis points out that the effectiveness of bipolar coding in Brillouin sensing can be highly affected by the power unbalance between -1's and + 1's elements resulting from depletion and amplification of coded pump pulses. In order to increase robustness against those detrimental effects and to alleviate the probe power limitation imposed by pump depletion, a technique using a three-tone probe is proposed. Experimental results demonstrate that this method allows increasing the probe power by more than 12.5 dB when compared to the existing single-probe tone implementation. This huge power increment, together with the 13.5 dB signal-to-noise enhancement provided by 512-bit bipolar Golay codes, has led to low-uncertainty measurements (< 0.9 MHz) of the local Brillouin peak gain frequency over a real remoteness of 100 km, using a 200 km-long fiber-loop and 2 m spatial resolution. The method is evaluated with a record figure-of-merit of 380'000.

Evaluating and overcoming the impact of second echo in Brillouin echoes distributed sensing.

The detrimental impact of the second echo phenomenon that commonly exists in Brillouin echoes distributed sensing (BEDS) methods is thoroughly investigated by further developing the analytical model of the Brillouin gain on the probe wave. The presented analysis not only points out that the most severe impact imposed by the second echo occurs when the length of the heated/stressed fiber section is exactly equal to the spatial resolution, but also quantifies the systematic error on the estimated Brillouin frequency shift, the maximum of which could reach up to 8.5 MHz. A novel parabolic-amplitude four-section pulse is proposed, which can compensate the impact of the second echo optically, without using extra measurement time and post-processing. The key parameters of the proposed pulse are optimized by combining an upgraded mathematical model and the iterative algorithm. The experimental results show a good agreement with the analysis about the behavior of the second echo, and demonstrate that the proposed technique is capable of providing sub-meter spatial resolution and the natural linewidth of Brillouin gain spectrum simultaneously, while completely eliminating the impact of the second echo.