Use of Optical Coherent Detection for Environmental Sensing

Abstract

We discuss the use of the fiber channel transfer matrix extracted from a digital coherent receiver for environmental sensing. We show that the polarization rotation vector describing the unitary part of the matrix is highly sensitive to perturbations affecting the optical fiber link. This vector can be readily extracted from the time-dependent transfer matrix reconstructed by the coherent receiver during system operation and may serve as an effective observable to monitor environmental changes.