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International Conference on Optical Fiber Sensors (OFS)

Polarization sensing for optical network security: a comparative study of 1G and 200G systems

Adrián Tomašov, Pavel Záviška, Tomáš Horváth, Petr Dejdar, Matej Cernohous, Petr Münster

Published May 22, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Polarization state changes in optical fibers provide a valuable tool for enhancing optical network security. This paper uses a robotic arm to compare the polarization sensing capabilities of 1G SFP and 200G CFP2 transceivers under controlled fiber manipulations. Stokes vectors extracted from a 4-diode polarization analyzer are evaluated against a reference signal using mean squared error (MSE). Results show that the 1G system is more sensitive to fiber manipulations, achieving lower MSE overall, but is affected by signal spikes during force application. The 200G system demonstrates greater stability but reduced sensitivity to fine birefringence changes, resulting in higher MSE values.

DOI
10.1117/12.3062855

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Polarization state changes in optical fibers provide a valuable tool for enhancing optical network security. This paper uses a robotic arm to compare the polarization sensing capabilities of 1G SFP and 200G CFP2 transceivers under controlled fiber manipulations. Stokes vectors extracted from a 4-diode polarization analyzer are evaluated against a reference signal using mean squared error (MSE). Results show that the 1G system is more sensitive to fiber manipulations, achieving lower MSE overall, but is affected by signal spikes during force application. The 200G system demonstrates greater stability but reduced sensitivity to fine birefringence changes, resulting in higher MSE values.
The main topic of this paper is the detection state of polarization changes to enhance data security in fiber cable paths. The changes are generated by fiber manipulation or movements, which suggest potential security threats. Our designed system detects these changes using a polarization beam splitter and a pair of photodetectors. The values are subtracted from each other, sampled, and sent for analysis. The software detector applies FFT onto the signal and normalizes the output. The last step compares the sum of the bottom eighth of the spectrum against the threshold.
Quantum sensing has performance advantages that far exceed classical sensing, where sensing with photons is one of the most useful branches, and fiberization is a significant development approach to achieve a broader range of applications. However, the birefringence effect in optical fibers can cause polarization drift, which severely reduces the sensitivity of measurement on weak signals and influences the development of quantum sensing. In order to solve this problem, we propose a scheme that builds four time-division-multiplexing channels in the system by switching the polarization states of different optical pulses, and achieves the effect of suppressing polarization drift by analyzing and integrating the effective information of the four polarization channels. Moreover, the sensitivity and linear dynamic range of the system can be adjusted by inserting a reference phase. We demonstrate the feasibility of the system via theoretical analysis, and the numerical simulation results show that the scheme can demodulate the signal well and improve the signal-to-noise ratio by 30 dB, even in the case of the signal of the direct demodulation method is drowned out by noise and completely distorted.
In recent years, the dissemination of optical frequency signals along phase-stabilized fibers has allowed the comparison of optical clocks at unprecedented levels of accuracy. This has a strong relevance in frequency metrology and boosted the measurement capabilities also in other research fields such as radioastronomy [1], geodesy [2] and fundamental physics [3]. Fiber-based frequency dissemination relies on the transmission of a continuous-wave, narrow-linewidth laser whose frequency is accurately measured with an atomic clock at the National Metrology Institute (NMI) where it is generated. Specific techniques are used to compensate for the acoustic and seismic noise and temperature variations, which degrade the phase stability of the transmitted signal. However, in existing implementations, it is not possible to detect and compensate for the birefringence variations of the optical fiber. These can induce variations in the state of polarization (SOP) of the transmitted signal, affecting the optical beatnotes at the receiving end. This not only degrades the achievable performances in terms of phase stability of the metrological signal, but can also lead to beatnote fading, with consequent failure of the entire system. This problem currently represents one of the strongest limitations to the reliability of fiber-based frequency dissemination.
The impact of polarization mode noise on the temporal drift of a delivered analogue phase reference signal through an optical fiber network is studied. The relationship between the dispersion of the state of polarization, change of the state of polarization and the maximum temporal drift of the LO signal is established. The resulting temporal drift can be larger than the PMD value of the receiver under certain conditions. It is a significant contributor to the temporal drift in the ultra-low drift phase reference distribution system, especially when motion of the fiber has to be present in the system.
Optical fiber channels are used as media to transfer the information globally. This paper presents an implementation of a novel procedure using which a secured communication between two parties can be carried out using polarized beam of light over an optical fiber. The paper presents the experimental results obtained of the procedure in the lab environment and a security analysis of the same. It is observed that polarization state of a light pulse cannot be retained as it travels over an optical fiber because of the birefringence phenomenon. Multiple environmental factors such as pressure, vibration, temperature, etc. also add a non-linearity to the birefringence of an optical fiber leading towards an unpredictable polarization state changes over the course of an optical fiber. The proposed procedure helps the receiving party to successfully retrieve the data in the form of a polarization state transmitted by the sending party without having any knowledge about the state of polarization at the transmitting end. The paper also explains an added layer of security the procedure provides to the communicating parties to make it difficult for an adversary to fetch the data being transferred. The proposed system does not depend on the wavelength of the light being used, nor does it depend upon the type of the optical fiber used for the communication. Using this procedure, multiple bits of secured information can be sent over an optical fiber in a single polarized pulse and retrieved at the receiving end, also known as Polarization Shift Keying.
An analysis of the most critical issues in quantum key distribution systems with polarization encoded photons is presented. Effects like the fiber birefringence, fiber losses and some technical aspects can difficult the state of polarization control in such kind of systems, leading to an undesired quantum bit-error-rate increment. It is shown that a system with a long fiber, presenting a typical PMD value, only assures a strong correlation between two Stokes vectors for narrow wavelength separations. In terms of time correlation, it is shown that the typical drift times are much longer than delays between reference and data signals. The problematic of the reference pulse leakage to the data detector is also analyzed; a good agreement between experimental and theoretical data is observed.