Separation of Electrical Signal Processing Unit in Brillouin Optical Correlation-Domain Reflectometry

We propose a configuration for Brillouin optical correlation-domain reflectometry (BOCDR) in which the electrical signal processing unit is placed remotely and connected to the optical measurement unit via a long-distance optical fiber. This arrangement eliminates the need for bulky electrical devices at the measurement site. We investigate the effect of changing the connecting fiber length and demonstrate that Brillouin frequency shift distributions can be obtained with separations of up to approximately 20 km under the tested conditions. We also show the importance of compensating for propagation losses when using long-distance fibers.