BendSense-RFID: Fiber-Pairing Managing and On-Port Power Detecting in Large-Scale Optical Networks

In large-scale optical networks characterized by the explosive growth of optical fibers, the uninterrupted management and sensing of FTTH services present a considerable challenge. This paper proposes a passive radio frequency identification (RFID) sensor which can verify the fiber connection paring and detect on-port power level non-intrusively. The sensor collects macro-bending loss from the fiber connection ports for guided mode sensing. An NPN-type trans-impedance amplifier (NPN-TIA) is designed to reduce the sensor’s power consumption by 85.43% compared to the conventional operational amplifier circuits. Moreover, digital encoding exchange between sensors reduces algorithmic complexity to O(<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</i>), enabling the system to identify 60 tag pairs within 1.5 seconds, even in high-density environments with up to 80 tags per square decimeter. Experimental validation in both laboratory and data center demonstrates the sensor’s efficacy in addressing fiber connection tracking and uninterrupted optical signal strength sensing challenges.