- Distributed acoustic sensing detects disturbances in fiber optic signals to identify threats underwater
- NATO’s ‘Baltic Sentry’ mission improves underwater safety but monitoring is still difficult
- AP Sensings North Sea -Implementation highlights Fiber Optics’ role in safety
Subsea fiber optic cables are an important part of the global Internet infrastructure, yet the recent damage events in the Baltic Sea have raised concern about their safety.
According to the BBC, there is now efforts to mitigate the risk of sabotage using a decades old technique known as distributed acoustic sensing (DAS).
This procedure detects disturbances in fiber optic signals by capturing small reflections sent back along the threads due to pulses from light meetings vibrations or temperature changes, allowing the system to identify suspicious activities, such as underwater drones, vessels that pull anchors or divers near critical cables.
How fiber optics can ‘listen’ for threats
As with network security, where companies rely on the best small business routers to prevent cyber threats, monitoring of underwater infrastructure solutions becomes important to protect global communication.
Lane Burdet, a research analyst at Telegeography, notes that the number of errors affecting underwater cables has remained stable, typically between 1 and 200. “Cables are constantly breaking … The number of cable errors a year has really kept stable in the last several years.”
During tests performed by AP -Sensing, the system discovered a diver that clapped a cable on the seabed, while further experiments demonstrated its ability to identify drones and vessels, potentially delivering early warnings about sabotage trials.
“He just stops and touches the cable lightly, you clearly see the signal … The acoustic energy moving through the fiber is basically disturbing our signal. We can measure this disorder,” says Daniel Gerwig, Global Sales Manager at AP Sensing, a German technology company.
Just as companies depend on the best business mines for real -time warnings and security updates, early underwater cables can provide critical intelligence to prevent disruption.
Concerns about the vulnerability of these cables have led to NATO launching “Baltic Sentry”, a mission using warships, drones and aircraft to monitor activity in the region, but since constant monitoring is not always possible, the demand for fiber optic acoustic sensing solutions is growing.
“It’s good that NATO and the European Union have woken up … The question is how quickly you can establish contact with a vessel,” said Thorsten Benner, co -founder and director of the Global Public Policy Institute.
Maintaining safe communication in this environment requires the same level of reliability as the best network switches, ensuring smooth data shuts and minimal disturbance.
Companies such as Optics11 and ViaVi Solutions see increased interest in their surveillance technology, which can be implemented on military submarines or along key underwater infrastructure routes.
The AP Sensings system is already in use in parts of the North Sea, but the technology has restrictions that require signal interrogation points at regular intervals along the cable and have a sensing area of only a few hundred meters, which means it can detect nearby threats but is not a complete security solution on its own.
