Fiber Optic Sensing for Subsea Cable Monitoring
Subsea fiber optic cables form the backbone of global telecommunications and data infrastructure, carrying critical communications between countries, continents and offshore facilities. These cables can extend for hundreds or thousands of kilometres through environments where conventional surveillance is difficult, while remaining vulnerable to damage from vessel anchors, commercial fishing and trawling, seabed movement and other external activity.
HAWK's Praetorian Fiber Optic Sensing System uses Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) to provide continuous monitoring along subsea cable routes. Existing optical fibers within the cable, or dedicated sensing fibers installed alongside the asset, can be used as thousands of distributed sensing points capable of detecting, locating and classifying acoustic and vibration events. This provides operators with real-time awareness of activity occurring around critical subsea infrastructure and the ability to identify potential threats before they result in cable damage or communications outages.
Principle of Operation
The Praetorian System transmits laser pulses through an optical fiber and analyses the naturally occurring Rayleigh backscatter returned along the fiber. Acoustic energy, vibration and strain acting on the cable create measurable changes in the returned optical signal. Using time-of-flight and advanced signal processing, Praetorian determines the location, intensity and characteristics of these disturbances along the monitored cable.
For subsea cable monitoring, the system effectively transforms the optical fiber into a continuous distributed acoustic sensor. Acoustic and vibration signatures generated by vessels, anchors, fishing and trawling equipment, cable movement and seabed disturbances can be detected and located along the cable route. Automated event classification and alarm processing can then provide operators with early warning of potentially damaging activity, allowing threats to be investigated before physical cable damage or service interruption occurs.
Because the sensing element is the optical fiber itself, no powered electronic sensors or communications infrastructure are required along the monitored subsea route.
Industries
- Subsea Telecommunications
- Telecommunications Network Operators
- Data Centre and Cloud Infrastructure
- Offshore Oil & Gas
- Offshore Renewable Energy
- Government and Defence
- Marine Infrastructure
- Critical Infrastructure Operators
Applications
- Submarine Telecommunications Cables
- International and Intercontinental Data Cables
- Coastal and Near-Shore Cable Protection
- Cable Landing and Shore Approach Monitoring
- Offshore Platform Communication Cables
- Inter-Island Telecommunications Cables
- Data Centre Interconnection Cables
- Critical Government and Defence Communications
- Anchor and Trawling Threat Detection
- Vessel Activity Monitoring
- Cable Route Surveillance
- Seabed and Cable Disturbance Detection
Features
- Continuous 24/7 subsea cable monitoring
- Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS)
- Real-time detection and location of cable threats
- Detection of vessel and marine activity
- Anchor drop and anchor drag detection
- Detection of fishing and bottom-trawling activity
- Identification of cable disturbance and movement
- Detection of acoustic and vibration events along the cable route
- Precise event location along the sensing fiber
- Automated event classification and alarming
- Monitoring over long distances from a single interrogator location
- Utilises existing or dedicated optical fiber
- No power or communications infrastructure required along the subsea cable
- Remote monitoring of difficult-to-access infrastructure
- Preventative rather than reactive cable protection
- Integration with external monitoring and alarm systems
Dimensions & Specifications
- 4RU 19" Rack Enclosure (190x600x490mm)
- Sensing Element: Fiber Optic Sensing Cable
- Number of Channels: 1 or 2
- Interrogator Operating Temp: 0-40°C (32-104°F)
- Unit Operating Humidity (max): 10-85% @ 40°C Non-Condensing
- Power Supply: 110-240VAC (50-60Hz), 24VDC
Contact Us to Learn More
Contact us today to learn more about our smart sensing subsea cable monitoring fiber optic products and capabilities or to learn about other products we offer such as subsea pipeline monitoring, conveyor health monitoring systems, perimeter security and threat detection, and pipeline monitoring and leak detection.
Start protecting your valuable assets with Hawk Fiber Optics.
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