- The distributed acoustic detection detects disturbances of fiber optic signals to identify underwater threats
- NATO’s “Baltic Sentry” mission improves underwater security, but surveillance remains difficult
- The deployment of the northern sea of AP Sensing highlights the role of optical fiber in security
Underwater optical fiber cables are a crucial element of the global internet infrastructure, but recent damage to the Baltic Sea have raised concerns about their safety.
According to the BBC, there is now efforts to mitigate the risk of sabotage using a technique old decades known as the distributed acoustic detection (DAS).
This approach detects the disturbances of optical fiber signals by capturing tiny reflections returned along the strands due to impulses from light vibrations or temperature changes, allowing the system to identify a suspicious activity such as underwater drones, vessels dragging anchors or divers near critical cables.
How fiber optics can “listen” to threats
As with network safety, where companies are based on the best small businesses to prevent cyber managers, monitoring solutions for underwater infrastructure becomes essential to protect global communications.
Lane Burdette, research analyst at Telegeography, notes that the number of defects affecting underwater cables each year has remained stable, generally between 1 and 200. “The cables break all the time … The number of cable defects per year has really been stable in recent years.”
During the tests carried out by AP detection, the system detected a diver hitting a cable on the seabed, while other experiences have demonstrated his ability to identify drones and ships, potentially offering early warnings in sabotage attempts.
“It stops and touches the cable lightly lightly, you clearly see the signal … The acoustic energy that moves through the fiber essentially disturbs our signal. We can measure this disturbance,” explains Daniel Gerwig, world sales director at AU AO Sensing, a German technology company.
Just as companies depend on the best commercial smartphones for real-time alerts and security updates, early alert systems for underwater cables can provide critical intelligence to avoid disturbances.
The concerns concerning the vulnerability of these cables have led NATO to launch “Baltic Sentry”, a mission using warships, drones and planes to monitor activity in the region, but as constant monitoring is not always possible, the demand for fiber optic acoustic detection solutions increases.
“It is good that NATO and the European Union have woken up … The question is how speed you could establish contact with a ship,” said Thorsten Benner, co -founder and director of the Global Public Policy Institute.
Maintaining secure communications in this environment requires the same level of reliability as the best network switches, guaranteeing a smooth data flow and minimum disturbance.
Companies such as Optics11 and Viavi Solutions note an increased interest in their surveillance technology, which can be deployed on military submarines or along the key roads in underwater infrastructure.
The AP Sensing system is already used in certain parts of the North Sea, but technology has limits, requiring signal question points at regular intervals along the cable and having a detection range of only a few hundred meters, which means that it can detect nearby threats but is not a complete safety solution in itself.
