Fiber‐optic sensor active networking with distributed erbium‐doped fiber and Raman amplification

Abstract This work is meant to provide a review of different multiplexing topologies employing distributed erbium‐doped fiber and Raman amplification to solve the problem of power‐loss compensation in fiber‐optic sensor (FOS) networks. This is a key parameter in large multiplexing networks, particularly when employing intensity‐modulated sensors. These topologies are studied both theoretically and experimentally, and a comparative analysis is carried out between them. The main parameters considered in the analysis are power budget, optical signal‐to‐noise ratios, scalability and architecture complexity.