Aston University is leading a new £5.5m EU research project to explore converting existing telecommunication fibre-optic cables into sensors that can detect natural hazards and assess the condition of civil infrastructure.
The project is called ECSTATIC – Engineering Combined Sensing and Telecommunications Architectures for Tectonic and Infrastructure Characterisation – and is part of the Horizon Europe Research & Innovation Action (RIA), which aims to tackle global problems and boost the continent’s industrial competitiveness.
Converting telecom fibres into sensors requires new digital signal processing to overcome the limited data storage and processing capabilities of existing communication networks.
To address this the project will use localised, high performance digital processing that will integrate artificial intelligence and machine learning. The researchers’ goal is to minimise algorithms’ complexity while providing extremely accurate real-time sensing of events and network condition.
The new laser interrogation and signal processing technologies will be tested using existing fibre optic networks, including those underwater, in cities, and along railway infrastructure to assess their potential.
Delivered by a consortium of 14 partners across seven countries, from academic and non-academic sectors, the research will start in February 2025 and will last three and a half years.
The Europe-wide team will be led by Professor David Webb who is based in the Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies (AIPT).
Professor Webb said: “There are more than five billion kilometres of installed data communications optical fibre cable, which provides an opportunity to create a globe-spanning network of fibre sensors, without laying any new fibres.
“These traverse the seas and oceans – where conventional sensors are practically non-existent – and major infrastructures, offering the potential for smart structural health monitoring.”
