Conventional optical communication lines have learned to 'listen' to the street: from identifying cars to gunshots

The American telecommunications operator Verizon and the Japanese company NEC have just successfully completed conducted field tests of a comprehensive urban environment monitoring system and events using existing optical communication lines. No new global investments are required — all optical cables have long been laid underground by Verizon and are used for data transmission in its network. This is the uniqueness of the project: for the first time, the operator has utilized active commercial optical communication lines for data collection.

Technology tracking seismic data and temperature conditions of optical cables have been used for about 10 years, for example, in the oil extraction sector. In urban environments, this technology is enticing to monitor traffic and events on the streets, as well as to oversee the state of urban infrastructure such as roads, tunnels, bridges, and buildings. In Verizon and NEC's tests, the monitoring system leveraging AI (convolutional neural network) was able to determine traffic density of vehicles, the direction of movement and acceleration of individual cars, their weight, as well as incidents on the road (collisions and even gunshots). This information will not only help improve traffic flow but also assist first responders like police, ambulance services, and rescue operations.

The principle of such a monitoring system relies on analyzing the backscattering of optical signals (echoes) in the optical fiber cable, where temperature deformations or vibrations introduce physical disturbances in communication lines, which are corrected by optical transceivers. If this information is captured by special receivers and analyzed using AI, it is possible to associate specific events with each "listened in" sector.

Verizon is actively expanding its cable network. Every month, it increases its infrastructure length by approximately 1,400 miles (2,253 km). If there is demand for the street monitoring service, Verizon is ready to roll it out across the entire territory of the USA, where it operates or where it is needed.

Source: 3dnews.ru