sensors

Article
An Optical-Fiber-Based Key for Remote Authentication of
Users and Optical Fiber Lines
Alexander Smirnov * , Mikhail Yarovikov , Ekaterina Zhdanova , Alexander Gutor and Mikhail Vyatkin

Terra Quantum AG, Kornhausstrasse 25, CH-9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland; [email protected] (M.Y.);
[email protected] (E.Z.); [email protected] (A.G.); [email protected] (M.V.)
* Correspondence: [email protected]

Abstract: We have shown the opportunity to use the unique inhomogeneities of the internal structure
of an optical fiber waveguide for remote authentication of users or an optic fiber line. Optical time
domain reflectometry (OTDR) is demonstrated to be applicable to observing unclonable backscattered
signal patterns at distances of tens of kilometers. The physical nature of the detected patterns was
explained, and their characteristic spatial periods were investigated. The patterns are due to the
refractive index fluctuations of a standard telecommunication fiber. We have experimentally verified
that the patterns are an example of a physically unclonable function (PUF). The uniqueness and
reproducibility of the patterns have been demonstrated and an outline of authentication protocol has
been proposed.

Keywords: optical fiber; optical communications; optical time domain reflectometry; physically
unclonable function; Rayleigh backscattering; identification; authentication

1. Introduction
Authentication is a practical approach for ensuring that data are transferred to the
proper recipient [1]. One of the ways of authentication is the use of physically unclonable
Citation: Smirnov, A.; Yarovikov, M.;
functions (PUFs) [2]. These are objects with a unique non-reproducible structure which
Zhdanova, E.; Gutor, A.; Vyatkin, M.
evoke particular responses to different physical exposure. Researches have studied a vast
An Optical-Fiber-Based Key for
variety of PUFs of different physical nature [3]. A significant part of PUFs is optical PUFs,
Remote Authentication of Users and
in a majority of which interference plays the main role. Such PUFs may use biological
Optical Fiber Lines. Sensors 2023, 23,
layers [4], chemical solutions [5] or irregular 2D surfaces [6] as optical tokens. They also
6390. https://doi.org/10.3390/
s23146390
may utilize optical fibers as scattering media [7] or a waveguide [8]. However, the presence
of interference severely limits the remote authentication properties of the conventional
Academic Editor: Jesús M. Corres optical PUFs.
and Shyqyri Haxha Recently, an experimental approach for identifying fiber sections based on Rayleigh
Received: 14 June 2023 scattering [9] analysis has been proposed [10–16]. This way of fiber section identification
Revised: 11 July 2023 is not based on the optical interference and suggests using optical frequency domain
Accepted: 12 July 2023 reflectometry (OFDR) [17]. OFDR is characterized by a very high spatial resolution down
Published: 14 July 2023 to fractions of a millimeter. However, it does have distance limitations: it does not allow
to look further than one-to-two kilometers, which is a severe disadvantage for remote
measurement. Since fiber-optic lines are a common way of long-haul secure information
transmission [18], the issue of remote optical fiber sections authentication is of great interest.
Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. In this paper, we provided the physical model describing the mechanisms of the occur-
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. rence of the Rayleigh backscattering patterns and experimentally demonstrated that these
This article is an open access article patterns can be processed via Optical Time Domain Reflectometry (OTDR) [19]. Recent
distributed under the terms and
advances in the field of OTDR technology [20] make it promising for practical implementa-
conditions of the Creative Commons
tion in the fiber authentication. Although conventional OTDR devices have worse spatial
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
resolution than OFDR, they allow measurements over significantly longer distances and
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
are limited only by attenuation in the waveguide. Therefore, the more extensive distance
4.0/).

Sensors 2023, 23, 6390. https://doi.org/10.3390/s23146390 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors

Sensors 2023, 23, 6390 2 of 12

range of OTDR devices is a major advantage for remote authentication. We considered the
optical fiber sections in terms of PUF and interpreted OTDR-processed patterns obtained at
distances of tens of kilometers as a “reflectokey” denotes the the unique signal that can be
used for authentication. We experimentally checked the uniqueness and reproducibility of
these patterns and suggested an outline of the authentication procedure. In addition, we
investigated the spatial spectrum of OTDR-processed patterns and experimentally showed
that they have a wide range of spatial frequencies, and could be detected on various
spatial scales.

2. Method Description
The optical fiber span is a unique physical object itself. A preform for the fiber core is
made of silica and doped with, e.g., Al, P, N, Ge, to give the fiber waveguide properties.
Silica is an amorphous substance and every piece of it has a unique structure at the atomic
level. Dopant atoms are randomly incorporated into the silica medium. All of these
internal features are less than wavelength λ, and the light experiences Rayleigh scattering
on them [9]. Additionally, the physical uniqueness of the optical fiber can be observed
on much larger spatial scales, since it is also due to the specifics of the manufacturing of
optical fiber. Furthermore, it can be detected via reflectometry methods such as OFDR
and OTDR. This uniqueness provides the opportunity to obtain a distinctive backscattered
signal, a “reflectokey”, which will authenticate any specific section of the fiber line.
The scheme of the experimental implementation of the OTDR approach [19] is shown
in Figure 1. OTDR device sends light pulses of specific wavelengths, shapes and durations
to probe the optical fiber line. In all our experiments, we fix a wavelength of λ = 1550 nm
and apply probing pulses with selected duration, namely 200 ns, 500 ns or 1000 ns, and
the repetition period of approximately 700 µs. The pulse sent generates a backscattered
signal that characterizes the line. These subsequently averaged signals form a reflectogram
representing the logarithmic dependence of the backscattered radiation intensity on the
distance. Mathematically, a reflectogram is a convolution of a probing pulse and a particu-
lar function implying the unique individual extended characteristics of the optical fiber.
In the next section, we provide a theoretical justification for this fact and prove that the
reflectogram of the fiber line can be used to obtain authentication data, since it implicitly
contains information about the physical uniqueness of the fiber.

OTDR device





 




Figure 1. The schematic description of the optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR). The internal
structure of the OTDR device is illustrated schematically.

In our experiments, we used the commercial OTDR device “Yokogawa AQ7275” which
has the dynamic range of 32 dB for λ = 1550 nm and allows to measure the backscattered
power level with a near 10−3 dB resolution. It is worth mentioning that its pulsed laser
source was relatively broadband. The characteristic width of the spectral range of pulses
in the vicinity of λ = 1550 nm was experimentally measured and turned out to be approx-
imately 20 nm. As the fiber media, we used a standard single-mode telecommunication
fiber “ITU-T G.652.D”. This fiber was in a spool. In all experiments, we used the same
Sensors 2023, 23, 6390 3 of 12

spool with a 50 km long fiber span. The physical connection of the fiber spool to the OTDR
device was via a standard optical connector.
For homogeneous optical fibers, a linear decrease in the level of backscattered radiation,
expressed in dB, with distance along the fiber is expected. However, in practice, it is easy
to see that deviations from the linear decay take place (Figure 2a).
These fluctuations occur due to two factors. The first one is random noise, including
the noise of the reflectometer components, e.g., the laser source or photodetector. However,
the contribution of noise can be almost entirely eliminated by a proper averaging.
The second factor is a direct result of the unique inhomogeneities of the optical fiber.
First of all, these are refractive index inhomogeneities, which are both local and non-local
due to the technological features of fiber preform manufacturing. Moreover, additional
technical inhomogeneities appear when manufacturing the optical fiber associated with
the variability of the fiber geometry. Although special equipment controls the constancy of
the core diameter when drawing the fiber from the preform, control accuracy exceeding a
fraction of a percent is not a goal. As a result, even a tiny change in the core diameter may
lead to a change in the resulting backscattering factor, which entails a difference in the level
of the backscattered signal. All these effects contribute to the observed fluctuations in the
reflectogram. This contribution determines the variations shown in Figure 2a. Furthermore,
it is this contribution that we propose to use as a unique key for the corresponding fiber
section—its “fingerprint”.
These unique patterns can be observed, e.g., by subtracting the linear contribution from
the reflectogram. Figure 2b shows an example of the processing result for a 1 km section of
standard SMF-28e (ITU-T G.652.D) single-mode telecommunication fiber. The measure-
ments were carried out with an OTDR approach at a wavelength of λ = 1550 nm with a
probing pulse duration of 500 ns and averaging over 210 pulses, which is enough for the
elimination of random noises.

(a) (b) 0.03

28.60 Corr=0.98
Relative power level, dB
Relative power level, dB

0.02

28.55 0.01

0.00
28.50

-0.01

28.45
-0.02

28.40 -0.03
4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0

Distance, km Distance, km

Figure 2. (a) An example of experimentally obtained reflectograms corresponding to successive

measurements of a homogeneous 50 km long fiber span in a spool. The section corresponding to
the fifth kilometer is shown. The red curve corresponds to a measurement taken about 10 s after the
measurement, which corresponds to the blue curve. Deviations from the linear trend are mainly due
to inhomogeneities in the optical fiber. Both measurements were carried out for a standard single-
mode fiber SMF-28e (ITU-T G.652.D) at a wavelength of λ = 1550 nm with a probing pulse duration
of 500 ns and averaging over 210 pulses. (b) An example of patterns remained after subtracting the
linear contribution from the reflectograms shown in (a). High-precision reproducibility of patterns
with a correlation coefficient value of 0.98 is observed.

It can be experimentally verified that in successive measurements with the same pulse
parameters, the patterns for the same fiber section are reproduced with high accuracy
(the blue and red curves in Figure 2b are almost entirely coincide). As it will be shown
below, the fundamental properties of the backscattered responses will be characterized by
calculating inter- and intra- L2 distances [2] between patterns showing identifiability and
robustness of the approach.
Sensors 2023, 23, 6390 4 of 12

3. Results
3.1. Theoretical Analysis
The source of the observed patterns is the variations of backscattered Rayleigh radi-
ation. It is of interest how the backscattered light implies information about the internal
properties of fiber media. The signal is formed by local scattering acts, which are de-
termined by local properties of the fiber: the refractive index, attenuation constant and
backscattering factor, which may vary with distance. These value variations over fiber
length should be described and connected with detected power. Following the standard
approach [21,22], we derive these variations.
To obtain the backscattered power from a local fiber section, let us consider electric
field E( x, y, z, t) of the initial linearly polarized speculative electric pulse propagating in
the fiber in the z direction as
Z z

1
E( x, y, z, t) = E0 ψ̂( x, y) f z − v g t exp(iβ(ω )z − iωt)exp(− α(ξ, ω )dξ ), (1)
2 0

where E0 denotes the pulse’s magnitude, ψ̂( x, y) denotes the field distribution of the
fundamental mode, v g denotes the group speed of light, β denotes the propagation constant,
ω denotes the light frequency and α denotes the attenuation constant. f (z − v g t) is a
rectangular pulse envelope function with width l:
(
1, if x ∈ [−l/2, l/2]
f (x) = . (2)
0, else

The usual formalism used in optical communication theory expresses the pulse shape
as a function of exclusively time. Here, the travelling wave formalism for the pulse shape
was chosen in order to describe the interaction between the fiber medium and the pulse.
The differential amplitude (at the moment t in z = 0) of the electric field scattered
from section dzs at point z = zs :

E0 ω
dEs ( x, y, zs , t) = dzs ψ̂( x, y) f (2zs − v g t)exp(−zs α(zs ))exp(2iβzs − iωt + π/2)×
πw02 nc
Z  (3)
2
× dxdy∆χ( x, y, zs )|ψ̂| ( x, y) ,
S

where ∆χ( x, y, zs ) denotes the local inhomogeneities of electric susceptibility which cause
the scattering, α(zs ) denotes averaged value of α(z) over the distance [0; zs ], w0 denotes
the mode field diameter while the field distribution is assumed to have a Gaussian form:
ψ̂( x, y) = exp(−( x2 + y2 )/w02 ). Mode field distribution, in general, may slightly vary on z,
but this dependence is insignificant since these fluctuations are averaged.
Integration over the pulse length gives the following:
Z v g t/2+l/4
Es ( x, y, 0, t) = dEs ( x, y, zs , t). (4)
v g t/2−l/4

Now, we assume that the exponential decay exp(−zs α(zs )) does not change on the
scales of the wavelength. That is true for the typical attenuation constant α which is about
0.18–0.24 dB/km. Moreover, this is also justified by the fact that α makes sense only on the
scales of several wavelengths. This makes it possible to calculate backscattered power:

| Es |2 (t) p  ω 2 Q(t)
Z
Ps (t) = dxdy µ/e = P0 e−αv g t
2 , (5)
S 2 c n πw2
2
0
Sensors 2023, 23, 6390 5 of 12

where the initial power is P0 = (1/2) E02 / µ/e πw02 /2 and

p

Z v t/2+l/4 Z 2
 g 2iβzs 2

Q(t) = 
 dzs e dxdy∆χ( x, y, zs )|ψ̂| ( x, y) . (6)
v t/2−l/4
g S

For further simplicity, we denote the probing pulse center coordinate by z p = v g t/2.
The backscattered power at the input of the fiber at the moment t corresponds to backscat-
tering from the section of l/2 length at the point z p . Assuming that l is at least several times
larger than both atomic scales and wavelength, we rewrite Q(t) as
Z z +l/4 2
 p
Q(z p ) = |χ̂2β (z p )|2 =  dzs e2iβzs ∆χ(zs )S  ,

(7)
z −l/4p

where ∆χ(zs )S denotes a weighted average of ∆χ( x, y, zs ) with the squared distribution
of the fundamental mode |ψ̂|2 ( x, y). Q(z p ) in Equation (7) can be treated as the squared
absolute value of spatial Fourier transform of electric susceptibility with spatial vector 2β
of the fiber section in the vicinity of the point z p . Equation (5) can be rewritten as

P0  ω 2 
−2z p α χ̂2β (z p )2 .

Ps (z p ) =
e (8)
n2 πw0 2 2 c

Equations (7) and (8) completely describe the scattering process in single-mode optical
fibers, showing how the reflected light brings the information about internal structure of the
fiber. The power scattered in the vicinity of the auxiliary point of the fiber is defined by the
local electric susceptibility distribution, refraction coefficient and mode field distribution.
The mode field distribution may also vary in different fiber sections due to geometry defects
and refractive index variability. For convenience, z p can be replaced with z. Following
the results obtained in previous works [21,22], |χ̂2β (z)|2 can be linked with observable
value α(z):
4(ω/c)4
α(z) = |χ̂2β (z)|2 . (9)
3π 2 w02 (z)l
In Equation (9), α(z) is the coefficient of loss due to the scattering. Similar to |χ̂2β (z)|2
in Equation (7), α in Equation (9) can be defined only at a fiber section the size of at
least several wavelengths. Otherwise, it loses its physical meaning. Preferably, this fiber
section length l/2 should be more than several dozens of wavelengths. Together with the
backscattering factor, it determines the power scattered in the backward direction. Thus,
from Equation (9), we can see that apart from the refractive index and the mode field
diameter, possible variations of the backscattered radiation are due to possible oscillations
of |χ̂2β |2 along the fiber.
To derive the power of the real pulse backscattered from the length l/2, let us substitute
Equation (9) into Equation (8) and obtain:

l vg
Ps (z) = P0 α(z) B(z)e−2zα = W α(z) B(z)e−2zα . (10)
2 2

Here, B(z) = 3
( c )2
2n(z)2 w0 (z)2 ω
denotes the backscattering factor with n(z) and w0 (z)
P0 l
depending on distance in general case. W = P0 τ = vg denotes a pulse energy.
Ps (z) from Equation (10) may be considered as backscattered power from a delta-
like probing pulse. This assumption is justified for a narrow pulse. As discussed above,
the pulse length should be no less than several wavelengths. This length should be more
than the coherence length to avoid interference effects. In consideration of this, α(z) can be
treated as value at the point.
W corresponding to delta-pulses should be replaced with W × F (2z − v g t)dz for the
general case of extended pulses. Here, a normalized power envelope function F (z − v g t) de-
Sensors 2023, 23, 6390 6 of 12

scribes the pulse shape. The backscattered power for extended pulses may be expressed as

Wv g Z L
Ps (t) = dzα(z) B(z) F (2z − v g t)e−2zα , (11)
2 0
where L denotes the total length of the fiber. Thus, the backscattered power is a convolution
of the pulse with α(z) and B(z), which describe the unique scattering properties of the
optical fiber, e.g., for the rectangular optical pulses, which are relatively short compared
to an exponential decay, Equation (11) takes the form of a window-averaged product of α
and B:
Wv g
Ps (t) = α(z) B(z)[z−δ/4,z+δ/4] e−2zα , (12)
2
where δ corresponds to the pulse length. This equation demonstrates that individual
scattering properties may be observed through conventional OTDR technology where the
typical pulse duration is ∼1 ns–10 µs (∼0.2 m–2 km).
Rayleigh scattering is due to fluctuations of ∆χ( x, y, zs ) on the scales less than optical
signal wavelength. These small-scale fluctuations, often regarded as white spatial noise,
determine the value of |χ̂2β |2 , which causes the optical signal backscattering. Otherwise,
the inhomogeneities in optical fibers are in an extensive range of spatial scales. Therefore,
they will define variations of |χ̂2β |2 on scales larger than the optical signal wavelength.
As these |χ̂2β |2 variations in an optical fiber may have an extensive spatial range on the
larger scales, they can also be described, at first approximation, as the white spatial noise.
These large-scale variations can be observed with, e.g., a conventional OTDR technique.

3.2. Experimental Verification of Fiber Key Uniqueness and Reproducibility

As mentioned above, variations remaining on the reflectogram (i.e., patterns) are
due to different chaotically distributed inhomogeneities of the fiber waveguide. Fur-
thermore, since it is technologically impossible to reproduce the exact locations of such
inhomogeneities, the fiber sections can be considered in terms of PUF in the language
of challenge–response pairs [2]. As a result, they, as physically unique objects, can be
considered as keys for authentication after conducting reflectometric measurements (in our
case, OTDR measurements) with light pulses having predetermined parameters.
As was stated earlier, the OTDR technique may demonstrate several kinds of instability,
particularly in laser pulse intensity or shape impermanence, photodetector noises, delay
mismatching, etc. This instability may not be eliminated sufficiently by proper averaging
to achieve the required properties of uniqueness and reproducibility. Thus, these properties
should be clearly verified experimentally.
The successive measurements were carried out with the same pulse parameters for
two independent 400 m long sections of the same fiber from the 50 km long fiber span
in the spool. Namely, the first section was 20.0–20.4 km from the OTDR device and the
second was 20.5–20.9 km. Five consecutive measurements of the span were made, and after
that, patterns corresponding to each fiber section were obtained by subtracting the linear
contribution from the reflectograms. Based on the obtained patterns, the joint correlation
matrix was constructed. This matrix is presented in Figure 3a. The patterns of fiber sections
are individually well reproduced (red blocks), as the values of the standard correlation
coefficient are not less than 0.93. On the other hand, patterns of independent sections of
the fiber are entirely different (blue blocks), since the absolute values of the correlation
coefficient do not exceed 0.26. One can see that even sections of the same fiber may be
distinguished with a high degree of accuracy.
Backscattered power is conjointly determined by the probing pulse and fiber waveg-
uide properties. Therefore, if the parameters of the pulse vary, the resulting patterns may
also change. An increase in the duration of pulses leads to deterioration in the effective
spatial resolution of the OTDR device, thereby eliminating the variations with high spatial
frequencies and changing the appearance of patterns. Thus, the same fiber affected by
pulses with distinct shapes should produce essentially different patterns. To experimentally
Sensors 2023, 23, 6390 7 of 12

confirm this fact, we measured a fixed section of the fiber, applying probing pulses of
various duration: 500 ns and 1000 ns. In Figure 3b, a similar matrix is shown. Again,
the section which is 20.0–20.4 km from the OTDR device was chosen. The patterns for
each series of individual measurements are well reproduced again since the correlation
coefficient values are at least 0.90. Still, when the pulse parameters change, the patterns
become dissimilar.

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 3. Experimental confirmation of uniqueness of fiber keys. (a) Joint correlation matrix for
two series of 5 measurements of two sections of a standard SMF-28e (ITU-T G.652.D) single-mode
fiber, each 400 m long. The nearest section is 20 km away from the reflectometer. The measurements
were carried out at a wavelength of λ = 1550 nm with a pulse duration of 500 ns and an averaging of
210 . Series “a” corresponds to the first fiber section and series “b” corresponds to the second. (b) Joint
correlation matrix for two series of 5 measurements of single fiber section 400 m long, which is 20 km
away from the reflectometer. The measurements were carried out at a wavelength of λ = 1550 nm with
210 averaging, but with various pulse duration. Series “a” corresponds to the duration of 500 ns and
series “b” corresponds to the duration of 1000 ns. (c) Experimentally obtained statistical distributions
of the reflectokey inter- and intra- distances with L2 norm. The blue and pink histograms correspond
to 137,500 and 5720 pairs of patterns of the different and same 1 km long fiber sections, accordingly.
The compared fiber sections were considered at distances up to 27 km. The measurements were
carried out at a wavelength of λ = 1550 nm with a pulse duration of 500 ns and an averaging of 213 .

To prove the uniqueness and reproducibility of patterns, the statistics were obtained
for the inter- and intra- distances between them. Figure 3c shows the results of the tests.
In total, 104 different 1 km long fiber sections at various distances up to 27 km from
the reflectometer were processed, including even significantly remote fiber sections with
worse reproducibility due to higher relative noise. The statistical distribution for the L2
distance between successive measurements of these sections corresponding to 5700 pairs of
patterns is presented by the pink histogram. This distribution demonstrates the Poisson-like
probability with a mean value of 0.11.
Statistics for inter-distance corresponding to 137,500 pairs of patterns are presented by
the blue histogram. These statistics demonstrate the Gaussian distribution with a mean
Sensors 2023, 23, 6390 8 of 12

value of 0.44 and a variance of 5.6 × 10−3 . The conducted tests show that the overlap of
histograms is insignificant. As a result, the distance threshold appropriate for the successful
1 km long fiber section identification can be chosen as 0.25.
According to Equation (12), the backscattering signal value is defined via window
averaged product of α and B on the pulse length. It means that the quality of reproducibility
and uniqueness depends on the fiber section and the pulse length ratio. In the above
experiments, this ratio value was 10, which seems close to the lower limit. However, even
for this case, the uniqueness and reproducibility were established at a fairly high level.
Additionally, the stability of correlation coefficient values over time was checked.
The patterns were again processed for the same 400 m long fiber section, which is 20 km
away from the reflectometer. Twenty five measurements were sequentially made on one
day and the same number of measurements a week later. Figure 4 shows the corresponding
joint correlation matrix. All matrix elements are greater than 0.80, which indicates good
reproducibility of patterns with time. It is also worth noting that an increase in the fiber
section length leads to additional reproducibility improvement.
1.0
1a
5a
10a

0.8
Week 1
15a
20a

0.6
25a
5b

0.4
10b

Week 2
15b

0.2
20b

0.0
25b

1a 5a 10a 15a 20a 25a 5b 10b 15b 20b 25b

Week 1 Week 2

Figure 4. A joint correlation matrix for two measurement series of a section of a standard SMF-
28e (ITU-T G.652.D) single-mode fiber. The measurements were carried out at a wavelength of
λ = 1550 nm with a pulse duration of 500 ns and an averaging of 214 . The time difference between
consecutive experiments into same series is 2 min. The time difference between the series is one week.
Since all values of the correlation matrix are greater than 0.80, long-time reproducibility of observed
patterns is established.

The obtained patterns indeed demonstrate uniqueness and reproducibility, which are
required for identification purposes. Therefore, our experimental results prove that an
optical fiber section may be recognized in the authentication procedure.

3.3. Spatial Frequencies Spectrum Investigation

On the one hand, we experimentally observed unique patterns on the scales of tens of
kilometers with the resolution from tens to hundreds of meters. On the other hand, patterns
may also be observed with the OFDR technique on the scales of meters with submillimeter
resolution [10–13]. These patterns correspond to independent variations of the fiber media.
As unique patterns can be observed in a wide range of spatial scales, it is of interest to
investigate their spatial spectrum.
Sensors 2023, 23, 6390 9 of 12

To determine characteristic spatial frequencies of observed variations of patterns,

the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) of patterns has been carried out (Figure 5a). For conve-
nience, the spatial vector k was used, related to the spatial period Λ as k = 2π
Λ . The patterns
were obtained in OTDR measurements of the first 25 km long fiber section of 50 km long
fiber span in the spool with pulse durations of 200 ns and 1000 ns (Figure 5b).

(a) (b)

Figure 5. (a) The absolute values of discrete Fourier transform (DFT) of signal patterns represented
in (b). Dashed lines represent the polynomial approximations of data. The subplot represents the
starting region of the main plot. Solid line represents the spatial spectrum of the probing pulse sent by
the OTDR device. (b) Patterns corresponding to standard SMF-28e (ITU-T G.652.D) single-mode fiber
section, which is 0–25 km away from the reflectometer. The red curve corresponds to a measurement
with a pulse duration of 200 ns and the blue curve corresponds to a measurement with a pulse
duration of 1000 ns. Both measurements were carried out at a wavelength of λ = 1550 nm with an
averaging of 210 .

According to the results, the spatial spectrum is dense with frequencies from ∼10−4 m−1
to ∼10−1 m−1 . Moreover, for both pulse durations, the amplitudes of the lowest spatial
frequencies have essentially non-zero values (Figure 5a, subplot). Thus, spatial periods of
variations of patterns may reach scales of the length of fiber line and are limited only by
OTDR distance range or the fiber length.
In a high spatial frequency region, the spectrum is limited by the pulse length, which
determines the spatial resolution of a device. As an estimate of the boundary for high
spatial frequencies, we considered the point at which the Fourier transform value is halved
compared to the maximum. For convenience, a polynomial approximation was applied to
the data (dashed lines in Figure 5a). For the selected pulses, these boundaries correspond to
a spatial period of about fifty meters for a pulse duration of 200 ns and about two hundred
meters for a pulse duration of 1000 ns. These values are of the order of corresponding pulse
lengths in the fiber waveguide which are l = v g × τp , where v g ≈ 2 × 108 m/s denotes the
speed of light in optical fiber, and τp denotes the duration of the pulses.
Figure 5a also includes the spatial spectrum of the OTDR device’s probing pulse.
The length of the pulse is 200 m which corresponds to its duration of 1000 ns. It can be seen
that this spectrum looks like the envelope function for corresponding spatial frequency
spectrum. That is also in agreement with the theoretical predictions. In accordance with
Equation (11), since the backscattered signal is a convolution of the probing pulse shape
with the scattering function of the fiber, the resulting spatial spectrum should be their
product in Fourier space: F [ f ( x ) ∗ g( x )] = fˆ(k) ĝ(k ). Wherein, zero values of the spatial
spectrum should coincide with corresponding zero values of the rectangular pulse spec-
trum, what is indeed observed. Moreover, since the pulse spectrum value is substantially
constant in the vicinity of k = 0, the measured spatial spectra in this range have fairly close
values for different pulse durations (Figure 5a, subplot).
The above results indicate that OTDR-processed pattern variations can be observed in
a wide range of spatial periods from tens of meters to tens of kilometers. Considering the
results presented in OFDR experiments, the overall spectrum extends from submillimeter
scales to tens of kilometers and possibly even greater values. Since the spectrum is so broad
Sensors 2023, 23, 6390 10 of 12

and dense, the patterns’ oscillations’ structure is similar to that of white noise. Furthermore,
the observations mentioned above provide extremely high robustness against altering the
fiber section by the intruder. These results additionally confirm the possibility of using
these patterns to authenticate remote users or fiber sections of various lengths.

4. Discussion
The uniqueness of the patterns obtained from OTDR measurements can be used for
the authentication of important sections of a fiber line or almost the entire line. As a
possible practical algorithm, the following sequence of actions is suggested for the user of
the fiber line:
1. The user first carries out OTDR measurements with a large variety of available
challenge pulses to form a challenge–response pair database in digitized form.
2. To authenticate an optical line, a legitimate user needs to carry out OTDR measurements
with randomly selected challenge pulse(s) from their database and collect response(s).
3. The user then takes an appropriate mathematical comparison method (e.g., correlation
metrics, Hamming distance, L2 distance) for their response(s) and obtains the result
of whether the authentication is successful.
The individual sample of fiber can be used to authenticate the particular legitimate
user. If it is necessary to exchange information between two users, they will first connect
their fiber samples, each from its side, and authenticate each other in turn. The physical
connection can be implemented, e.g., by employing optical connectors or fusion splices.
We propose the sketch of the following authentication protocol on the example of a
two-user model (Alice and Bob) without a detailed analysis of cryptographic strength:
1. Both Alice and Bob, with their OTDR devices, carry out in advance numerous mea-
surements of each other’s unique fiber samples with a wide variety of probing pulse
parameters, i.e., form two databases of challenge–response pairs [2].
2. For Alice to authenticate Bob, he connects their unique fiber sample to the receptacle.
Then, Alice randomly selects challenge–response pair(s) from her database and sends
the light pulses with corresponding parameters to Bob.
3. In the case of correct response in terms of the chosen method of mathematical com-
parison, Bob authenticates Alice the same way.
4. In the case of correct responses from both sides, authentication is successful.
It is worth emphasizing that the considered variations of the backscattered signal level
are in no way connected with interference effects, on which many optical PUFs are based [3].
The explanation of the interference absence is that the coherence length of the OTDR device
laser source is smaller than the length of the probing pulses [23], namely, lc  l p . These
2
lengths can be estimated as lc ∼ ∆λ
λ
. 10−4 m and l p ∼ c × τp & 10 m, respectively, where
−
∆λ ∼ 10 m denotes the the width of the spectral range of pulses of the OTDR device used
8

in our experiments, c = 2 × 108 m/s denotes the speed of light in optical fiber waveguide,
and τp & 100 ns denotes the the duration of the applied probing pulses. The absence of
interference gives an advantage over conventional interference-based optical PUFs due
to the patterns’ stability in time and remote control availability. If interference effects
were present, we would not be able to observe the reproducibility of patterns after a long
time because of temperature and mechanical vibration effects. As the time between the
measurements was significant, a difference in the ambient temperature and, as a result,
in the fiber temperature inevitably occurred. Furthermore, since the refraction coefficient of
the optical fiber and fiber length significantly depend on temperature, the optical paths’
lengths also change with temperature. The alteration of the latter would essentially vary
the interference results.
However, some decrease in correlations between patterns over the week was still
found. We believe this is due to the OTDR device instabilities, namely, the laser pulse
intensity variations or its shape impermanence. So, it is of interest to create an in-house
Sensors 2023, 23, 6390 11 of 12

setup with more stabilized laser source and investigate the long-term stability of the
pattern’s reproducibility.

5. Conclusions
We demonstrated a conventional OTDR technology as a convenient instrument for
investigating unique variations of backscattered Rayleigh radiation in optical fiber waveg-
uides. The patterns obtained from reflectograms of the fiber sections were detected in a
wide range of spatial scales from tens of meters to tens of kilometers.
We have developed a theoretical model which explains the physical nature of the
backscattered radiation patterns and showed that the physical origin of the observed pat-
terns is a convolution of optical pulse with a unique scattering profile of the fiber. The fiber
manufacturing process explicitly implies the presence of extended inhomogeneities, which
allow the observation of patterns on an even broader scale from submillimeters to hundreds
of kilometers. The observed spatial oscillations spectra are broad and dense in three orders
of magnitude range.
The conducted experiments along with the provided model make it possible to per-
form remote authentication even with a worse spatial resolution compared to the OFDR
technique. This fact gives the opportunity to observe the unique inhomogeneities of the
internal structure of an optical fiber waveguide by the OTDR technique using relatively
long pulses, with durations in the order of microseconds. Long OTDR pulses present the
opportunity to obtain the backscattered signal from the remote fiber sections.
We examined a large set of statistical data and experimentally verified the uniqueness
and reproducibility of the patterns using inter- and intra-distance distribution with a
L2 -norm. In addition, the sketches of the authentication procedures for the long-haul
optical fiber line sections or legitimate remote users were proposed. In our forthcoming
publications, we are going to analyze the presented approach from a cryptographic point of
view and consider the implementation of the concept in common data transmission systems.
Future work in this area may also study the effect of external physical conditions
on the reproducibility of backscattering patterns. It is also of interest to involve more
advanced mathematical methods in evaluating the uniqueness of patterns, particularly
machine learning and neural network technologies.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, A.G. and M.V.; methodology, A.S., M.Y., E.Z., A.G. and
M.V.; investigation, A.S. and M.Y.; writing—original draft preparation, A.S., M.Y. and E.Z.; supervi-
sion, M.V. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding: This research received no external funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement: All materials that support the results of this study are available from
the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments: We thank our colleague Nikita Kirsanov for the useful discussions.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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