nbn® deploy FiberSense DigitalAsset management in field trial using sophisticated vibrational sensors on fibre cables as critical infrastructure requirements grow.
Tuesday 25 October, 2022
FiberSense is proud to contribute their innovative sensing solution to a joint initiative with nbn investigating new ways to monitor and prevent accidental damage to the nbn fibre cable network.
In the three-month trial, nbn is exploring the use of FiberSense DigitalAsset sensing services to detect certain vibrational frequencies on fibre, along with artificial intelligence to determine whether the activities causing those vibrations are likely to cause accidental damage.
The FiberSense monitoring and diagnostic technologies provides additional levels of insight in protecting this nationally important infrastructure. For FiberSense, the trial marks another step-up in deployment in the Asia Pac region and adds to recently announced new services in New Zealand and across a number of important Pacific sub-sea cables.
Dr Mark Englund, Founder and CEO of FiberSense, explained, “We are thrilled by the rapid growth in demand for our sensing capability amongst telecoms operators. The nbn trial marks a further step forward in meeting our aspirations to scale globally. We aim to be operating on all the world’s pre-eminent fibre networks and Australia’s nbn is certainly recognised as one of the “best of the best” amongst other national operators.”
“The demonstration will apply our patented software based sensing portfolio to provide early warning and incident detection notifications that might impact critical infrastructure like the nbn from third party deliberate or accidental damage. Our DigitalAsset sensing service helps mitigate the impact of these all-too-common events – especially cable cuts.”
Commenting on the trial, Ray Owen, nbn Chief Technology Officer, said, “as the digital backbone of Australia, the nbn network is constantly evolving as we seek to stay ahead of ever-increasing demand for reliable broadband internet across Australia,”
“We are excited to understand how advanced optical monitoring and diagnostic technologies like those offered by FiberSense can provide additional levels of insight into the types of field activities that might be detected and how the response process could work when these activities get dangerously close to nbn network assets. It could mean fewer unplanned outages due to accidental damage and help ensure we are keeping homes, communities and businesses connected,”
“We are excited to partner with an Australian innovator like FiberSense to help us understand these new monitoring technologies and possible applications for the nbn.”
The FiberSense DigitalAsset service provides detection, discrimination, and mitigation features to protect infrastructure through:
- Detecting physical activity in the vicinity of optical cables carrying fibers connected to the FiberSense system
- Early warning/detection to identify and minimise potential fibre cable strikes before they happen
- Real time condition monitoring to enhance maintenance
- Integration with “dial before you dig” services to deter damage around fibre cables
- Importantly, the DigitalAsset service does not interfere with the underlying data services that the nbn fibre supports.
The trial is underway at a nbn’s test facility and a fibre cable path in Melbourne, and is expected to run through to November 2022.
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ABOUT nbn co www.nbnco.com.au
The nbn® network is Australia’s digital backbone that helps deliver reliable, resilient and secure broadband across the nation. NBN Co is committed to responding to the digital connectivity needs of people across Australia, working with industry, governments, regulators and community partners to lift the digital capability of Australia.
ABOUT FIBER SENSE www.fibersense.com
Fiber Sense Ltd was formed to dramatically improve everyone’s experience in public spaces by adding a new level of real time and historical awareness of anonymised objects and events in public spaces. The team at FiberSense invented and patented a new class of sensor system over optical fiber cable infrastructure called Vibration Detection and Ranging. FiberSense technology sits at the intersection of optical fiber sensing, integrated photonics, machine learning and optical fiber telecoms networks. They bring these capabilities together in a digital platform that can be sampled at www.fibersense.com
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