Integrated optical covert sensing and communication

Amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) is the most natural optical carrier for covertly conveying messages in the photonic layer and simultaneously serves as a typical optical carrier in optical sensors. Here, an innovative scheme for integrating covert sensing and communication based on ASE light is proposed and demonstrated through a proof-of-concept experiment. The optical covert sensor, based on a Sagnac structure, detects the location of vibration by searching the null frequency in the spectrum. The experimental results show that the impact of covert sensing on covert communication is negligible, and the bit error rate (BER) performance verifies the feasibility of the integration of optical covert sensing and communication. It may be used in the metropolitan area optical network.