Quasi-all-optical network extension for submarine cabled observatories

Submarine cabled networks are designed to collect valuable data in geophysics, geochemistry, biology, or oceanography. Unfortunately, the development of such a network is expensive and needs complex subsea infrastructures. Once in place, a cabled network cannot be easily relocated. The current cost of cables and their installation are one of the major obstacles to these networks deployment. On the one hand, these cables are necessary to provide power supply and communication data, and on the other hand they drastically reduce the possibilities to extend the cabled observatory network in order to reach a closed area of significant interest. This is why, to address this issue, we propose a quasi-all-optical architecture to easily extend multidisciplinary cabled networks or to create a dedicated submarine hydrophone or seismometer network. This solution consists of using only a single fiber optic to transmit both the energy, required to supply the instrument, and the data, exchanged between the shore station or equivalent. In this paper, we present our proposed architecture, and we discuss its feasibility thanks to experimental results. (C) 2011 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI: 10.1117/1.3560542]