Blue Rose perimeter defense and security system

Abstract

An in-ground perimeter security system has been developed by the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport based upon fiber optic sensor technology. The system, called Blue Rose, exploits the physical phenomenon of Rayleigh optical scattering, which occurs naturally in optical fibers used traditionally for Optical Time Domain Reflectometry techniques to detect sound and vibration transmitted by intruders such as people walking or running and moving vehicles near the sensor. The actual sensor is a single-mode optical fiber with an elastomeric coating that is buried in the ground. A long coherence length laser is used to transmit encoded light down the fiber. Minute changes in the fiber in response to the intrusion produce phase changes to the returning backscattered light signal. The return light signal contains both the actual intrusion sound and the location information of where along the fiber the intrusion has occurred. A digital, in-ground, Blue Rose system has been built and is now operational at NUWC. Due to the low cost of the optical fiber sensor and unique benefits of the system, the Blue Rose system provides an advantage in long perimeter or border security applications and also reduces security manning requirements and therefore overall cost for security.