Distributed optical fiber vibration signal plays a significant role in the communication and safety of any perimeter security monitoring system. It uses light as an information carrier and optical fiber as a means of signal transmission and communication. Phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry (Φ-OTDR) is used to detect the signals generated during events (intrusions or nonintrusion). This paper proposes the time-frequency characteristic (TFC) method for the recognition of the fiber vibration signal and designs and implements the corresponding software function module. The combination of time-domain features and time-frequency-domain features is called TFC; and it is based on the Hilbert transform and on the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) of time-frequency entropy and center-of-gravity frequency that is described. A feature vector is formed, and multiple types of probabilistic neural networks (PNNs) are performed on it to determine whether intrusion events occur. The experimental simulation results show that the monitoring system software can intelligently display the data collected in real time, which demonstrates that the proposed method is effective and reliable in identifying and classifying accurately the types of events. The data processing time is less than 2 s, and the accuracy of the system identification can reach 99%, which ensures the system’s validity.