We present ϕ-OTDR for detecting and localising full spark-gap breakdowns by analysing backscattered light phase and frequency-domain signatures during high-voltage discharges synchronised with oscilloscope-recorded events. Measuring sub-kHz confirms clear discharge signatures and acoustic reconstruction over long links with ≈ 10 m spatial resolution.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2511.18130,
title = {Precise Localization of High-Voltage Breakdown Events using $\phi$-Optical Time-Domain Reflectometry on an Optical Ground Wire},
author = {Konstantinos Alexoudis and Luke Silvestre and Tom Huiskamp and Jasper Müller and Vincent Sleiffer and Florian Azendorf and Sander Jansen and Chigo Okonkwo and Tom Bradley},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.18130},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
This work has been partially funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the project HYPERCORE (#16KIS2098). We also acknowledge the Bilateral Project "DistraSignalSense" between the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, and Adtran Networks SE