Turning Fiber into Earthquake Sensors: Integrated Sensing and Communication in Live FTTH Networks
Abstract
Abstract Optical telecommunication networks offer a geographically pervasive infrastructure for environmental monitoring alongside data transmission. We investigate earthquake detection through state-of-polarization (SOP) sensing on operational, buried fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) links in Campi Flegrei, a densely populated and highly seismic area. We compare path-integrated SOP measurements obtained with a low-complexity polarization-beam-splitter receiver against reference measurements from coherent interferometry, distributed acoustic sensing, and a conventional seismic station. Four earthquakes recorded in November 2025, with duration magnitudes from 1.9 to 3.3, produced SOP signatures whose timing and spectral evolution were consistent with the available reference measurements and predicted seismic-wave arrivals. During the seismic sequence spanning 31 July and 1 August 2026, which began with a magnitude 4.7 event, manual inspection identified SOP signatures for 10 of the 16 catalogued events with magnitude above 2, including successive events separated by less than one minute. Detection varied between fiber routes because of differences in cable coupling, background noise, and polarization operating point. These results show that low-complexity SOP monitoring can provide complementary seismic observations over live FTTH infrastructure and motivate future networks of synchronized receivers for automated detection and event localization.
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