In this paper, we discuss the operation principles,
sensing mechanisms, challenges and application areas of the
optical reflectometry techniques exploiting Rayleigh scattering
phenomenon, considering both time- and frequency-domain
schemes. Among various distributed optical fiber sensor (DOFS)
systems interrogated by optical reflectometry techniques, a
special emphasis was given, in this paper to distributed acoustic
sensor (DAS) interrogation methods. Recent progresses obtained
through our research collaborations are also presented.
