Optical fiber tapping: Methods and precautions

Authors	M. Zafar Iqbal; Habib Fathallah; Nezih Belhadj
Editors
Type	inproceedings
Year	2011
Citekey	`iqbal2011optical`

Published in	8th International Conference on High-capacity Optical Networks and Emerging Technologies
Publisher	IEEE
Pages	164--168

DOI	10.1109/honet.2011.6149809

Landing page	https://doi.org/10.1109/honet.2011.6149809

Distinct from	dominguez2021intrusive Two records on tapping optical fibre, ten years apart and from opposite ends of the problem. Iqbal, Fathallah and Belhadj survey the known methods -- bending, splitting, splicing -- report a simulation and a bench proof of concept for the bend method, and propose countermeasures. Dominguez and colleagues build one specific device, a stack of PDMS planar waveguides that couples light out while the signal continues to the far end. The survey is the context the device should be read in; the device is what the survey's non-intrusive category became.
Distinct from	zyczkowski2018pulsed The attack and the defence. Iqbal, Fathallah and Belhadj survey fibre tapping methods and close by proposing countermeasures; this is one of those countermeasures built and tested -- a pulsed Mach-Zehnder interferometer that detects the tap rather than preventing it. Read the survey first.

Distinct from

dominguez2021intrusive Two records on tapping optical fibre, ten years apart and from opposite ends of the problem. Iqbal, Fathallah and Belhadj survey the known methods -- bending, splitting, splicing -- report a simulation and a bench proof of concept for the bend method, and propose countermeasures. Dominguez and colleagues build one specific device, a stack of PDMS planar waveguides that couples light out while the signal continues to the far end. The survey is the context the device should be read in; the device is what the survey's non-intrusive category became.

Distinct from

zyczkowski2018pulsed The attack and the defence. Iqbal, Fathallah and Belhadj survey fibre tapping methods and close by proposing countermeasures; this is one of those countermeasures built and tested -- a pulsed Mach-Zehnder interferometer that detects the tap rather than preventing it. Read the survey first.

Optical fiber communication is not as secure as generally perceived. There are a number of known methods of extracting or injecting information into a fiber link, while avoiding detection. Few incidents have been reported as a successfully tapped fiber is difficult to detect. In this paper we highlight a number of known fiber tapping methods. We report simulation of optical characteristics of a fiber being tapped by 'bend' method and proof of concept with physical experiment. We also presented visualized scenarios in which a resourceful eavesdropper can compromise security of a fiber link with existing technologies. Some measures to prevent fiber tapping or to nullify the significance of information tapped from fiber were also discussed.

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@inproceedings{iqbal2011optical,
  title        = {Optical fiber tapping: Methods and precautions},
  author       = {M. Zafar Iqbal and Habib Fathallah and Nezih Belhadj},
  year         = {2011},
  booktitle    = {8th International Conference on High-capacity Optical Networks and Emerging Technologies},
  publisher    = {IEEE},
  pages        = {164--168},
  doi          = {10.1109/honet.2011.6149809},
}

This record lives at https://refs.drheap.org/iqbal2011optical/ and will keep doing so.

Optical fiber tapping: Methods and precautions

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