Patent ID: 8798455

Claim:
A secure fiber optic system, comprising: one or more transmitters; one or more receivers, wherein each of the one or more receivers is coupled to a corresponding transmitter of the one or more transmitters over a hollow core photonic bandgap fiber optic link; and a detector coupled to each of the one or more receivers, wherein the detector is configured to detect intrusions to the hollow core photonic bandgap fiber optic link utilizing a power threshold that is based on a characteristic of the hollow core photonic bandgap fiber optic link, wherein hollow core photonic bandgap fiber is configured to provide larger losses and spectral variability between wavelengths due to the intrusions than natural system perturbations relative to conventional fiber; wherein the detector one or more of: (1) utilizes a plurality of different thresholds for a plurality of different wavelengths and (2) utilizes a relative threshold for a plurality of different wavelengths, wherein the intrusions are further detected based on detecting a difference in loss experienced by channels at the different wavelengths due to a suspected intrusion.