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Photonics
Volume 12
Issue 10
10.3390/photonics12100976
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This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.
Communication

The Sensing Attack: Mechanism and Deployment in Submarine Cable Systems

by
Haokun Song
1,*,
Xiaoming Chen
1,
Junshi Gao
1,
Tianpu Yang
1,
Jianhua Xi
1,
Xiaoqing Zhu
1,
Shuo Sun
1,
Wenjing Yu
1,
Xinyu Bai
2,
Chao Wu
2 and
Chen Wei
2
1
China Mobile Group Design Institute Co., Ltd., Beijing 100080, China
2
China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd., Beijing 100032, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Photonics 2025, 12(10), 976; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics12100976
Submission received: 21 August 2025 / Revised: 29 September 2025 / Accepted: 29 September 2025 / Published: 30 September 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Photonics for Emerging Applications in Communication and Sensing II, 2nd Edition)
Versions Notes

Abstract

Submarine cable systems, serving as the critical backbone of global communications, face evolving resilience threats. This work proposes a novel sensing attack that utilizes ultra-narrow-linewidth lasers to surveil these infrastructures. First, the Narrowband Jamming Attack (NJA) is introduced as an evolution of conventional physical-layer jamming. NJA is divided into three categories according to the spectral position, and the non-overlapping class represents the proposed sensing attack. Its operational principles and the key parameters determining its efficacy are analyzed, along with its deployment strategy in submarine cable systems. Finally, the sensing capability is validated via OptiSystem simulations. Results demonstrate successful localization of vibrations within the 50–200 Hz range on a 1 km fiber, achieving a spatial resolution of 1 m, and confirm the influence of vibration parameters on sensing performance. This work reveals that the proposed sensing attack has the potential to covertly monitor environmental data, thereby posing a threat to information security in submarine cable systems.
Keywords: submarine cable systems; physical-layer security; distributed optical fiber sensing; jamming attack submarine cable systems; physical-layer security; distributed optical fiber sensing; jamming attack

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MDPI and ACS Style

Song, H.; Chen, X.; Gao, J.; Yang, T.; Xi, J.; Zhu, X.; Sun, S.; Yu, W.; Bai, X.; Wu, C.; et al. The Sensing Attack: Mechanism and Deployment in Submarine Cable Systems. Photonics 2025, 12, 976. https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics12100976

AMA Style

Song H, Chen X, Gao J, Yang T, Xi J, Zhu X, Sun S, Yu W, Bai X, Wu C, et al. The Sensing Attack: Mechanism and Deployment in Submarine Cable Systems. Photonics. 2025; 12(10):976. https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics12100976

Chicago/Turabian Style

Song, Haokun, Xiaoming Chen, Junshi Gao, Tianpu Yang, Jianhua Xi, Xiaoqing Zhu, Shuo Sun, Wenjing Yu, Xinyu Bai, Chao Wu, and et al. 2025. "The Sensing Attack: Mechanism and Deployment in Submarine Cable Systems" Photonics 12, no. 10: 976. https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics12100976

APA Style

Song, H., Chen, X., Gao, J., Yang, T., Xi, J., Zhu, X., Sun, S., Yu, W., Bai, X., Wu, C., & Wei, C. (2025). The Sensing Attack: Mechanism and Deployment in Submarine Cable Systems. Photonics, 12(10), 976. https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics12100976

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