Comcast has revealed it's using fiber sensing technology to monitor its network.

The technology is tipped to help the company keep on top of its network and react more quickly to identify potential problems and prevent outages.

According to Comcast, the fiber sensing technology uses fiber lines to detect and pinpoint activity happening around its network in real time.

“Customers count on our network every moment of every day, and our job is to make the incredible complexity behind that connection invisible to them,” said Elad Nafshi, chief network officer, Comcast. “Our fiber sensing technology is another way we’re leveraging network intelligence, at scale, to deliver a more reliable, responsive and resilient experience for customers.”

Nafshi has previously bemoaned the issue of attacks against the company's network, as vandals target copper but often cut through fiber. In theory, the fiber sensing will enable Comcast to detect issues on its network.

During last year's SCTE TechExpo, Nafshi said Comcast has leveraged AI to monitor its network with more pinpoint accuracy to determine where fiber cuts are.

Comcast said its fiber sensing technology can distinguish between different types of activity happening around the network, using examples such as a subway train passing an underground cable or construction equipment operating near a buried fiber line. The technology is able to alert Comcast and provide an early warning if there's a potential issue.

Beyond this fiber sensing deployment, Comcast said it could explore how to combine the technology with AI, data, and other technologies to support new capabilities.

One of those possible use cases could include automatically dispatching a drone to provide a real-time view of network damage, vandalism, wildfires, or accidents, to speed up response times.

“The more visibility we have across the fiber that connects our network, the better we can anticipate problems, respond faster, and minimize the impact to customers,” added Nafshi.

“We have the engineering and innovation expertise to develop capabilities like fiber sensing and demonstrate their impact in the real world. We’re excited to deploy this technology across our network and explore how it can help improve reliability across the broader fiber infrastructure our services rely on.”