The safety of major infrastructure and key regions of a country has extremely important significance to the development of national economy, national safety, stability of society, and people′s daily life. A distributed fiber vibration sensing system based on phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometry (Φ-OTDR) has unique technical superiority in intrusion detection, perimeter security, safe monitoring of infrastructure, and so on. The distributed fiber vibration sensing system based on Φ-OTDR attracts wide attention of scientists and industries in the world. We introduce the results of our researches in the field in recent ten years, including the Φ-OTDR quantitative phase demodulation technique, the mechanism of signal interference fading, the system with ultra-high frequency response band, the system with ultra-high spatial resolution, the low noise narrow linewidth single-frequency laser, and the technique for laser frequency sweeping. We also introduce the applications of Φ-OTDR system in perimeter security, railway safe monitoring, etc. A brief review of domestic and international development in Φ-OTDR is given.