Instrumentation is a tool to verify the stability, performance and functionality of natural and man-made structures in short, medium and long term. In this study, all efforts has been made to answer numerous questions which always arise in civil works in terms of instrumentation, such as why, where, and when do we use instruments; how can we benefit from instruments optimization in construction projects; what kind of problems may come out with selecting improper instruments; what type of instruments exist in the market and what sort of phenomena could be measured by instruments, etc.  The emphasis is on a new generation of instruments called "Fiber Optic sensors" which is an appreciable revolution in geotechnical and structural instrumentation industry. The main objective of this study is to compare Fiber Optic sensors with conventional instruments and accordingly Tehran telecommunication/TV tower has been selected as a first existing instrumented tower by both: classical instruments and fiber optic sensors.