Network diagnostic tool for an optical transport network

• US 20040208501A1
• Filed: 01/21/2002
• Published: 10/21/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Altera Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Altera Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Somerton, John, Lemus, Avid, Saunders, Ross, Duggal, Ashish
• Granted Patent: US 7,242,862 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/9
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/0793 Network aspects, e.g. central monitoring of transmission parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0227 Operation, administration, maintenance or provisioning [OAMP] of WDM networks, e.g. media access, routing or wavelength allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0241 Wavelength allocation for communications one-to-one, e.g. unicasting wavelengths
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0284 WDM mesh architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/142 using statistical or mathematical methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS

Abstract

A network diagnostic system is provided for an optical transport network having a plurality of network elements. The network diagnostic system includes at least one network element having a network diagnostic operation integrated therein and operable to perform the network diagnostic operation, thereby determining a network performance characteristic associated with the optical transport network; a wayside communication subsystem interconnecting the network elements residing in the optical transport network; and a network diagnostic device in data communication with the at least one network element and operable to initiate the network diagnostic operation at the network element.

Claims

1. A network diagnostic system for an optical transport network having a plurality of network elements, comprising;

a first network element residing in the optical transport network, the first network element having a network diagnostic operation integrated therein and operable to perform the network diagnostic operation, wherein the network diagnostic operation directly monitors an optical signal traversing the optical transport network;

a wayside communication subsystem interconnecting the network elements residing in the optical transport network; and

a network diagnostic device in data communication with the first network element and operable to initiate the network diagnostic operation at the first network element.

2. The network diagnostic system of the claim 1 wherein the first network element is further operable to communicate the network performance data determined by the network diagnostic operation to the network diagnostic device.

3. The network diagnostic system of claim 2 wherein the network diagnostic device is operable to display the network performance data received from the first network element.

5. The network diagnostic system of claim 1 wherein the network diagnostic device is connected via a computer network to the first network element.

6. The network diagnostic system of claim 5 wherein the first network element is further operable to communicate in real-time the network performance data determined by the network diagnostic operation to the network diagnostic device using TL1 network management protocol.

7. The network diagnostic system of claim 5 wherein the first network element is further operable to store the network performance data in a storage medium residing on the first network element and the network diagnostic device operable to retrieve the network performance data from the first network element using a file transfer protocol.

8. The network diagnostic system of claim 1 wherein the network diagnostic device is connected via a computer network to a second network element and the second network element is in data communication with the first network element via the wayside communication system.

9. The network diagnostic system of claim 8 wherein the second network element is adapted to receive Ethernet frames from the network diagnostic device, where the Ethernet frames embody a request to initiate the network diagnostic operation;

the second network element being further operable to map the Ethernet frames into at least one optical network frame and transmit the optical network frames over an optical supervisory channel of the optical transport network.

10. The network diagnostic system of claim 9 wherein the first network element is adapted to receive the optical network frames over the optical supervisory channel from the second network element and to extract the Ethernet frames from the optical network frames.

11. The network diagnostic system of claim 1 wherein the network diagnostic function is selected from the group comprising an optical time domain reflectometer test, an optical spectrum analyzer test, a bit error rate test, and a Q contour mapping test.

12. The network diagnostic system of claim 1 wherein the network diagnostic operation is further defined as an optical time domain reflectometer test, such that the network performance data is optical attenuation data for an optical trace signal traversing one or more optical spans in the optical transport network and fiber characteristic data for the optical spans.

13. The network diagnostic system of claim 12 wherein the optical attenuation data is expressed in terms of reflected optical power data, and corresponding measurement point data.

14. The network diagnostic system of claim 13 wherein the optical attenuation data further includes trace event data for a plurality of trace events, where each trace event data is expressed in terms of an event identifier, an event type, an event distance, reflectance associated with the event, insertion loss associated with the event, cumulative loss for the event, attenuation between the event and a subsequent event, and an event description.

15. The network diagnostic system of claim 1 wherein the network diagnostic operation is further defined as an optical spectrum analyzer test, such that the network performance data is signal power data for an optical data signal traversing through the optical transport network.

16. The network diagnostic system of claim 15 wherein the signal power data is expressed in terms of optical power data and corresponding measured wavelength data.

17. The network diagnostic system of claim 16 wherein the signal power data further includes channel trace data, where the channel trace data is further defined as a channel identifier, a measured channel wavelength, a variance of the measured wavelength in relation to the provisioned wavelength for the channel and a signal-to-noise ratio value for the channel.

18. The network diagnostic system of claim 1 wherein the network diagnostic operation is further defined as a bit rate error test, such that the network performance data is bit rate error data for an optical data signal traversing through the optical transport network.

19. The network diagnostic system of claim 1 wherein the network diagnostic operation is further defined as a Q contour mapping test, such that the network performance data is Q contour mapping data.

20. The network diagnostic system of claim 19 wherein the Q contour mapping data is expressed in terms of a sampling phase percentage, a decision threshold percentage and a Q value.

4. The network diagnostic system of Clam 1 wherein the network diagnostic device is directly connected to the first network element.

21. A method for diagnosing an optical transport network having a plurality of network elements, comprising:

integrating a diagnostic operation into a first network element in the optical transport network;

initiating the diagnostic operation from a network diagnostic device remotely located from the first network element;

performing the diagnostic operation on the first network element, wherein the network diagnostic operation directly monitors an optical signal traversing the optical transport network; and

communicating the network performance data to the network diagnostic device.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the diagnostic operation is selected from the group comprising an optical time domain reflectometer test, an optical spectrum analyzer test, a bit error rate test, and a Q contour mapping test

23. The method of claim 21 wherein the step of performing the diagnostic operation further comprises carrying out an optical time domain reflector test, such that the such that the network performance data is optical attenuation data for an optical trace signal traversing one or more optical spans in the optical transport network and fiber characteristic data for the optical spans.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the optical attenuation data is expressed in terms of reflected optical power data, and corresponding measurement point data.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the optical attenuation data further includes trace event data for a plurality of trace events, where each trace event data is expressed in terms of an event identifier, an event type, an event distance, reflectance associated with the event, insertion loss associated with the event, cumulative loss for the event, attenuation between the event and a subsequent event, and an event description.

26. The method of claim 21 wherein the step of performing the diagnostic operation further comprises carrying out an optical spectrum analyzer test, such that the network performance data is signal power data for an optical data signal traversing through the optical transport network.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the, signal power data is expressed in terms of optical power data and corresponding measured wavelength data.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the signal power data further includes channel trace data, where the channel trace data is further defined as a channel identifier, a measured channel wavelength, a variance of the measured wavelength in relation to the provisioned wavelength for the channel and a signal-to-noise ratio value for the channel.

29. The method of claim 21 wherein the step of performing the diagnostic operation further comprises carrying out a bit rate error test, such that the network performance data is bit rate error data for an optical data signal traversing through the optical transport network.

30. The method of claim 21 wherein the step of performing the diagnostic operation further comprises carrying out a Q contour mapping test, such that the network performance data is Q contour mapping data.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein the Q contour mapping data is expressed in terms of a sampling phase percentage, a decision threshold percentage and a Q value.

32. The method of claim 21 wherein the step of initiating the diagnostic operation further comprises receiving an operation request at a second network element in the optical transport network and communicating the operation request to the first network element using a wayside communication subsystem.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein the step of communicating the operation to the first network element further comprises mapping Ethernet frames into a payload portion of one or more optical network frames and transmitting the optical network frames over an optical supervisory channel in the optical transport network.

34. A data record for communicating network performance data from an optical time domain reflectometer test, the data record embodied in a carrier wave, comprising:

header data that stores identification information about the data record;

optical attenuation data that stores information for an optical trace signal which traverses one or more optical spans in an optical transport network, where the optical attenuation data is expressed in terms of reflected optical power and corresponding measurement points;

trace event data that stores information about events that are detected during the optical trace; and

fiber data that stores refractive index information for each of the optical spans implicated in the optical trace.

35. A data record for communicating network performance data from an optical spectrum analyzer test, the data record embodied in a carrier wave, comprising:

header data that stores identification information about the data record;

signal power data that stores information for an optical data signal which traverses an optical transport network, where the signal power data is expressed in terms of optical power and corresponding measured wavelength; and

channel data that stores information for each channel embodied in the optical data signal.

36. A data record for communicating network performance data from a Q contour mapping test, the data record embodied in a carrier wave, comprising:

header data that stores identification information about the data record; and

contour mapping data that stores information for an optical data signal received at a receiver in an optical transport network, where the contour mapping data is expressed in terms of sampling phase percentage, decision threshold percentage and corresponding Q value for the optical data signal.