Remote module for a communications network

• US 20050220031A1
• Filed: 05/26/2005
• Published: 10/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Viavi Solutions, Inc. (Lumentum Holdings Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Acterna LLC (Lumentum Holdings Inc.)
• Inventors: Barton, Bruce R., Wright, Maynard A., Hartmann, Paul R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,434,139 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/242
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/14 Monitoring arrangements for SDH/SONET rings H04J3/085
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0041 Arrangements at the transmitter end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0057 Block codes H04L1/0061, H04L1/0064 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0082 fields explicitly indicating existence of error in data being transmitted, e.g. so that downstream stations can avoid decoding erroneous packet; relays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1671 the supervisory signal being transmitted together with control information

Abstract

Determination of the location of an error condition or a failure includes receiving at a network interface a first framed digital signal from customer premises equipment, and determining whether the first framed digital signal indicates a failure. Overhead bits are modified in the first framed digital signal to generate a second framed digital signal, such that the modification is equivalent to insertion of errors into the first framed digital signal at a bit error ratio (BER) of not greater than a predetermined ratio, if the first framed digital signal indicates a failure. The second framed digital signal is then sent from the network interface in place of the first framed digital signal to indicate that the failure reported by the first framed digital signal is located in the customer premises equipment. Otherwise, if no failure is indicated, the first framed digital signal is transmitted without any modifications.

Claims

1-17. -17. (canceled)

18. A method, comprising:

reformatting a C-bit channel of a DS3-formatted signal by dividing the C-bit channel into at least first, second, and third portions;

allotting the first portion to provide an error correcting code;

allotting the second portion to provide for stuffing control information; and

allotting the third portion for transmission of performance monitoring and maintenance information.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the first portion is used to correct any errors in the second portion.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the error correcting code includes a Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) error correcting code.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving the DS3-formatted signal; and

decoding the third portion of the DS3-formatted signal to extract stuffing control information and performance monitoring and maintenance information.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

using the first portion to correct any errors in the second portion.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

duplicating the second portion in the first and the third portion to overwrite added information.

24-28. -28. (canceled)