TRANSCEIVERS FOR TESTING NETWORKS AND ADAPTING TO DEVICE CHANGES

• US 20080159737A1
• Filed: 12/28/2007
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: II-VI Delaware, Inc. (Coherent Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Finisar Corporation (II-VI Incorporated)
• Inventors: Hosking, Lucy G., Noble, Gayle L., Ekkizogloy, Luke M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,526,821 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/0773 Network aspects, e.g. central monitoring of transmission parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/0775 Performance monitoring and measurement of transmission parameters

Abstract

Test transceivers are disclosed for testing optical networks. The test transceivers generate one or more errors on a network in a specific, reproducible way, thereby enabling a tester to easily and readily identify whether network devices are operating properly, or prone to failure. A corrective transceiver is also disclosed. The corrective transceiver is configured to continually detect operating parameters of one or more network devices in a network. The corrective transceiver can identify the operating parameters through out-of-band communication with the one or more network devices. The corrective transceiver is further configured with one or more instructions to adjust its own operating parameters to re-sync with another network device as necessary to continue network communications during a failure of the network device.

Claims

1. A test transceiver comprising:

a receive optical subassembly (“

ROSA”

) and/or a transmit optical subassembly (“

TOSA”

); and

a controller, wherein the test transceiver is configured to introduce a predetermined error into an optical network.

2. A test transceiver according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to control operation of the ROSA, control operation of the TOSA, and/or is configured to provide erroneous information describing the test transceiver to a network device of the optical network.

3. A test transceiver according to claim 1, wherein the test transceiver introduces a transceiver performance error into the network.

4. A test transceiver according to claim 3, wherein the transceiver performance error includes introducing an error associated with an optical signal eye profile.

5. A test transceiver according to claim 3, wherein the transceiver performance error includes a data transmission rate error.

6. A test transceiver according to claim 3, wherein the transceiver performance error includes optical signal rise time error, an optical signal fall time error, a bus frequency error, a transmit disable error, a bandwidth error, and/or a digital diagnostic error.

7. A test transceiver according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to provide erroneous information to a network device of the optical network.

8. A test transceiver according to claim 7, wherein the erroneous information includes an erroneous identification of the test transceiver or an erroneous identification of an operating parameter of the test transceiver.

9. A test transceiver according to claim 8, wherein the erroneous information includes an erroneous identifier value, an erroneous connector value, an erroneous transceiver code, an erroneous encoding code, an erroneous checksum value, erroneous status information, and/or information erroneously identifying a performance setting of the test transceiver.

10. A test transceiver according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to control operation of the ROSA, control operation of the TOSA, and control out of band signaling with other network devices to allow the test transceiver to correct problems that the test transceiver detects on the optical network.

11. A test transceiver according to claim 1, further comprising an interface configured to receive a function modification signal from a tester, wherein in response to the function control signal the error introduced into the network is modified.

12. A test transceiver according to claim 11, wherein the in response to the function control signal, the level of error introduced into the network is increased or decreased.

13. A test transceiver according to claim 11, wherein in response to the function control signal, the type of error introduced into the network is modified.

14. A system including a test transceiver according to claim 11 and a tester, the tester being interfaced with the test transceiver and the tester being configured to transmit the function control signal to the transceiver to modify the error introduced into the network by the test transceiver, wherein the tester is further configured to monitor a network device to determine how the network device reacts to the introduced error.

15. A set of test transceivers according to claim 1, each test transceiver of the set of test transceivers being configured to introduce a different error into the network.

16. A set of test transceivers according to claim 15, wherein each test transceiver of the set of test transceivers is configured to introduce a progressively higher level of error into the network.

17. A method for verifying that a network device of a network is performing according to the network device'"'"'s specification, comprising:

coupling a test transceiver to the network, wherein the test transceiver is configured to introduce a predetermined error into the network;

operating the test transceiver to introduce the predetermined error into the network; and

monitoring the network device to determine how the network device performs when the predetermined error is introduced into the network.

18. A method according to claim 17, wherein the test transceiver introduces a transceiver performance error into the network.

19. A method according to claim 18, wherein the transceiver performance error includes introducing an error associated with an optical signal eye profile, a data transmission rate error, an optical signal rise time error, an optical signal fall time error, a bus frequency error, a transmit disable error, a bandwidth error, and/or a digital diagnostic error.

20. A corrective transceiver configured to:

detect the operating parameters of one or more network devices on a network through out-of-band communications; and

send one or more reports of the operating parameters to a listening portal.

21. A corrective transceiver as recited in claim 20, wherein the corrective transceiver sends the one or more reports to the listening portal, or communicates with one or more network devices, through a wireless communication mechanism.

22. A corrective transceiver as recited in claim 21, wherein the corrective transceiver includes one or more wireless transceiver components.

23. The corrective transceiver as recited in claim 20, wherein the corrective transceiver is further configured to adjust its own operating parameters or the parameters of one or more others of the network devices to synchronize with any changes to the operating parameters of the changed one or more network devices.

24. A method for adjusting to the operating parameters of another transceiver using the corrective transceiver of claim 20, comprising:

communicating via a corrective transceiver with one or more network devices;

also communicating with at least one of the one or more network devices via one or more out-of-band communication channels to identify one or more operating parameters;

reporting the one or more operating parameters to a listening portal; and

when the one or more operating parameters represent a change, adjusting one or more internal operating parameters of the corrective transceiver to accommodate the change in operating parameters of the at least one network device.