METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETECTING BRANCH FIBERS, AND PASSIVE OPTICAL NETWORK

• US 20120263458A1
• Filed: 06/21/2012
• Published: 10/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Wen, Yunsheng, Zhao, Jun, Shan, Xiaolei, Wang, Bo, Wang, Shijun
• Granted Patent: US 8,917,987 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/28
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/071 using a reflected signal, e.g. using optical time domain reflectometers [OTDR]

Abstract

A method for detecting branch fibers is provided, which includes: sending test signals to a plurality of branch fibers, where the test signals are added at ports of the optical splitting module with identification information for identifying branch fibers connected to the ports; and receiving a reflection signal added with the identification information of a detected branch fiber, identifying the detected branch fiber corresponding to the reflection signal through detecting the identification information added to the reflection information, and obtaining channel characteristics of the detected branch fiber according to the reflection signal. Further, a system and an apparatus for detecting branch fibers are provided.

Claims

1. A method for detecting branch fibers in a point-to-multipoint optical network, wherein the optical network comprises an optical splitting module and a plurality of branch fibers connected to different ports of the optical splitting module respectively, the method comprising:

sending test signals to the branch fibers, wherein the test signals are respectively added, at the ports of the optical splitting module, with identification information for identifying the branch fibers connected to the ports; and

receiving a reflection signal added with the identification information of a detected branch fiber, identifying the branch fiber corresponding to the reflection signal through detecting the identification information added to the reflection signal, and obtaining channel characteristics of the branch fiber according to the reflection signal.

2. The method for detecting branch fibers according to claim 1, wherein a test signal sent to the detected branch fiber is reflected at an end of the detected branch fiber to form the reflection signal added with the identification information of the detected branch fiber, and test signals sent to other branch fibers are absorbed at the corresponding branch fibers.

3. The method for detecting branch fibers according to claim 1, wherein each of the test signals includes a wide-spectrum signal with wavelengths covering a preset spectrum section, and the identification information is added by the optical splitting module into the test signal by marking a frequency component corresponding to the branch fiber in the wide-spectrum signal.

4. The method for detecting branch fibers according to claim 3, wherein the preset spectrum section is pre-defined with N frequency components specially for identifying the branch fibers, and each frequency component is defined as a binary code “

1”

or “

0”

depending on whether the frequency component is blocked;

the N frequency components together define an N-bit binary code, and the N-bit binary code is used as the identification information of the branch fiber; and

N-bit binary codes with different binary values correspond to different branch fibers respectively.

5. The method for detecting branch fibers according to claim 4, wherein the N frequency components of the test signal are selectively blocked at a port connected to the detected branch fiber in the optical splitting module, so that the test signal is added with an N-bit binary code of a code value corresponding to the detected branch fiber.

6. The method for detecting branch fibers according to claim 4, wherein a filtering module is set at the port of the optical splitter, and the filtering module blocks the frequency component defined as “

1”

in the N-bit binary code corresponding to the branch fiber in the test signal, and transmits other frequency components transparently.

7. The method for detecting branch fibers according to claim 1, wherein a reflector is set at an end of each branch fiber, and the reflector is coupled to the corresponding branch fiber through an optical switch;

wherein the optical switch corresponding to the detected branch fiber connects an optical path between the detected branch fiber and the reflector before the test signal is sent, so that when the test signal added with the identification information of the detected branch fiber is sent to the reflector connected to the detected branch fiber, the test signal is reflected by the reflector to form the reflection signal.

8. An apparatus for detecting branch fibers, comprising a test device, an optical splitting module and a plurality of branch fibers, wherein:

the test device is connected to the branch fibers through the optical splitting module;

the test device is configured to send test signals to the branch fibers respectively through the optical splitting module during branch fiber detection;

the optical splitting module is configured to add identification information of the branch fibers respectively into the test signals through ports of the optical splitting module, and send the test signals to the branch fibers respectively; and

the test device is further configured to receive a reflection signal added with the identification information of a detected branch fiber, identify the detected branch fiber corresponding to the reflection signal according to the identification information added to the reflection signal, and obtain channel characteristics of the detected branch fiber according to the reflection signal.

9. The apparatus for detecting branch fibers according to claim 8, wherein a reflector is located at an end of each branch fiber, and the reflector is coupled to the corresponding branch fiber through an optical switch;

wherein the optical switch corresponding to the detected branch fiber connects an optical path between the detected branch fiber and the reflector during the branch fiber detection, so that the reflector reflects the test signal transmitted through the detected branch fiber and added with the identification information of the detected branch fiber to form the reflection signal.

10. The apparatus for detecting branch fibers according to claim 8, wherein each of the test signals sent by the test device is a wide-spectrum signal with wavelengths covering a preset spectrum section, the identifier is added by the optical splitting module into the test signal by marking a frequency component corresponding to the branch fiber in the wide-spectrum signal, and each branch fiber corresponds to a set of frequency components.

11. The apparatus for detecting branch fibers according to claim 10, wherein the preset spectrum section is pre-defined with N frequency components specially for identifying the branch fibers, and each frequency component is defined as a binary code “

1”

or “

0”

depending on whether the frequency component is blocked;

the N frequency components together define an N-bit binary code, and the N-bit binary code is used as the identification information of the branch fiber; and

N-bit binary codes with different binary values correspond to different branch fibers respectively.

12. The apparatus for detecting branch fibers according to claim 11, wherein the optical splitting module selectively blocks the N frequency components in the test signal at the port connected to the detected branch fiber, so as to add the N-bit binary code with a binary value corresponding to the detected branch fiber into the test signal.

13. The apparatus for detecting branch fibers according to claim 12, wherein the N frequency components are selectively blocked by a coating film, a fiber bragg grating (FBG) or a filter at the port of the optical splitting module.

14. A passive optical network system, comprising an optical line terminal, an optical splitter, and a plurality of optical network units (ONU), wherein the optical line terminal is connected to the optical network units in a point-to-multipoint mode through the optical splitter, and the passive optical network system further comprises:

a test device, configured to send test signals to physical channels where the ONUs are located through the optical splitter, wherein the test signals are added, at ports of the optical splitter, with identification information of the physical channels corresponding to the ports respectively; and

the test device is further configured to receive a reflection signal added with the identification information of a detected physical channel, identify the detected physical channel corresponding to the reflection signal through detecting the identification information added to the reflection signal, and obtain channel characteristics of the detected physical channel according to the reflection signal.

15. The passive optical network system according to claim 14, wherein a test signal on the detected physical channel is reflected to form a reflection signal added with the identification information of the detected physical channel, and the test signals on other physical channels are absorbed.

16. The passive optical network system according to claim 14, wherein reflectors are respectively connected to the physical channels corresponding to the optical network units, and each reflector is coupled to a corresponding physical channel through an optical switch;

and the optical line terminal sends a remote command to the optical network units before the test device sends a test signal, to instruct the optical network units to control a state of the optical switch corresponding to each physical channel, so as to connect an optical path between the detected physical channel and the corresponding reflector, and disconnect optical paths between other physical channels and the corresponding reflectors.

17. The passive optical network system according to claim 14, wherein each of the test signals sent by the test device is a wide-spectrum signal with wavelengths covering a preset spectrum section, and the preset spectrum section is pre-defined with N frequency components specially for identifying the physical channels;

each frequency component is defined as binary code “

1”

or “

0”

depending on whether the frequency component is blocked; and

the N frequency components together define an N-bit binary code;

the N-bit binary code serves as the identification information of the physical channel, and N-bit binary codes with different binary values corresponds to different physical channels respectively;

the optical splitter selectively blocks the N frequency components in the test signals through different ports of the optical splitter, so as to add the N-bit binary code with a binary value corresponding to the detected physical channel to be detected into a test signal.