COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND FAULT DETECTION METHOD

• US 20180359024A1
• Filed: 11/22/2016
• Published: 12/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
• Inventors: ODA, Takuya, INUI, Tetsuro, HIRANO, Akira, IMAJUKU, Wataru, KOBAYASHI, Shoukei, TANAKA, Takafumi, MIYAMOTO, Yutaka, TAKARA, Hidehiko
• Granted Patent: US 10,615,868 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/02042 Multicore optical fibres
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/077 using a supervisory or additional signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/0771 Fault location on the transmission path
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/25753 Distribution optical network, e.g. between a base station and a plurality of remote units
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/2581 Multimode transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/00 Optical multiplex systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/02 Wavelength-division multiplex systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0201 Add-and-drop multiplexing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/437 Ring fault isolation or reconfiguration for SDH/SONET ring networks H04J3/085

Abstract

A communication system which includes: three or more nodes; a multi-core fiber having a plurality of cores, the multi-core fiber being used in at least a partial segment of a connection between the nodes; a detection signal output unit configured to output a fault detection signal transmitted by the core provided in the multi-core fiber configured to connect together the nodes; and a fault detection unit configured to determine whether a fault has occurred between the nodes on the basis of a detection result of the fault detection signal.

Claims

1. A communication system comprising:

three or more nodes;

a multi-core fiber having a plurality of cores, the multi-core fiber being used in at least a partial segment of a connection between the nodes;

a detection signal output unit configured to output a fault detection signal transmitted by the core provided in the multi-core fiber configured to connect together the nodes; and

a fault detection unit configured to determine whether a fault has occurred between the nodes on the basis of a detection result of the fault detection signal.

2. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein

the detection signal output unit is configured to output the fault detection signal to the core which is not used for communication between the nodes.

3. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein

the detection signal output unit is configured to output the fault detection signal to the core which is used for communication between the nodes.

4. The communication system according to claim 2, wherein

the detection signal output unit is configured to output the fault detection signal that includes information on monitoring or operation in the communication system.

5. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein

the fault detection unit is provided in the respective nodes.

6. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein

the fault detection unit is configured to determine that a fault has occurred when reception light including the fault detection signal is not detected.

7. The communication system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a fault location specifying unit configured to specify a section between nodes which a fault has occurred on the basis of a determination result obtained by the fault detection unit.

8. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein

when it is determined that a fault has occurred between the nodes, the fault detection unit is configured to notify a higher-layer controller of fault information indicating the occurrence of the fault and a segment in which the fault is detected.

10. The communication system according to claim 3, wherein

the detection signal output unit is configured to output the fault detection signal that includes information on monitoring or operation in the communication system.

9. A fault detection method in a communication system comprising three or more nodes, and a multi-core fiber having a plurality of cores, the multi-core fiber being used in at least a partial segment of a connection between the nodes, the fault detection method comprising:

a detection signal output step of outputting a fault detection signal transmitted by the core provided in the multi-core fiber configured to connect together the nodes; and

a fault detection step of determining whether a fault has occurred between the nodes on the basis of a detection result of the fault detection signal.