Optical power measurement method, optical line terminal and optical network unit

• US 8,712,240 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2009
• 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: Ding, Ping, Dong, Yinghua, Liang, Xuanqin, Wu, Guangdong
• Primary Examiner(s): Washburn, Daniel
• Assistant Examiner(s): WOLDEKIDAN, HIBRET ASNAKE
• Application Number:
  US13/250,773
• Publication Number:
  US 20120020662A1
• Time in Patent Office: 942 Days
• Field of Search: 398/38, 398/66, 398/67, 398/68, 398 70- 72, 398/74, 398/75, 398/98, 398/25, 398/154, 398/58, 398/165, 398/35, 398/52
• US Class Current: 398/66
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/0779 Monitoring line transmitter or line receiver equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2210/072 using an overhead signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/1694 Allocation of channels in TDM/TDMA networks, e.g. distributed multiplexers Passive Optical Networks H04Q11/0062
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0067 Provisions for optical access or distribution networks, e.g. Gigabit Ethernet Passive Optical Network (GE-PON), ATM-based Passive Optical Network (A-PON), PON-Ring
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0081 Fault tolerance; Redundancy; Recovery; Reconfigurability
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0083 Testing; Monitoring

Abstract

The embodiments of the present invention relate to communications technology, and disclose an optical power measurement method, an Optical Line Terminal (OLT), and an Optical Network Unit (ONU). The method includes: generating a Physical Layer Operation Administration Maintenance (PLOAM) message that includes an identifier of at least one ONU to be measured and information about a time bucket that is allocated to the ONU to be measured and is used for sending upstream optical signals; sending the PLOAM message to the multiple ONUs; receiving the upstream optical signals that are sent, in the allocated time bucket, by the ONU to be measured; and detecting the received upstream optical signals, and determining the optical power of the upstream optical signals. The present invention avoid waste of bandwidth caused in the prior art when the DBA is required to allocate bandwidth to the ONU to be measured for the purpose of detecting the optical power.

Claims

1. A method for measuring optical power, applied to a Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) that comprises an Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and multiple Optical Network Units (ONUs), the method comprising:

generating a Physical Layer Operation Administration Maintenance (PLOAM) message which is carried in a PLOAM field of a downstream PLOAM (PLOAMd) overhead area in a downstream frame of a GPON Transmission Convergence layer (GTC), wherein;

the PLOAM message includes an identifier of at least one ONU that requires optical power measurement among the multiple ONUs and information about a time bucket for sending upstream optical signals that is allocated to the ONU that requires optical power measurement so that the ONU that requires optical power measurement sends the upstream optical signals to the OLT in the time bucket and other ONUs in the multiple ONUs do not send the upstream optical signals to the OLT in the time bucket;

sending the PLOAM message to the multiple ONUs;

receiving the upstream optical signals that are sent in the allocated time bucket by the ONU that requires optical power measurement, detecting the received upstream optical signals, and determining optical power of the upstream optical signals; and

wherein receiving the upstream optical signals that are sent in the allocated time bucket by the ONU that requires optical power measurement comprises;

determining, according to the information about the time bucket, a receiving interval for receiving the upstream optical signals sent by the ONU that requires optical power measurement, the determining comprising,

detecting the ONU identifier carried in the received upstream optical signals, and

if it is detected that the ONU identifier carried in the upstream optical signals matches the identifier of the ONU that requires optical power measurement, determining the start of the receiving interval, and using time length determined according to the information about the time bucket as length of the receiving interval, and

receiving, in the receiving interval, the upstream optical signals sent by the ONU to be measured.

2. A method for measuring optical power, applied to a Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) that comprises an Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and multiple Optical Network Units (ONUs), the method comprising:

generating a Physical Layer Operation Administration Maintenance (PLOAM) message which is carried in a PLOAM field of a downstream PLOAM (PLOAMd) overhead area in a downstream frame of a GPON Transmission Convergence layer (GTC), wherein;

the PLOAM message includes an identifier of at least one ONU that requires optical power measurement among the multiple ONUs and information about a time bucket for sending upstream optical signals that is allocated to the ONU that requires optical power measurement so that the ONU that requires optical power measurement sends the upstream optical signals to the OLT in the time bucket and other ONUs in the multiple ONUs do not send the upstream optical signals to the OLT in the time bucket;

sending the PLOAM message to the multiple ONUs;

receiving the upstream optical signals that are sent in the allocated time bucket by the ONU that requires optical power measurement, detecting the received upstream optical signals, and determining optical power of the upstream optical signals;

wherein generating the PLOAM message comprises;

allocating to the ONU that requires optical power measurement the time bucket for sending the upstream optical signals, and encapsulating the identifier of the ONU that requires optical power measurement and the information about the time bucket into the PLOAM message;

wherein before allocating to the ONU that requires optical power measurement the time bucket for sending upstream optical signals, the method further comprises;

obtaining a burst optical power measurement command that includes the identifier of the ONU that requires optical power measurement; and

wherein receiving the upstream optical signals that are sent in the allocated time bucket by the ONU that requires optical power measurement comprises;

determining, according to the information about the time bucket, a receiving interval for receiving the upstream optical signals sent by the ONU that requires optical power measurement, and receiving, in the receiving interval, the upstream optical signals sent by the ONU that requires optical power measurement.

3. An Optical Line Terminal (OLT), comprising:

a Gigabit passive optical network Transmission Convergence layer (GTC) module, configured to;

generate a Physical Layer Operation Administration Maintenance (PLOAM) message which is carried in a PLOAM field of a downstream PLOAM overhead area in a GTC downstream frame, wherein;

the PLOAM message includes an identifier of at least one Optical Network Unit (ONU) that requires optical power measurement among the multiple ONUs connected to the OLT and information about a time bucket for sending uplink optical signals that is allocated to the ONU that requires optical power measurement so that the ONU that requires optical power measurement sends the uplink optical signals to the OLT in the time bucket and other ONUs in the multiple ONUs do not send the uplink optical signals to the OLT in the time bucket;

a sending module, configured to send the PLOAM message to the multiple ONUs;

a detecting module, configured to;

receive the upstream optical signals that are sent in the time bucket by the ONU that requires optical power measurement, detect the received upstream optical signals, and determine optical power of the upstream optical signals;

a power measurement command module, configured to send to the GTC module a burst optical power measurement command that carries the identifier of the ONU that requires optical bower measurement; and

wherein the GTC module comprises;

a time allocating module, configured to allocate to the ONU that requires optical power measurement the time bucket for sending the upstream optical signals, according to the burst optical power measurement command, and

a PLOAM message encapsulating module, configured to encapsulate the identifier of the ONU that requires optical power measurement and the information about the time bucket into a PLOAM message, wherein the PLOAM message is carried in a downstream PLOAM (PLOAMd) field of a downstream Physical layer Control Block (PCBd) overhead area in a Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) downstream frame.

4. A Passive Optical Network (PON), comprising:

an Optical Line Terminal (OLT) comprising,

a Gigabit passive optical network Transmission Convergence layer (GTC) module, configured to;

generate a Physical Layer Operation Administration Maintenance (PLOAM) message which is carried in a PLOAM field of a downstream PLOAM overhead area in a GTC downstream frame, wherein;

the PLOAM message includes an identifier of at least one Optical Network Unit (ONU) that requires optical power measurement among the multiple ONUs connected to the OLT and information about a time bucket for sending uplink optical signals-that is allocated to the ONU that requires optical power measurement so that the ONU that requires optical power measurement sends the uplink optical signals to the OLT in the time bucket and other ONUs in the multiple ONUs do not send the uplink optical signals to the OLT in the time bucket,

a sending module, configured to send the PLOAM message to the multiple ONUs, and

a detecting module, configured to;

receive the upstream optical signals that are sent in the time bucket by the ONU that requires optical power measurement, detect the received upstream optical signals, and determine optical power of the upstream optical signals;

multiple Optical Network Units (ONUs), each ONU comprising, a Gigabit passive optical network Transmission Convergence layer (GTC) module, a control module, and an optical module, wherein;

the multiple ONUs are connected to the OLT through an Optical Distribution Network (ODN);

the OLT sends a Physical Layer Operation Administration Maintenance (PLOAM) message to the multiple ONUs through the ODN;

the PLOAM message is carried in a downstream PLOAM (PLOAMd) field in a Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) downstream frame;

the PLOAM message carries an identifier of at least one ONU that requires optical power measurement and information about a time bucket for sending upstream optical signals that is allocated to the ONU that requires optical power measurement so that the ONU that requires optical power measurement sends the upstream optical signals to the OLT in the time bucket and other ONUs in the multiple ONUs do not send the upstream optical signals to the OLT in the time bucket;

the OLT is further configured to receive the upstream optical signals that are sent, according to the time bucket information in the PLOAM message, by the ONU that requires optical power measurement, detect the received upstream optical signals, and determine optical power of the upstream optical signals; and

each ONU in the multiple ONUs is configured to;

receive and parse the PLOAM message from the OLT, obtain the identifier of the ONU that requires optical power measurement and the information about the time bucket that is allocated to the ONU that requires optical power measurement and is used for sending the upstream optical signals, determine whether the identifier of the ONU that requires optical power measurement matches the identifier of the ONU, send the upstream optical signals to the OLT in the time bucket if the identifier of the ONU that requires optical power measurement matches the identifier of the ONU, or send no upstream optical signal to the OLT in the time bucket if the identifier of the ONU that requires optical power measurement does not match the identifier of the ONU.

5. The PON according to claim 4, wherein each control module is configured to judge whether its own identifier matches the identifier of the ONU that requires optical power measurement;

control the optical module to send the upstream optical signals in the time bucket if its own identifier matches the identifier of the ONU that requires optical power measurement, or send no upstream optical signal in the time bucket if its own identifier does not match the identifier of the ONU that requires optical power measurement.