A method and apparatus for monitoring in-line signal quality and a system. The method for monitoring in-line signal quality includes: according to signal to noise ratios (SNRs) of subcarriers obtained in a transmission initialization period, setting a subcarrier with a highest SNR to be a pilot subcarrier and other subcarriers to be data subcarriers; determining bit allocation and power allocation of the pilot subcarrier and bit allocation and power allocation of the data subcarriers; setting data-decision-based SNR measurement thresholds for the data subcarriers according to the bit allocation of the data subcarriers; and comparing the SNRs of the data subcarriers obtained through data-decision-based SNR measurement in a transmission period with the SNR measurement thresholds of the data subcarriers, and when an SNR of a data subcarrier is less than its SNR measurement threshold, trigger pilot-based SNR measurement of the data subcarrier. Hence, not only temporally continuous in-line signal quality monitoring may be provided, but also accuracy of the monitoring result may be guaranteed.

A system monitors optical performance of an optical link within an optical network. The system includes an optical transmitter having an expanded-spectrum pilot-tone modulator for modulating an expanded-spectrum pilot tone onto a high-speed data signal to generate an expanded-spectrum optical signal and an optical receiver for receiving the expanded-spectrum optical signal and for detecting and decoding the expanded-spectrum pilot tone to enable monitoring of the optical performance of the optical link.

Systems and methods for performing wavelength conflict detection are provided. These are to detect situations in optical networks where two instances of the same wavelength channel have been added. Wavelength conflict detection is performed for each of a plurality of possible wavelength channels that could be present in an optical signal, each wavelength channel that is present modulated by a pilot tone signal with a respective pilot tone frequency, the pilot tone signal carrying M-ary pilot tone data, M=2.sup.n, n≧1, with a respective one of M different sequences being used to represent each of M possible data values over a data value period. Conflict detection for each wavelength channel involves performing correlation peak detection using each of the M different sequences to determine correlation peaks for each of the M different sequences, and, based on the determined correlation peaks, determining whether multiple instances of the wavelength channel are present in the optical signal.

A system for centralized automatic bias control for a plurality of modulators, including a coupler for coupling output of each of the plurality of modulators to generate a combined modulator output. A pilot insertion device inserts a pilot tone into each of the plurality of modulators such that a different pilot tone frequency is inserted for each of the plurality of modulators. A monitoring device iteratively monitoring power (P.sub.t) of each inserted pilot tone over time to determine whether a current modulator bias is optimal for each of the plurality of modulators, and an adjuster device iteratively adjusts the modulator bias for each of the plurality of modulators for which the current modulator bias is determined to be sub-optimal until a threshold condition has been met.

A reception apparatus includes: a receiving unit configured to coherently detect an optical signal and output an electrical signal containing a modulated signal and a pilot signal; a first compensating unit configured to detect a frequency of the pilot signal by performing a DFT of the electrical signal, and determine and compensate for frequency error in the electrical signal based on a reference frequency; a frequency converting unit configured to convert the frequency of the pilot signal after the compensating such that the frequency of the pilot signal is lowered by the reference frequency; and a second compensating unit configured to determine frequency error in the modulated signal after the compensating by performing a DFT on the pilot signal after the frequency converting and detecting a frequency of the pilot signal after the frequency converting.

An apparatus and method to monitor a polarization change by inserting pilot signals in a transmission signal and converting the pilot signals in the receiving signal from a Jones space into a Stokes space. A velocity of a polarization change of the optical link is estimated by using the Stokes vectors of the pilot signals, thereby directly and accurately estimating the polarization change of the optical link. Moreover, estimation of the velocity of the polarization may be applicable where rotation of state of polarization and polarization-dependent loss coexist in an optical link.

An apparatus and method to monitor a polarization change by inserting pilot signals in a transmission signal and converting the pilot signals in the receiving signal from a Jones space into a Stokes space. A velocity of a polarization change of the optical link is estimated by using the Stokes vectors of the pilot signals, thereby directly and accurately estimating the polarization change of the optical link. Moreover, estimation of the velocity of the polarization may be applicable where rotation of state of polarization and polarization-dependent loss coexist in an optical link.

An optical module includes an optical device that outputs an optical signal corresponding to a control voltage, a voltage controller that applies the control voltage on which a dither signal is superimposed to the optical device, a monitor unit that monitors the optical signal output from the optical device, and outputs a monitor signal, a multiplier that multiplies the monitor signal by a reference signal corresponding to the dither signal, a filter unit that extracts a direct-current component included in a multiplication result, and a controller that causes the voltage controller to change the control voltage in accordance with the direct-current component. The controller changes the frequency of the dither signal or the reference signal such that the frequency of the reference signal is twice as large as that of the dither signal, when the direct-current component satisfies a predetermined condition.

The disclosed systems and methods are directed to monitor optical performance comprising receiving optical channel signals, wherein the optical channel signals are superimposed with pilot tone (PT) signals, operating a local oscillator (LO) including a tunable laser in a coarse scanning mode and a fine scanning mode and generate different LO signals in accordance with the mode in which the LO is being operated, combining the optical channel signals with at least one LO signal generated by the LO and generating a combined optical signal, detecting and converting the combined optical signal into an electrical signal, amplifying the electrical signal, converting the amplified electrical signal into a digital signal, processing the digital signal and extracting channel specific information included in the PT signals, computing channel power based on the channel specific information, and maintaining a management table.

An optical network component, system, and method are herein described. The system and method include introducing an AM tone and data to an optical modulator generating a modulated optical signal, measuring an amplitude response of the AM tone within the modulated optical signal, calculating a frequency response based on the amplitude response, and calibrating the optical modulator with the frequency response.