An interconnect transceiver for transmitting and receiving optical signals, comprising an electronics module with a transceiver engine, and a photonics module with a laser source, a modulator, a photodetector to monitor the laser, one to receive an external optical signal, and a controller to operate the laser source and the laser source modulator, an electronic switch having two states is proposed. The first state is to allow monitoring of the modulated laser source by the transceiver engine, so as to acquire a reference set of operating parameters, and the second state is where a signal from the modulated laser source is directed to the controller, such as to allow real-time control of the source of the transmitting laser and modulator by the controller.

The concepts and technologies disclosed herein are directed to quantum tampering threat management. According to one aspect of the concepts and technologies disclosed herein, a quantum security manager (“Q-SM”) can monitor a plurality of quantum channels for tampering. The Q-SM can detect tampering on a quantum channel of the plurality of quantum channels. The Q-SM can provide tampering monitoring statistics to a software-defined network (“SDN”) that, in turn, notifies a quantum security operations center (“Q-SOC”) about the tampering on the quantum channel. The Q-SM can receive threat mitigation instructions from the Q-SOC. The threat mitigation instructions can instruct the Q-SM how to counter the tampering on the quantum channel. The Q-SM can perform one or more actions in accordance with the threat mitigation instructions to counter the tampering on the quantum channel.

Techniques for maintaining equipment of a PON include determining a current optical profile for each segment of a plurality of segments of a PON, and detecting that the current optical profile of a particular segment is outside of a designated operating range. Based on the detection, drifts over time of the optical profile of the segment and of optical profiles of one or more other segments that share respective common endpoints with the segment are determined and compared, and based on the comparison, a component of the PON (e.g., an endpoint or an optical fiber) is identified as requiring maintenance. Each segment's optical profile corresponds to characteristics of optical signals delivered over the segment (e.g., attenuation, changes in frequencies, changes in power outputs, etc.), and current optical profiles of the PON's segments may be repeatedly updated over time to continuously monitor for components that need maintenance.

An example system includes a transceiver and a microcontroller. The microcontroller is configured to receive first messages from a hub node via first network interfaces of the transceiver, and determine first logical identifiers associated with ingress data flows. Further, the microcontroller is configured to receive second messages from leaf nodes via second network interfaces of the transceiver, and determine second logical identifies associated with egress data flows. Further, the microcontroller is configured to generate a resource assignment map based on the first and logical identifiers, and to generate a command to cause the transceiver to transmit the egress data flows in accordance with the resource assignment map. The resource map indicates pairings between the ingress data flows and the egress data flows, and, for each of the pairings, a respective network resource assigned to transmit the egress data flow of the pairing to a respective one of the leaf nodes.

One embodiment described herein provides a system for distributed fiber sensing. The system can include a plurality of network elements (NEs) in an optical transport network (OTN) and a control-and-management module coupled to the NEs. A respective network element (NE) can include a first wavelength coupler configured to separate an optical supervisory channel (OSC) signal from a data-carrying signal received from a fiber span, a polarization-measurement unit configured to perform a polarization measurement on the OSC signal, and a transmitter configured to transmit an outcome of the polarization measurement to the control-and-management module, thereby facilitating distributed fiber sensing based on the outcome of the polarization measurement.

A communication device is connected to a wavelength-multiplexed optical ring network, and performs communication by performing time-division multiplexing on optical signals at each wavelength. In a case where a control signal transmitted from the master communication device is not received in a predetermined period, the communication device instructs a scheduler unit to suspend transmission of data at a failure wavelength that is the wavelength at which the host communication device has been determined not to be operating properly, also instructs the scheduler unit to transmit the data stored in the buffer of the failure wavelength at another wavelength, and suspends allocation of new data to the buffer of the failure wavelength. Thus, the delay in transmission of data at the failure wavelength can be shortened.

An optical switch configuration is disclosed that gives the appearance of a logical cut in a fiber optic line. The inputs to the optical switch are redundant so that if a fiber event occurs on one input, the optical switch can switch to the other input. In the case where both paths of an optical fiber have fiber events, router convergence is delayed. One mechanism to mitigate a prolonged fiber degradation is to dampen the optical power on the output optical fiber of the optical switch, such that it creates a loss of light and appears as a clean cut of the optical fiber. Another solution uses optical switches to inject an alternate light source onto the output optical fiber, wherein the alternate light source is of a wavelength to be filtered out giving an appearance of a clean cut of the optical fiber.

An interconnect transceiver for transmitting and receiving optical signals, comprising an electronics module with a transceiver engine, and a photonics module with a laser source, a modulator, a photodetector to monitor the laser, one to receive an external optical signal, and a controller to operate the laser source and the laser source modulator, an electronic switch having two states is proposed. The first state is to allow monitoring of the modulated laser source by the transceiver engine, so as to acquire a reference set of operating parameters, and the second state is where a signal from the modulated laser source is directed to the controller, such as to allow real-time control of the source of the transmitting laser and modulator by the controller.

Methods and apparatus are provided for locating a fault in an optical communication link. In one aspect, a method comprises determining a fault in a first optical link, and determining a fault in a second optical link. The method then determines that a first portion of the first optical link is co-located with a second portion of the second optical link and identifies, as a result of determining that the first portion is co-located with the second portion, that the fault in the first optical link is located in the first portion and/or the fault in the second optical link is located in the second portion.

There is provided an OTDR method and device for characterizing an optical fiber link. At least a first OTDR acquisition is performed toward the optical fiber link. From the at least one first OTDR acquisition, one or more events are identified along the optical fiber link and a value of at least one characteristic associated with each event is estimated. A second OTDR acquisition is performed toward the optical fiber link in order to target a specific event among the identified events. Values of one or more OTDR acquisition parameters for the second OTDR acquisition are determined such that the OTDR acquisition parameters comprise a second pulse width different from the first pulse width used in the first OTDR acquisition.