Systems and methods for auto-squelching problematic channels of an optical spectrum and replacing them with Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) channel holders are provided. A method is provided according to one implementation. In response to analyzing optical signals propagating in an optical line system, the method includes the step of determining whether one or more channels of a spectrum of the optical signals are problematic. The one or more problematic channels are determined to be problematic based on the severity of a negative impact that the one or more problematic channels have on spectrum health. The method also includes the step of auto-squelching the one or more problematic channels and replacing the one or more problematic channels with one or more Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) channel holders.

An optical power and gain detection apparatus including multiple optical power detection circuits, an FPGA device, and a temperature detection circuit. Various optical power detection circuits include a respective independent photoelectric converter, a trans-impedance amplifier, an analog signal conditioning circuit, a filter and an analog-digital conversion chip. By improving an analog circuit, digital detection and control in an optical amplifier, the property of the FPGA device may be used to realize the detection of optical signal and gain in a burst mode, avoid increasing complicated analogue circuits, and avoid the influence caused by element inconsistency in an analogue control solution. Whether the optical signal is in a stable mode or in a burst mode, the algorithm can detect the optical power accurately and stably, with a wide application range. By strictly controlling the synchronism of ADC sampling and the delay of calculation, the amplifier gain may be calculated more accurately.

An optical transmission apparatus includes a splitter configured to split a first wavelength division multiplexed optical signal arranged in a first wavelength band and a second wavelength division multiplexed optical signal arranged in a second wavelength band, respectively, from an optical signal including the first wavelength division multiplexed optical signal and the second wavelength division multiplexed optical signal, a wavelength converter configured to convert a wavelength of the split second wavelength division multiplexed optical signal to generate a third wavelength division multiplexed optical signal to be arranged in the first wavelength band, an optical monitor configured to monitor power of each wavelength channel of the third wavelength division multiplexed optical signal, and a transmitter configured to transmit a monitoring result by the optical monitor to a transmission source node of the optical signal or a relay node of the optical signal.

A smart spool is configured to be optically coupled between a pumping light source and optical point-loss sources in an optical fiber transmission line. The smart spool comprises a probe signal transmitter that transmits an optical probe signal into the transmission line. An optical detector receives probe signals scattered in the transmission line. A loss-measuring device is coupled to the optical detector and operable to measure aggregate losses in the transmission line and report the aggregate losses to a network manager. The spool comprises a fiber of sufficient length to offset the aggregated losses to enable a distributed Raman amplifier to pump the transmission line. The smart spool prevents the distributed Raman amplifier from shutting down and allows the distributed Raman amplifier to achieve entitled gain by pumping the fiber in the spool.

An optical time-domain reflectometer, OTDR, apparatus is configured to measure a backscattered trace of a fiber link under test (FLUT). The OTDR apparatus includes at least one photo diode adapted to detect an optical signal reflected from points along the fiber link under test in response to an optical test signal generated by a laser of the OTDR apparatus and supplied to the fiber link under test. The reflected optical test signal is attenuated or amplified automatically such that the power of the optical signal received by the photodiode is limited to a predetermined power range.

Systems and methods for characterizing an optical fiber performed in part by an optical node in an optical line system include performing one or more measurements to characterize the optical fiber with one or more components at the optical node, wherein the one or more components perform functions during operation of the optical node and are reconfigured to perform the one or measurements independent of the functions; and configuring the optical node for communication over the optical fiber based on the one or more measurements. The one or more components can include any of an Optical Service Channel (OSC), an Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR), and an optical amplifier. The configuring can include setting a launch power into the optical fiber based on the one or more measurements.

Systems and methods are provided for controlling one or more optical amplifiers of a C+L band photonic line system (30) of a telecommunications network in which C-band signals and L-band signals may be transmitted. In one implementation, a method (130) may execute a traffic managing module (23). When executed, the traffic managing module (23) may be configured to enable a processing device (12) to calculate (132) a gain correction profile based on a difference between a saved baseline transmission profile (84) and a measured transmission profile (94) of a surviving band of a photonic line system (30) when another band of the photonic line system (30) is missing or impacted. The traffic managing module (23) may further be configured to enable the processing device (12) to apply (134) the gain correction profile to a respective optical amplifier (46) of the photonic line system (30) to compensate for the difference.

Systems and methods for auto-squelching problematic channels of an optical spectrum and replacing them with Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) channel holders are provided. A method is provided according to one implementation. In response to analyzing optical signals propagating in an optical line system, the method includes the step of determining whether one or more channels of a spectrum of the optical signals are problematic. The one or more problematic channels are determined to be problematic based on the severity of a negative impact that the one or more problematic channels have on spectrum health. The method also includes the step of auto-squelching the one or more problematic channels and replacing the one or more problematic channels with one or more Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) channel holders.

An optical reception apparatus (1) of the present invention includes: a local oscillator (11) outputting local oscillation light (22); an optical mixer (12) receiving a multiplexed optical signal (21) and the local oscillation light, and selectively outputting an optical signal (23) corresponding to the wavelength of the local oscillation light from the multiplexed optical signal; a photoelectric converter (13) converting the optical signal (23) output from the optical mixer into an electric signal (24); a variable gain amplifier (15) amplifying the electric signal (24) to generate an output signal (25) whose output amplitude is amplified to a certain level; a gain control signal generating circuit (16) generating a gain control signal (26) for controlling the gain of the variable gain amplifier (15); and a monitor signal generating unit (17) generating a monitor signal (27) corresponding to the power of the optical signal (23) using the gain control signal (26).

An optical module includes an optical amplifier configured to amplify Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) channels transmitted on a fiber; and an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) configured to transmit an OTDR signal on the fiber and detect a back-scattered signal based thereon to test the fiber, wherein a wavelength of the OTDR signal is one of i) between one or more wavelengths associated with the optical amplifier and one or more wavelengths associated with the WDM channels and ii) greater than the one or more wavelengths associated with the WDM channels, for in-service operation of the OTDR.