The present disclosure relates to systems and method for deploying a fiber optic network. Distribution devices are used to index fibers within the system to ensure that live fibers are provided at output locations throughout the system. In an example, fibers can be indexed in multiple directions within the system. In an example, spare ports can be providing in a forward direction and reverse direction ports can also be provided.

A wavelength reference device includes a broadband optical source, a repeating filter, and a wavelength-specific filter. The source, which can be a super-luminescent light-emitting diode (SLED), emits optical power. The repeating filter, which can be a Fabray-Perot etalon, filters the optical power into a repeating spectral response, and the wavelength-specific filter attenuates the optical power of at least one predefined wavelength response within the wavelength band. The repeating filter and the wavelength-specific filter output a wavelength reference signal having the repeating spectral response attenuated at the at least one predefined wavelength response. The predefined wavelength response reduces the ambiguity that can occur in the repeating frequency locations found in the repeating spectral response. In this way, an absolute wavelength reference is intrinsically provided in the wavelength reference that removes the location ambiguity caused by the repeating spectral response.

An optical network communication system utilizes a passive optical network including an optical hub having an optical line terminal, downstream transmitter, an upstream receiver, a processor, and a multiplexer. The upstream receiver includes a plurality of TWDMA upstream subreceivers. The system includes a power splitter for dividing a coherent optical signal from the optical hub into a plurality of downstream wavelength signals, a long fiber to carry the coherent optical signal between the optical hub and the power splitter, and a plurality of serving groups. Each serving group includes a plurality of optical network units configured to (i) receive at least one downstream wavelength signal, and (ii) transmit at least one upstream wavelength signal. The system includes a plurality of short fibers to carry the downstream and upstream wavelength signals between the power splitter and the optical network units, respectively. Each upstream subreceiver receives a respective upstream wavelength signal.

A management system configured to manage one or more optical transmitters in an optical network utilizing an optical spectrum, wherein the management system is configured to track at least one of said multiple optical transmitters by specifying a spectral position and spectral width of the portion of the optical spectrum containing a coherent optical signal generated by the at least one optical transmitter, wherein the spectral width is ‘n’ bins where n is an integer greater than 1 and each bin is a same size.

An optical branching/coupling device includes: a first optical branching unit that splits first light with a first and a second wavelength, and outputs second light and third light; a wavelength selector that receives the second light, receives fourth light with a third wavelength, output fifth and sixth light, one of the fifth light and the sixth light including an optical signal of the first wavelength of the second light and including the fourth light, and the other including an optical signal of the second wavelength; a first light switch that receives the fifth light and the sixth light, output one of the fifth light and the sixth light as seventh light, and output the other as eighth light; and a second light switch that receives the third light, receives the eighth light, and outputs the third or the eighth light that have been input as ninth light.

An apparatus includes a reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) having an input port to receive a first optical signal from a second device. The ROADM also includes a first wavelength selective switch (WSS), in optical communication with the input port, to convert the first optical signal into a second optical signal, a loopback, in optical communication with the first WSS, to transmit the second optical signal, and a second WSS, in optical communication with the loopback, to convert the second optical signal to a third optical signal and direct the third optical signal back to the second device via the input port.

This application provides a port detection method, an optical network device, and a passive optical network system, to quickly and accurately detect a port connected to an ONU, and improve efficiency of determining the port connected to the ONU. The method includes: an optical line terminal sends optical signals corresponding to all of N wavelengths to at least one optical network unit, where the N wavelengths are different from each other, and N is a positive integer; the OLT receives optical power values that are of the optical signals corresponding to all of the N wavelengths and that are sent by a first ONU, where the first ONU is any one of the at least one ONU; and the OLT determines, bases on the optical power values of the optical signals corresponding to all of the N wavelengths, information about an optical splitter port corresponding to the first ONU.

A wavelength converter that converts signal light and pump light into a light containing a new wavelength component using a nonlinear optical fiber, has a PBS for splitting incident light into a first polarized wave and a second polarized wave, a first polarization controller provided between the PBS and a first end of the nonlinear optical fiber, and a second polarization controller provided between the PBS and a second end of the nonlinear optical fiber, wherein in an optical loop connecting the PBS, the first polarization controller, the nonlinear optical fiber and the second polarization controller, the first polarized wave and a first component of the pump light travel through the nonlinear optical fiber in a first direction, and the second polarized wave and a second component of the pump light travel through the nonlinear optical fiber in a second direction opposite to the first direction.

A system and method for wavelength detection includes one or more detection stages configured for receiving at least a portion of an optical carrier. Each stage includes a splitter for splitting the signal into two arms. A 90-degree optical hybrid and in-phase (I-channel)/quadrature (Q-channel) differential detectors generate I-channel and Q-channel differential signals based on the hybrid outputs. A gas cell or like multi-point wavelength reference path also receives the input signal and provides a set of reference absorption wavelengths converted into the electrical domain by a reference photodetector. A logic device receives sets of detection signals (including I-channel and Q-channel differential signals and the set of reference wavelengths, all corresponding to a common measurement time) and determines a wavelength of the optical carrier based on an arctangent of a ratio of the Q-channel and I-channel differential signals, mapped to the set of reference absorption wavelengths.

An optical circuit includes: a multicast-and-select (MCS) switch and multiple optical selective devices coupled to output ports of the MCS switch. The selective devices may select a single optical channel by blocking some of wavelengths of light passing therethrough and passing at least one other wavelength. The selective devices may be wave blockers or tunable optical filters. The optical circuit further includes an optical amplifying array, wherein each amplifier has an input port optically coupled to one of the selective devices. At least some of the amplifiers have pump light ports for receiving at least a portion of the pump light from one or more laser pumps or from another of the optical amplifiers, wherein the pumps are capable of providing pump light sufficient to fully saturate all of the rare earth doped optical fibers in the array.