Optical communication device and optical communication system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020045388-A1
Application number	US-201816499497-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 30, 2018
Priority date	Mar 31, 2017
Publication date	Feb 6, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

Provided are an optical communication device and an optical communication system capable of preventing the costs of equipment from increasing for an optical communication network constructed including devices provided by different vendors or devices of different generations. An optical communication device 10 includes a plurality of optical transponders 15 a, 15 b, 15 c , and 15 d configured to perform mutual conversion between an optical signal and an electrical signal; a noise addition unit 14 configured to add noise that degrades signal quality to an input optical signal and output the resulting optical signal; a first optical switch configured to output an optical signal input from outside or the noise addition unit 14 to at least one of the plurality of optical transponders 15 a, 15 b, 15 c , and 15 d ; and a second optical switch configured to directly or indirectly output an optical signal input from the at least one of the plurality of optical transponders 15 a, 15 b, 15 c , and 15 d to outside or the noise addition unit 14.

First claim

1 . An optical communication device, comprising:
a plurality of optical transponders configured to perform mutual conversion between an optical signal and an electrical signal; a noise addition unit configured to add noise that degrades signal quality to an input optical signal and output the resulting optical signal; a first optical switch configured to output an optical signal input from outside or the noise addition unit to at least one of the plurality of optical transponders; and a second optical switch configured to directly or indirectly output an optical signal input from the at least one of the plurality of optical transponders to outside or the noise addition unit.

2 . The optical communication device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a third optical switch configured to output the input optical signal to the noise addition unit, wherein the first optical switch outputs the optical signal input from the outside or the noise addition unit to one of the plurality of optical transponders or the third switch, and the second optical switch outputs the optical signal input from one of the plurality of optical transponders to the outside or the third optical switch.

3 . The optical communication device according to claim 1 , wherein
the first optical switch outputs the optical signal input from the outside or the noise addition unit to one of the plurality of optical transponders or the second switch, and the second optical switch outputs the optical signal input from one of the plurality of optical transponders or the first optical switch to the outside or the noise addition unit.

4 . The optical communication device according to claim 1 , wherein
the first optical switch includes a plurality of first optical splitters configured to divide the optical signal input from outside, a fourth optical switch configured to output the optical signal input from the noise addition unit to a selected output destination, and a plurality of fifth optical switches each configured to output the optical signal input from one of the plurality of first optical splitters or the fourth optical switch to at least one of the plurality of optical transponders.

5 . The optical communication device according to claim 1 , wherein
the second optical switch includes a plurality of sixth optical switches configured to output the optical signals input from the plurality of optical transponders to selected output destinations, a plurality of second optical splitters configured to divide the optical signals input from the plurality of sixth optical switches to outside, and a seventh optical switch configured to output the optical signals input from the plurality of sixth optical switches to the noise addition unit.

6 . The optical communication device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a controller configured to control the plurality of optical transponders, the noise addition part, the first optical switch, and the second optical switch.

7 . An optical communication system, comprising:
the optical communication device according to claim 1 ; and a management device configured to manage the optical communication device, wherein the optical communication device transmits the optical signal from one of two optical transponders of the plurality of optical transponders to the other via the noise addition unit to notify the management device of a measurement result of measuring communication quality.

8 . The optical communication system comprising:
a first optical communication device and a second optical communication device that are each the optical communication device according to claim 1 , and a management device configured to manage the first optical communication device and the second optical communication device, wherein the first optical communication device transmits an optical signal from one of the plurality of optical transponders to the second optical communication device, and the second optical communication device transmits the optical signal through the noise addition unit and receives the optical signal by one of the plurality of optical transponders, and the first optical communication device and the second optical communication device each notify the management device of the measurement result of measuring communication quality.

9 . The optical communication system according to claim 8 , wherein
the first optical communication device and the second optical communication device update a combination of the plurality of optical transponders for which communication quality is to be measured at a predetermined cycle, and performs measurement of communication quality for each combination, and the first optical communication device and the second optical communication device each notify the management device of the measurement result of measuring communication quality.

10 . The optical communication system according to claim 8 , wherein
the management device includes a storage unit configured to store a combination of types of optical transponders for which communication quality has already been measured among the plurality of optical transponders, together with a measurement result of communication quality related to the combination; a calculation unit configured to calculate a transmission characteristic of a path through which an optical signal is transmitted from the first communication device to the second optical communication device; and an estimation unit configured to estimate the communication quality based on the measurement result of communication quality stored in the storage unit and the transmission characteristic calculated by the calculation unit when a combination of an optical transponder of the first optical communication device and an optical transponder of the second optical communication device is the combination of types of optical transponders for which communication quality has already been measured.

11 . The optical communication system according to claim 10 , wherein
the management device further includes an extraction unit configured to extract a combination of types of optical transponders for which communication quality has not been measured among the plurality of optical transponders, and the management device causes one or both of the first optical communication device and the second optical communication device to perform measurement of communication quality on the combination of types of optical transponders extracted by the extraction unit to store the measurement result of communication quality in the storage unit.

Assignees

• Aist
• Nec Corp

Inventors

• Ishii Kiyo
• Namiki Shu
• Yanagimachi Shigeyuki
• Takeshita Hitoshi
• Tajima Akio

Classifications

• H04Q2011/0084

  Quality of service aspects · CPC title

• H04Q2011/0049

  Crosstalk reduction; Noise; Power budget · CPC title

• H04Q2011/0015

  using splitting combining · CPC title

• H04Q11/0062 Primary

  Network aspects · CPC title

• H04Q2011/0083

  Testing; Monitoring · CPC title