Use of dying gasp to locate faults in communications networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8948587-B2
Application number	US-201313928069-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2013
Priority date	Jun 27, 2012
Publication date	Feb 3, 2015
Grant date	Feb 3, 2015

Abstract

Novel tools and techniques that can be used to detect network impairment, including but not limited to impairment of optical fiber networks. In an aspect, such tools and techniques can be deployed at relatively low cost, allowing pervasive deployment throughout a network. In another aspect, such tools and techniques can take advantage of a “dying gasp,” in which a network element detects a sudden drop in received optical (or electrical) power, resolution, etc. at short time scales and sends a notification across the network before the connection is completely compromised. In yet another aspect, some tools can include a supervisory function to analyze aspects of the dying gasp with the goal to determine network segments associated with an impairment and an estimate of the location of an impairment within the network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of estimating a location of fiber impairment in an optical network, the method comprising:
receiving, at a computer system, one or more dying gasp communications, the one or more dying gasp communications comprising at least one communication from a network element in the optical network; and
determining, with the computer system, based at least in part on the one or more dying gasp communications, that a network impairment has occurred, wherein t…

Assignees

• Centurylink Ip Llc

Inventors

• Fargano Mike
• Sprenger Michael D

Classifications

• H04B10/07

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04B10/27

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04B10/071 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04B10/0791 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic