Optical communications – Diagnostic testing – Fault location
Reexamination Certificate
2005-01-07
2008-12-30
Vanderpuye, Kenneth (Department: 2613)
Optical communications
Diagnostic testing
Fault location
C398S018000, C398S037000, C398S177000
Reexamination Certificate
active
07471895
ABSTRACT:
A method is provided for locating a fault in one or more optical amplifiers operating in saturation and located along an optical transmission path. The method begins by generating a coherent optical time domain reflectometry (COTDR) trace representing a backscattered and/or reflected optical power level along the transmission path and comparing the trace to a reference trace to generate a difference trace that represents a change in gain. The change in gain is assigned to at least one of the optical amplifiers based on the difference trace. The method comprises assigning the difference trace to faults in the optical amplifiers, equating the difference trace with a linear combination of difference trace vectors each arising from a fault in a different one of the optical amplifiers, and iterating to determine a coefficient value associated with each difference trace vector. Each nonzero coefficient value denotes a fault in an optical amplifier.
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Choate Hall & Stewart LLP
Kim David S
Red Sky Subsea Ltd.
Vanderpuye Kenneth
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