Patent ID: 9698912
Date: 2017-07-04
CPC Classifications: H04B

Claim:
1. A method for monitoring subcarriers of superchannels using frequency modulation (FM), the method comprising: frequency modulating, at an optical transmitter of an optical transport network, a first frequency onto a first optical subcarrier modulated with carrier data at an optical transmission frequency, wherein the first frequency is uniquely assigned to the first optical subcarrier in the optical transport network, and wherein the first frequency is smaller than the optical transmission frequency; combining the first optical subcarrier with additional optical subcarriers to form a superchannel having a fixed transmission band; transmitting the superchannel over at least a portion of the optical transport network; receiving the superchannel via the optical transport network; and demodulating, based on the first frequency, the superchannel received to generate a power spectrum indicative of a power intensity of the first frequency over the fixed transmission band.