DEVICE FOR INTERROGATING AN OPTICAL FIBRE NETWORK

Abstract: Apparatus for interrogating an optical fibre network, comprises: (i) a device for sending an interrogation signal into the network, the interrogation signal comprising a sequence of optical pulses forming a code; and (ii) a detection system which correlates a signal received from the network in response to the interrogation signal with a reference signal that is generated by the device and corresponds to a time delayed version of the interrogation signal. The device for sending the interrogation signal generates the optical pulse code in unipolar form from a bipolar code by replacing each bit of the bipolar code with a two bit unipolar sequence 10 or 01 depending on the polarity of the bipolar code bit. Preferably the interrogation signal comprises a pair of codes (A and B) that form a Golay pair, in which case the apparatus preferably generates the autocorrelation function: [(A*A) - (A*<o>A</o>)] + [(B*B) - (B*<o>B</o>)]. Where <o>A</o> and <o>B</o> are the one complements of A and B. The detection system preferably also includes a semiconductor laser amplifier (24) that is powered by the reference signal (30) and so acts as an AND gate to the reference signal and the reflected signal with gain.

Description: DEVICE FOR INTERROGATING AN OPTICAL FIBRE NETWORK This invention relates to devices for interrogating optical fibre networks, for example networks that incorporate one or more sensors, or line networks that are employed for communications purposes One particularly important area in which the invention may be employed is in the interrogation of systems such as passive optical networks by reflectometry methods in order to locate faults in the system Optical networks may be monitored for fault detection and location by optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR) in which a pulse of light is injected into one end of the system and the reflection ofthe pulse is observed as a function of time One problem associated with such reflectometry methods is the lack of dynamic range of the system when relatively high resolution ofthe fault is required in order to achieve high resolution, a very narrow light pulse is required, for example of 10 7 s duration), but narrowness of the light pulse restricts the optical energy ofthe pulse, with the result that the reflected signal can have very poor signal to noise ratio This is especially true of branched passive optical networks where the intensity ofthe transmitted pulse is reduced at each branching point in the network and so necessitates interrogation systems that have a high dynamic range In order to overcome this problem it has been proposed to replace the pulse by a signal comprising a sequence of pulses forming a code e g a pseudo random binary sequence (PRBS) and to perform a correlation of the reflected signal with a time delayed version ofthe original signal, so called "correlation OTDR" Since the reflected signal will comprise a number of reflections of the original signal from the reflectors in the system, the correlation will thus comprise a number of autocorrelation functions of the original signal, each one corresponding to one ofthe Fresnel reflections in optical system By adjusting the time delay of the reference signal derived from the original signal, the peaks ofthe correlation function corresponding to the Fresnel reflections of interest can be monitored through the formation ofthe correlation function ofthe reflected signal and a suitably delayed reference signal This system has the advantage that while the resolution is determined by the width ofthe individual pulses, the dynamic range is determined by the total energy ofthe pulse sequence, with the result that the dynamic range ofthe system can, in principle, be increased many fold without sacrificing resolution Such systems have been proposed for example by Nazarathy et al (J Lightwave Technol vol 7 I (1989) which describes the use of Golay code pairs for observing an optical network Golay codes were oπginally developed for the electrical domain and are bipolar codes that exist in pairs and have the property that when the codes are autocorrelated and the autocorrelations ofthe pair of codes are summed, a "perfect" autocorrelation is formed, i e one that has no non-zero side lobes Bipolar Golay codes of In elements in length may be generated by the formula n elements In elements where the In element codes are formed by concatenating the n element codes A and B, and A and B , the code B representing the inverse of code B. Starting with the one element Golay pair the Golay codes of length 2, 4, 8 are readily derived This procedure may be continued on to generate sequences of lengths which are powers of two For any such codes, the function. A*A + B*B will have no non-zero values other than the zero phase difference peak. However, bipolar codes are inappropriate for use in optical reflectometry methods which require unipolar codes, and some means must therefore be used to convert the bipolar code into unipolar form. The method employed by Nazarathy et al (supra), however, has the disadvantage that the bias that has been applied to the bipolar code to render it unipolar must be subtracted during processing of the reflected signals, wliich requires processing of the signals in the electronic domain This necessitates detection of the optical signals with a very high bandwith photodetector if high resolution is to be achieved, but the sensititivity of photodetectors is highly dependent on the bandwidth of the signals (e.g. at bit rates of the order of 5 Gbit s "1 ) with the result that the dynamic range of the system is still limited , in practice, unless resolution is sacrificed. The present invention is based on a novel way of generating unipolar codes for use in optical reflectometry methods, and especially for generating unipolar Golay codes that have "perfect" or almost "perfect" autocorrelation functions According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided apparatus for interrogating an optical fibre network, which comprises 1 ( i) a device for sending an interrogation signal into the network, the interrogation signal comprising a sequence of optical pulses forming a code; and (ii) a detection system which correlates a signal received from the network in response to the interrogation signal with a reference signal that is generated by the device and corresponds to a time delayed version of the interrogation signal, characterised in that the device for sending the interrogation signal generates the optical pulse code in unipolar form from a bipolar code by replacing each bit of the bipolar code with a two bit unipolar sequence 10 or 01 depending on the polarity ofthe bipolar code bit. The bipolar code that is used to form the unipolar code preferably comprises code sequences forming a Golay code pair and is converted to a unipolar Golay code pair. For example positive elements can be coded as 10 while negative elements can be coded as 01. Thus Golay pair A = 1, 1,1,-1 and B=l, 1,-1,1 would become A=10101001 and B= 101001 10. Of course, positive elements could be coded as 01 and negative elements as 10 if desired. Such unipolar Golay codes have the advantage that it is possible to form a correlation function ofthe formula (1). [(A *A) - (A* 1)] + [(B*B) - (B* B )] (1) wherein A and B are sequences forming the Golay code pair that is used as the interrogation signal, and A and B are ones complements of A and B respectively, The autocorrelation function (1) has an almost perfect form in that it is zero apart from the zero phase difference peak and the two bits lying adjacent thereto. It is therefore possible by employing such a function to resolve reflectors in an optical network provided that their distances to the head end where the apparatus is located differ by a sufficient amount to cause their reflections to be separated by at least two bits ofthe modified Golay code sequence, and the fact that the autocorrelation function is zero at such phase differences, means cross-talk will be greatly reduced. The use ofthe unipolar code employed according to the invention has the advantage that the signal processing can be conducted in the optical domain in real time. Thus, for example, the detection system may comprise a) an AND gate into which are fed the signal received from the optical line system and the reference signal; and b) an integrator circuit that integrates the output ofthe AND gate (after conversion to an electrical signal if necessary) to generate a value for the correlation ofthe signal received from the optical network and the reference signal for a predetermined time delay ofthe reference signal. Any form of AND gate may in principle be employed in the detection system. The AND gate may have an optical output (in which case conversion to an electrical signal will be necessary) or an electrical output, and may have two optical or electrical inputs or may have one optical and one electrical input. However, the gate is preferably formed from a semiconductor laser amplifier (SLA). When supplied with a drive current the SLA passes the incoming optical signal with ampUfication, while if the drive current is absent the signal is absorbed. Thus, the code sequence that is used to generate the reference signal may be passed, after the appropriate time delay, to the drive current input ofthe SLA, and the optical input ofthe SLA is connected to the optical line system. The output ofthe SLA is fed into a light detector circuit which can act as or be input directly into the integrator circuit, for example it can be fed into a power meter. The use of an SLA as the AND gate has the advantage that not only is it capable of switching at a speed appropriate to the bit rate required, it generates a high degree of gain (e.g. 12 dB fibre-to-fibre gain) with the result that the relative insensitivity ofthe photodetector at such bit rates is reduced. Furthermore, unlike the use of integrated optical modulators as described by Al-Raweshidy et al (Optics Communication Vol 81. (1991) pp. 171-174) which will not switch properly unless the polarisation ofthe reflected signal is correct, SLAs are polarisation insensitive and so will operate whatever the polarisation of the reflected signal. Thus, according to another aspect, the invention provides apparatus for interrogating an optical fibre network, which comprises: ( i) a device for sending an interrogation signal into the network, the interrogation signal comprising a sequence of optical pulses forming a code; and (ii) a detection system which correlates a signal received from the network in response to the interrogation signal with a reference signal that is generated by the device and corresponds to a time-delayed version ofthe interrogation signal, characterised in that the detection system comprises a semiconductor laser amplifier which amplifies the signal received from the network and which is powered by the reference signal, and an integrator circuit that integrates the output ofthe semiconductor laser amplifier to generate a value for the correlation ofthe signal received from the optical network and the reference signal for a predetermined time delay ofthe reference signal. The integrator circuit can be any conventional integrator circuit having a time constant greater than the time period during which one code sequence ofthe signal is received from the optical line system and will normally be provided by employing a low bandwidth photodetector The output ofthe integrator circuit will thus be a dc signal whose level corresponds to the value ofthe correlation function ofthe time delayed reference signal and the reflected signal at any one given time delay. Such a detection system provides a very simple means of forming the correlation function values at high speed since no, or very little, digital computation is required Any d.c. component ofthe SLA and any noise generated in the system will be substantially reduced by the nature of the autocorrelation function 1 above The pulse rate ofthe code sequence should be sufficiently high to provide adequate resolution, for example in the range of 10 7 to 10 10 bits s "1 , and the number of individual pulses in the code sequence should be sufficient to enable each reflector in the system to be uniquely identified. Thus the code sequence should be sufficiently long that the start ofthe sequence reflected from the most distant point in the optical line system is received by the detection system when or before the end ofthe code sequence is transmitted In respect of each Golay code, e.g code A, the autocorrelation (A* A) and the correlation with its complement (A* A) may be conducted sequentially or simultaneously, but preferably simultaneously (in which case separate detection systems are required for A*A and A* A), the complement A being generated by passing the time delayed reference signal through an inverter that will replace 1 bits by zero and vice versa or alternatively being generated as a separate code. An integrator circuit is employed to obtain values for each ofthe two correlations and one is then subtracted from the other. The procedure is then repeated for the Golay complement B and the resultant values are then summed to generate the values for the resultant autocorrelation function (1). The number of computational steps required for generating the individual values ofthe autocorrelation function (1) is thus kept to a minimum, thereby enabling the values to be obtained in real time at very high signal bit rates (and thus high resolution). A further advantage ofthe signal coding is the high duty cycle (50%) which ensures a high signal-to-noise ratio ofthe reflected signal Although the value of the autocorrelation function for any given phase difference can be generated very quickly and simply, it will usually be a time consuming process to generate the entire autocorrelation function ofthe reflected signal in order to map the whole network, since the interrogation signal will typically contain in the order of 10 5 to 10 6 individual bits or more (depending, obviously, on the size ofthe network). Fortunately, however, this will be necessary only rarely for housekeeping purposes after any system has been commissioned, and normally all that will be required is to observe the intensity ofthe reflected signal from each ofthe reflectors in the network that is being monitored, e g for each ofthe end users and, if desired, from any additional reflectors located at branching points of the system Once the reflection pattern ofthe line system is known, the time delays required to observe the reflectors can be stored in memory, and the individual reflectors can therefore be polled without the necessity to observe the remaining parts ofthe system If a system fault occurs in part ofthe line system that is not being monitored, for example high signal attenuation occurring in a region between a pair of Fresnel reflectors, this will manifest itself by a change in the relative intensities ofthe peaks from the reflectors on either side ofthe fault, in which case the correlation function for that part ofthe system between the reflectors can be generated in order to locate the fault Since this procedure involves observing only a small part ofthe line system, it will take only a fraction ofthe time needed to observe the line system as a whole The output ofthe sensing apparatus detector will be a dc electrical or optical signal proportional to the value ofthe correlation function ofthe reference signal and the reflection for a given phase difference. However, if an SLA is used as the AND gate it also will have a large d.c. component due to amplified spontaneous emission, and it may, in some instances, be desirable to move the desired output from the SLA away from the d.c. level. This can be achieved by superimposing a low frequency sine wave on to the high frequency code at the laser input. The output ofthe correlation can then be measured using an a.c. coupled detector with a lock-in amplifier However, the use of the autocorrelation function (1) has the advantage, as mentioned above, that all d.c. components that are due to the SLA cancel one another out, with the result that much simpler d c circuitry can be used According to yet a further aspect, the invention provides a method of interrogating an optical fibre network, which comprises; (i) sending an interrogation signal into the optical network, the interrogation signal comprising a sequence of optical pulses forming a unipolar Golay code pair (A and B) which has been formed by replacing each bit of a bipolar Golay code pair with a two bit unipolar sequence 10 or 01 depending on the polarity of the bipolar code bit; (ii) detecting the signal received from the line system in response to the interrogation signal and correlating the signal received from the line system with a reference signal that corresponds to a time delayed version ofthe interrogation signal to generate values ofthe autocorrelation functions of the Golay pairs A* A) and (B*B) and also correlation functions of each of the Golay components with their ones complements (A*l) and (B* B); and (iii) generating values of the correlation function [(A* A) - (Λ* Λ )] + [(B*B) - (B* ~ B )] for a predetermined time delay ofthe interrogation signal. The high duty cycle and low cross-talk that are possible using the unipolar codes according to the invention enable an improved dynamic range/resolution compromise to be achieved with relatively low signal to noise ratio. A two-way dynamic range of 36dB has been obtained without optimisation, which could therefore be employed with a passive optical network (PON) having 64 end users. With optimisation it is envisaged that the invention could be employed for testing PONs having 500 or more end users. The apparatus and method according to the invention are not limited to use in reflectometry methods for monitoring line optical fibre networks, but can instead be employed with systems that employ throughput sensors for example ladder sensor networks. The present invention will now be described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a functional schematic showing the formation ofthe autocorrelation function of a pair of bipolar Golay codes; Figure 2 is a schematic showing the formation ofthe autocorrelation function of a pair of modified, unipolar Golay codes; Figure 3 is a schematic showing the set up of apparatus according to the invention for interrogating an optical line system; and Figure 4 is a schematic showing an alternative sensor set up. Referring to the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 shows the autocorrelation function of a bipolar Golay code A and its Golay complement B. Each code is an 8 bit code, code A having the form 1 1 1 -1 1 1 -1 1 and its complement B having the form 1 1 1 -1 -1 -1 1 -1. When codes are individually autocorrelated, each autocorrelation has a zero phase peak 1 and in addition a number of lobes 2 and 4. The lobes in the two autocorrelations A *A and B*B are of opposite polarity so that when they are added to produce (A* A) + ((B*B), a "perfect" autocorrelation is formed which is zero everywhere apart from the zero phase peak 1. Although such codes can be used for electrical signals, they are not appropriate for optical signals which can only be unipolar Thus, according to the invention, the bipolar codes are modified or pre-coded into unipolar form for example by replacing each element 1 with the bit pair 10, and each element -1 with the bit pair 01 so that, for example, the bipolar code A would become a 16 bit code 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 In addition to the modified Golay pair A and B, their ones complements A and B are formed by replacing each zero in the modified code by 1 and vice versa The four components so formed may be autocorrelated by means ofthe autocorrelation formula (1) [(A*A) - (A* 1 )] + [(B*B) - (B* B ~ )] (1) to form an almost perfect autocorrelation shown in figure 2 This figure shows in (a) the autocorrelation (A* A) - (A* A ) of one ofthe Golay codes for a 32 bit modified code, and in (b) the autocorrelation (B*B) - (B* B ) of the Golay complement of A. When the two autocorrelation functions are summed to give the resultant autocorrelation shown in (c) all the non-zero lobes cancel out with the exception of one lobe 6 adjacent to, and on each side of, the zero phase difference peak 1 One form of apparatus that employs this form of modified Golay coding is shown in figure 3 The apparatus is used to interrogate a passive optical network 10 shown schematically merely as a number of reflectors 12 representing end users etc an exchange or head-end 14 and an optical line 16 connecting them bn the region ofthe exchange, apparatus for interrogating the network is located, which comprises a pulse pattern generator (PPG) 18 controlled by a microcomputer 20, which generates alternating unipolar Golay code pairs and sends them to laser 22 The laser 22 then launches the modified Golay codes into the optical line 16 at the appropriate wavelength The signal that is reflected by the passive optical network is received by a semiconductor laser amplifier 24 whose output is sent to a power meter 28 via a band pass filter 26 whose purpose is to reduce noise generated by the SLA The PPG 18 also generates a time delayed version of the coded interrogation signal which is fed via line 30 to the electrical drive current input o the amplifier 24 with the result that the amplifier acts as an AND I I gate whose output is an amplified version of the reflected signal ANDed with the time shifted initial signal. The output signal is optically filtered by filter 26, converted to an electrical signal by a conventional photodetector circuit (not shown) and the signal is then fed into power meter 28. The power meter 28 comprises an integrator circuit which may in the simplest form simply be formed from a low pass RC circuit, but which has a time constant greater than the time taken for one complete modified Golay component to be transmitted. The output value ofthe signal from the power meter will constitute a summation ofthe bits ofthe reflected signal ANDed with the time delayed version ofthe signal and will thus form a value ofthe correlation function ofthe interrogation signal and its reflection for one value ofthe phase difference This value is then stored in the microcomputer 20. If the preferred autocorrelation function (1) is to be generated, it is necessary to generate the complements A and B of each ofthe Golay complements and to correlate these with the reflected signal This may be achieved simultaneously as shown Ln figure 4 in which the reflected signal is split by a 3dB coupler 40 into a pair of parallel semiconductor laser amplifiers 42 and 44, one of which is driven by reference signal A and the other by it's complement A when code A is the input light signal. The resulting signals are filtered and converted to electrical signals by photodetector circuits or power meters 46 and 48 and then recorded on a p.c. for signal processing

Claims: CLAIMS 1 Apparatus for interrogating an optical fibre network, which comprises ( i) a device for sending an interrogation signal into the network, the interrogation signal comprising a sequence of optical pulses forming a code; and (ii) a detection system which correlates a signal received from the network in response to the interrogation signal with a reference signal that is generated by the device and corresponds to a time delayed version ofthe interrogation signal, characterised in that the device for sending the interrogation signal generates the optical pulse code in unipolar form from a bipolar code by replacing each bit of the bipolar code with a two bit unipolar sequence 10 or 01 depending on the polarity ofthe bipolar code bit 2 Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the bipolar code comprises code sequences forming a Golay code pair and is converted to a unipolar Golay code pair. 3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 4, which includes means for generating values of the correlation function [(A *A) - (A* Ϊ)] + [( . B*B) - (B* B )) (1) wherein A and B are sequences forming the Golay code pair that is used as the interrogation signal, and A and B are ones complements of A and B respectively, for a predetermined time delay ofthe reference signal 4 Apparatus for interrogating an optical network, which comprises (i) a device for sending an interrogation signal into the optical network, the interrogation signal comprising a sequence of optical pulses forming a unipolar Golay code pair (A and B) which has been formed by replacing each bit of a bipolar Golay code pair with a two bit unipolar sequence 10 or 01 depending on the polarity ofthe bipolar code bit; (ii) a detection system which correlates a signal received from the optical line system in response to the interrogation signal with a reference signal that is generated by the device and which corresponds to a time delayed version ofthe interrogation signal to generate values ofthe autocorrelation functions ofthe Golay pairs (A*A) and (B*B) and also correlation functions of each of the Golay components with their ones complement (A* A ) and (B* B ), and (iii) means for generating values ofthe correlation function [{A *A) - (A* 1)] + [(B*B) - (B* B )] for a predetermined time delay ofthe reference signal. 5 Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the detection system comprises a) an AND gate into which are fed the signal received from the optical line system and the reference signal; and b) an integrator circuit that integrates the output ofthe AND gate (after conversion to an electrical signal if necessary) to generate a value for the correlation ofthe signal received from the optical network and the reference signal for a predetermined time delay ofthe reference signal. 6 Apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the integrator circuit comprises a low¬ pass RC filter that has a time constant greater than the time taken to send one complete interrogation signal 7 Apparatus as claimed in claim 5 or claim 6, wherein the AND gate comprises a semi-conductor laser amplifier which amplifies the signal received from the network and which is powered by the reference signal 8 Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein the AND gate is arranged in parallel with an additional AND gate into which is fed the signal received from the network system and a complement ofthe reference signal 9 Apparatus for interrogating an optical fibre network, which comprises- ( i) a device for sending an interrogation signal into the network, the interrogation signal comprising a sequence of optical pulses forming a code, and (ii) a detection system which correlates a signal received from the network in response to the interrogation signal with a reference signal that is generated by the device and corresponds to a time-delayed version ofthe interrogation signal, characterised in that the detection system comprises a semiconductor laser amplifier which amplifies the signal received from the network and which is powered by the reference signal, and an integrator circuit that integrates the output ofthe semiconductor laser amplifier to generate a value for the correlation of the signal received from the optical network and the reference signal for a predetermined time delay ofthe reference signal 10 A method of interrogating an optical fibre network, which comprises (i) sending an interrogation signal into the optical network, the interrogation signal comprising a sequence of optical pulses forming a unipolar Golay code pair (A and B) which has been formed by replacing each bit of a bipolar Golay code pair with a two bit unipolar sequence 10 or 01 depending on the polarity of the bipolar code bit, (ii) detecting the signal received from the line system in response to the interrogation signal and correlating the signal received from the line system with a reference signal that corresponds to a time delayed version of the interrogation signal to generate values ofthe autocorrelation functions of the Golay pairs (A*A) and (B*B) and also correlation functions of each ofthe Golay components with their ones complements [A* ~ A ) and (B* ~ B ), and (iii) generating values ofthe correlation function [(A* A) - (A* l)] + [(B*B) - (B* B )] for a predetermined time delay ofthe interrogation signal. 11. A method as claimed in claim 10, in which the optical line system includes a plurality of reflectors and the time delay is varied in order to poll the reflectors ofthe system. 12 A method as claimed in claim 8 or claim 9, wherein the optical network is a passive optical network for telecommunications and includes at least 500 end users

Inventors: ANDONOVIC IVAN, UTTAMCHANDANI DEEPAK, WALLACE COLIN, ANDONOVIC, IVAN, UTTAMCHANDANI, DEEPAK, WALLACE, COLIN
Applicants: ANDONOVIC IVAN, BICC PLC, UTTAMCHANDANI DEEPAK, WALLACE COLIN, ANDONOVIC, IVAN, BICC PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY, UTTAMCHANDANI, DEEPAK, WALLACE, COLIN
Application year: 1995
Main classification: G01M11
IPC codes: G01M11