Patent ID: 8755652

Claim:
A method of monitoring optical channels of an optical signal, comprising: retrieving parameters for monitoring the optical channels including a first time period and a second time period; transmitting the optical signal through an optical port; wavelength dispersing the optical signal; rotating a light reflecting element about a first axis to select a first portion of the wavelength dispersed optical signal to direct to a light detector comprising a plurality of photodiodes; rotating the light reflecting element about a second axis to select a photodiode from the plurality of photodiodes to measure an optical power of the first portion of the wavelength dispersed optical signal for a first time duration equal to the first time period; rotating the light reflecting element about the first axis to select a second portion of the wavelength dispersed optical signal to direct to the light detector; and rotating the light reflecting element about the second axis to select a photodiode from the plurality of photodiodes to measure an optical power of the second portion of the wavelength dispersed optical signal for a second time duration equal to the second time period.