Patent ID: 7072581

Claim:
A signal monitoring and integrity checking system for use in a Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) network, comprising: an optical network including a first asynchronous cross-connect and a second asynchronous cross-connect, each for connecting an incoming link to an interconnecting link; a first performance monitor for said first asynchronous cross-connect; a second performance monitor for said second asynchronous cross-connect; at least one first multi-cast means for multi-casting the input of said first asynchronous cross-connect to at least one first monitor port on said first asynchronous cross-connect, said first performance monitor communicating with said first monitor port; at least one second multi-cast means for multi-casting the input of said second asynchronous cross-connect to at least one second monitor port on said second asynchronous cross-connect, said second performance monitor communicating with said second monitor port; each of said performance monitors for detecting protocol and determining an error rate in accordance with said protocol; a subsystem including at least one comparison system for comparing the outputs from said performance monitors to detect where performance impairment is introduced.