Patent ID: 7664398

Claim:
An optical network unit management method for, in a passive optical network system in which each of one or plural first optical network units at user side and an optical line termination at station side are connected to each other through an optical fiber and a splitter, and communication is performed in accordance with an identifier assigned to each of the first optical network units connected to the optical line termination, replacing one of the connected first optical network units by a second optical network unit, the optical network unit management method comprising the steps of: receiving a replacement instruction including the identifier of the first optical network unit specified as a replacement object from an operation system; acquiring a unique number of the first optical network unit corresponding to the specified identifier from a first storage area in which unique numbers of first optical network units and individual setting information concerning communication and/or users of the first optical network units are stored correspondingly to the identifier of the first optical network unit, and storing the acquired unique number of the first optical network unit correspondingly to the specified identifier into a second storage area in which the unique number of the first optical network unit which is specified as the replacement object from among the first optical network units is stored correspondingly to the identifier; deleting the unique number corresponding to the specified identifier from the first storage area; acquiring the unique number of the first optical network unit or a unique number of the second optical network unit newly connected instead of the first optical network unit; judging whether the unique number acquired in the acquiring step is stored in the second storage area; storing the acquired unique number, in a case where the unique number of the second optical network unit is acquired thereby being judged that the acquired unique number is not stored in the second storage area, into the first storage area correspondingly to the specified identifier; and in a case where the unique number of the first optical network unit is acquired thereby being judged that the acquired unique number is stored in the second storage area, repeating the step of acquiring the unique number of the first or the second optical network unit, the step of judging and the step of storing into the first storage area.