Claims
- 1. An optical communication link, comprising:
an optical fiber having a transmit end and a receive end; an optical transmitter coupled to said optical fiber transmit end generating a plurality of optical carriers; modulating means coupled to said optical transmitter for selectively modulating each of said optical carriers with a subcarrier; sensing means coupled to said optical fiber link for sensing a mixing product generated by said plurality of optical carriers; analyzing means coupled to said sensing means for analyzing said sensed mixing product; and control means coupled to and controlling said modulating means and said analyzing means.
- 2. The optical communication link specified in claim 1, wherein said analyzing means detects the presence of said subcarrier in said mixing product.
- 3. The optical communication link specified in claim 2, wherein said analyzing means detects the presence of said subcarrier in said mixing product as a function of which one of said optical carriers is being modulated with said subcarrier.
- 4. The optical communication link specified in claim 3, wherein said control means controls an amplitude of at least one said optical carriers as a function of the detected presence of said subcarrier in said mixing product.
- 5. The optical communication link specified in claim 1, wherein said analyzing means comprises a spectrum analyzer.
- 6. The optical communication link specified in claim 1, wherein said sensing means comprises an optical selective level meter (OSLM).
- 7. The optical communication link specified in claim 6, wherein said sensing means further comprises a discriminator coupled to said OSLM.
- 8. An optical communication link, comprising:
an optical fiber extending between a transmit and a receive end; an optical transmitter coupled to said optical fiber transmit end generating a plurality of optical carriers; a plurality of modulators, each said modulator modulating a different said optical carrier with a subcarrier; sensing means coupled to said optical fiber link for sensing a mixing product generated by said plurality of optical carriers; and analyzing means coupled to said optical fiber analyzing said mixing product and determining the presence of one or more said subcarriers in said mixing product.
- 9. The optical communication link specified in claim 8, wherein each of said subcarriers have a different frequency.
- 10. The optical communication link specified in claim 9, wherein each said subcarrier is modulated with data identifying the optical carrier being modulated by said respective subcarrier.
- 11. The optical communication link specified in claim 8, wherein said modulators modulate each of said optical carriers according to a predetermined pattern.
- 12. An optical communication link, comprising:
an optical fiber extending between a transmit and a receive end; an optical transmitter coupled to said optical fiber transmit end generating a plurality of optical carriers; a subcarrier generator modulating each said optical carrier with a subcarrier according to a predetermined pattern; sensing means coupled to said optical fiber link for sensing a mixing product generated by said plurality of optical carriers; and analyzing means coupled to said optical fiber analyzing said mixing product and determining the presence of said subcarrier in said mixing product.
- 13. The optical communication link specified in claim 12, wherein said subcarrier is further modulated with data identifying which said optical carrier is being modulated.
- 14. A method of detecting which of a plurality of optical carriers transmitted in an optical fiber are contributing toward the generation of a mixing product in the optical fiber, comprising the steps of:
modulating at least one said optical carrier with a subcarrier; and analyzing said mixing product to determine the presence of said subcarrier in said mixing product to determine which optical carriers are contributing toward the generation of the mixing product.
- 15. The method as specified in claim 14, comprising the step of analyzing said mixing product as a function of which optical carrier is being modulated with said subcarrier.
- 16. The method as specified in claim 15, further comprising the step of coordinating the modulation of each said optical carrier with the analysis of said mixing product.
- 17. The method as specified in claim 16, comprising the step of modulating said optical carriers with said subcarrier according to a predetermined pattern.
- 18. The method as specified in claim 14, wherein each said optical carrier is modulated with a separate said subcarrier, each said subcarrier having a different frequency.
- 19. The method as specified in claim 18, wherein each said subcarrier is further modulated with data identifying which said optical carrier is being modulated by said respective subcarrier.
- 20. The method as specified in claim 14, further comprising the step of adjusting an amplitude of at least one said optical carrier as a function of detecting the presence of said subcarrier in said mixing product.
- 21. The method as specified in claim 14, further comprising the step of adjusting a frequency of at least one said optical carrier as a function of detecting the presence of said subcarrier in said mixing product.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] Cross reference is made to the following co-pending patent applications, each being assigned to the same assignee as the present invention and the teachings included herein by reference:
1SERIAL NUMBERTITLEFILING DATE+HZ,/1/32 08/582,845Method and System for12/29/95Detecting Optical Faults in aNetwork Fiber Link08/673,651All-Optical Network with06/28/96Low-Level Subcarrier forAncillary Data