Overview of Optical Monitoring in Next Generation Optical Access Networks

Next generation optical access networks are considered as key technology for future optical networks to generally cover the emerging high demand for bandwidth and data rates. As the reliance to the physical infrastructure of the network grows, a powerful monitoring and maintenance system forms the basis of an efficient network management to guarantee reliability and to meet a certain service level agreement. The increase of splitting ratio and transmission distance of next generation optical access networks is leading to novel requirements for monitoring systems. This paper gives a general overview of optical monitoring systems based on optical time domain reflectometry. Different monitoring solutions are compared and their suitability for next generation optical access networks is discussed. Specific limitations and challenges for monitoring in next generation optical networks are emphasized.