Optical link quality monitoring in a computer network

摘要

In one embodiment, a local network device collects local optical power information for at least one of either a local optical transmit interface and a local optical receive interface of the local network device. The local network device may then exchange the local information for remote optical power information of corresponding remote optical receive and transmit interfaces of a remote network device at an opposing end of at least one corresponding optical link (fiber). For example, an exchange may use a point-to-point protocol which may dynamically determine/discover neighboring relationships between capable peer device interfaces and establish a suitable communication exchange between the capable peers. Based on the local information and exchanged remote information, the local network device may calculate an optical power loss of each corresponding optical link.

主权项

1. A method, comprising:
collecting Layer-1 parameters including local optical power information at a local network device for a local optical transmit interface of the local network device; dynamically determining a neighbor relationship with a remote network device accessible via the local optical transmit interface using a Layer-2 or Layer-3 exchange protocol; in response to the dynamically determining, sending an exchange protocol message from the local network device using a the Layer-2 or Layer-3 exchange protocol, the sent exchange protocol message having the Layer-1 parameters including the local optical power information for the local optical transmit interface of the local network device; receiving an exchange protocol message at the local network device via the Layer-2 or Layer-3 exchange protocol, the received exchange protocol message having Layer-1 parameters including remote optical power information of a corresponding remote optical receive interface of a remote network device at an opposing end of a corresponding optical link; and calculating an optical power loss of the corresponding optical link at the local network device, based on the local optical power information and the remote optical power information.