SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ESTABLISHING SECURE COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN TRANSCEIVERS IN UNDERSEA OPTICAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

摘要

In general, a system and method provides secure communications between optical transceivers in an optical communication system. Two or more optical transceivers may be provisioned with one or more passcodes assigned to the transceivers, which may be used to indicate that received data traffic is intended for the transceivers. The transceivers may be configured to format data traffic with a secure version of the passcode in the overhead of the outbound signal and may be configured to determine if an inbound signal includes a secure version of the passcode provisioned in that transceiver. A transceiver may prevent data traffic from being read when the transceiver is not provisioned to receive data traffic with the embedded secure passcode and may insert an alternative maintenance signal (AMS) into an outbound signal in an opposite direction, at least temporarily, until the inbound signal includes the appropriate passcode.