IDLER TONE CHANNEL BLOCKER FOR WDM SYSTEM

摘要

An optical line interface (130) is provided for communicating between terrestrial terminal equipment (100) and an undersea optical transmission path (140) a WDM optical signal having a plurality of wavelength components. The optical line interface includes a signal processing unit for transforming WDM optical signals between optical layer transport protocols employed by the terrestrial terminal equipment and undersea optical layer transport protocols employed over the undersea optical transmission path. The optical line interface (130) also includes an idler tone generator for generating idler tones at wavelengths corresponding to selected wavelengths components. An idler tone blocker (300) is located within a signal path of the signal processing unit for selectively transmitting and blocking wavelength components of the WDM optical signal corresponding to the idler tones.