Method and apparatus for identifying pump failures using an optical line interface

摘要

An optical interface device is provided for use in an undersea optical transmission system that includes an undersea optical transmission path, a plurality of optical repeaters located along the optical transmission path, and a selected one of any of a plurality of different vendor supplied optical transmission terminals each of which has a vendor-specific interface. The optical interface device includes a signal processing unit providing signal conditioning to optical signals received from the vendor-specific interface of the selected optical transmission terminal so that the optical signals are suitable for transmission through the undersea optical transmission path. A gain monitoring arrangement is also provided for determining a change in gain provided by any one of the optical repeaters. The optical interface device also includes a processor for identifying a particular pump source that has failed from among a plurality of pump sources used to supply pump energy to the repeater based on the change in gain determined by the gain monitoring arrangement.