CN1665173A - Optical fibre fault monitoring and positioning system for communication network and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a communication network based on optical fiber, and discloses a communication network optical fiber fault monitoring and positioning system and a method thereof, so that automatic alarm, automatic test and fault positioning of the optical communication system can be realized. This communication network optical fiber fault monitoring and locating system integrates the network management system and the optical fiber fault locating system in the prior art, and adds a fiber monitoring corresponding relationship module, which is used to record the communication between the optical fiber test unit and the communication network it monitors The corresponding relationship between the ports of the equipment; when receiving the alarm signal from the communication equipment, query the corresponding optical fiber test unit from the optical fiber monitoring corresponding relationship module, start the optical fiber test unit for testing, and analyze and locate the fault according to the test results .

Description

Communication network optical fiber fault monitoring and positioning system and method thereof

technical field

The invention relates to a communication network based on optical fiber, in particular to a communication network optical fiber fault monitoring and positioning technology.

Background technique

Due to the wide frequency band and high speed, the optical cable, as a highway in the telecommunications industry, is being widely used in the transmission network of telecommunications, radio and television, China Unicom, railways, electric power and the military, forming the national nervous system and making information from all walks of life be perceived in time. Therefore, once there is a problem with the line, it will cause huge losses. As these large and small network managers, they all hope to know when and where problems will occur in a timely manner, and propose solutions. For the optical cable network, not only emergencies occur, but also because optical fiber is a medium that will gradually deteriorate. It is necessary to know its past and present operating conditions and analyze future trends before making rectification plans. Therefore, the establishment of an optical cable monitoring system to realize real-time, online and automatic monitoring of the changes in the transmission characteristics of communication optical cables and the location of optical fiber faults can effectively prevent and compress optical cable faults and ensure high-quality, efficient, safe and stable operation of the optical cable network.

Optical fiber cable line Automatic Monitoring System ("OAMS") is a large amount of basic data of optical fiber transmission performance, such as optical power, etc. Go to monitoring centers and monitoring stations at all levels, analyze and process the data, and timely and accurately feed back the operation status of the optical cable system to maintenance personnel, so that maintenance personnel can find and repair faults in time. The OAMS system integrates modern network communication, computer communication, and optical measurement technology, and uses geographic information system and other technologies to provide reliable guarantee for line information and fault location. Distributed real-time and online automatic monitoring can be realized for faults and other situations without affecting the transmission performance of the optical transmission system in use, so as to achieve the purpose of both service and maintenance.

OAMS is mainly composed of monitoring center, regional monitoring center and on-site monitoring station. The monitoring center is responsible for controlling each monitoring station and is the center for collecting and processing data. The data transmission network forms a network of each testing station. The monitoring station is responsible for remote control and automatic monitoring of optical cable lines, tracking changes in optical fiber transmission loss, and consists of an alarm monitoring module, an Optical Time Domain Reflectometer ("OTDR") module, a control module, a power module, an optical switch, It consists of wavelength division multiplexing (Wavelength Division Multiplexing, referred to as "WDM"), optical filter, data transmission module, etc. and corresponding software (including OTDR simulation software).

OAMS can play a certain role in monitoring the performance degradation of optical cables, automatically and accurately locating faults, and improving maintenance efficiency. It can not only deal with the obstacles that have occurred in time, greatly shorten the duration of obstacles, but also can detect the signs of obstacle accidents in advance, deal with them in time, eliminate hidden dangers, and effectively prevent the occurrence of malignant obstacles.

The long-distance transmission equipment integrates the automatic monitoring system of optical fiber and optical cable. The geographical environment spanned by the long-distance system is very complex, and the equipment configuration is uneven. Once the transmission optical cable is aged or damaged, it will have an unpredictable impact on business transmission. The breakage of the optical cable will directly cause all business interruptions, and the consequences are very serious. In the process of optical cable repair, the location of the fault point also needs to be measured by special instruments, such as optical time domain reflectometer and so on. These potential failures of the transmission fiber greatly increase the operator's maintenance staffing and maintenance instrumentation investment. The OAMS system uses OTDR technology to obtain the loss of the optical fiber line, the loss characteristics of the optical connector and its historical change trend by testing the reflection spectrum at different distances on the transmission optical fiber path, and provides early warning of optical fiber aging. If there is a fiber fault, the OAMS system can issue a corresponding alarm and accurately locate the location and type of the break point of the optical path, which is convenient for the maintenance and monitoring of the fiber line. The embedded OAMS feature in the transmission system can further improve the alarm performance of transmission equipment, change passive maintenance into active maintenance, and enhance the maintainability of the transmission network.

The Network Manager system (NMS) plays an important role in monitoring and maintaining the network. It can manage network faults and analyze and process abnormal events on the optical network through the alarm information sent by network elements. In the optical fiber communication system, various optical cable faults are the main problems affecting the normal operation of the quality of service of the optical communication system and the system. In order to enable the network to have a higher level of monitoring and management, improve the service level and competitiveness of the entire network, and at the same time, in order to quickly and conveniently obtain relevant Information, and then reprocessing, analysis and utilization of these raw data to meet the higher-level requirements of future network management, it is very necessary to establish a comprehensive optical cable network management system that integrates monitoring, network management and document management. The completion of this system can fundamentally improve the current situation of passive maintenance of optical cable lines, and transform the maintenance of optical cable networks from traditional maintenance to intelligent maintenance. The system can be widely used in the fields of optical cable monitoring and optical network maintenance. A unified management platform is established on the optical cable monitoring equipment to provide comprehensive computer support means for basic network construction, monitoring, maintenance and management, and complete timely processing of network faults and network maintenance. Performance status analysis, network operation and maintenance cost accounting and other tasks, realize the computerization and intelligentization of optical fiber network maintenance management, so that managers can see the status of maintenance work at a glance, and on this basis, further complete network construction planning and decision-making. High level network administration work.

Due to the large amount of information transmitted by optical transmission equipment, the distance is long, and the optical power is large, the loss of optical devices is large, especially in long-distance transmission systems. The test curves have changed. Therefore, maintenance personnel need to perform routine checks on the equipment, and adjust some parameters when necessary. And store the new test curve as a test reference curve for a period of time later.

In the existing optical network equipment fault management technology, the optical fiber transmission equipment is managed by the NMS. When the equipment or optical fiber fails, it will send an alarm message to the NMS. Since the NMS cannot distinguish between these two types of faults, only special equipment can be used for testing. Reason for positioning. At present, it is commonly used to use OTDR equipment and its management software to locate the fault, connect the OTDR to the interface between the optical fiber and the equipment, and use the OTDR test management software to judge whether it is a problem with the optical fiber. If so, it will display the faulty part of the optical fiber. Otherwise, you must go to the original NMS to determine which network element is faulty.

In practical application, the above scheme has the following problems: the fault management of optical network equipment requires two sets of management equipment, which is troublesome to coordinate; when a problem occurs, it is necessary to use two sets of equipment to perform manual analysis to locate the fault, which is time-consuming and laborious, so that the network can be restored on average The time is long, and the service interruption time is long, which affects the normal use of users; the OTDR system cannot report the fiber degradation it finds to the NMS system in time, and the NMS system can only find the problem when the service is interrupted; to achieve real-time monitoring, Additional independent functional modules need to be added, which is costly and cannot effectively use resources.

The main reason for this situation is that OTDR and NMS are two independent management systems at present, and the internal information of the two cannot be shared, which makes the discovery and processing of optical fiber faults less efficient, and the test process needs to be completed manually. , not automated.

Contents of the invention

In view of this, the main purpose of the present invention is to provide a communication network optical fiber fault monitoring and locating system and method thereof, so that automatic alarm, automatic test and fault locating of the optical communication system can be realized.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a communication network optical fiber fault monitoring and positioning system, comprising

At least one optical fiber test unit for detecting the performance and fault location of the optical fiber;

An optical fiber monitoring correspondence module, configured to record the correspondence between the optical fiber testing unit and the port of the communication device in the communication network it monitors;

The network management subsystem is used to query the corresponding optical fiber test unit from the optical fiber monitoring correspondence module according to the alarm signal from the communication device, start the optical fiber test unit for testing, and analyze the fault according to the test result and position.

Wherein, the optical fiber testing unit is an optical time domain reflectometer in the form of a board or an independent device.

The optical fiber monitoring correspondence module is in the network management subsystem.

The network management subsystem is also used for managing the entire communication network, and periodically starting the optical fiber testing unit to perform polling tests on optical fibers in the communication network.

The alarm signal may be a remote signal loss signal or a remote frame loss signal or any necessary alarm signal specified by the user.

The network management subsystem starts the optical fiber test unit for testing through a roll call test command.

The present invention also provides a communication network optical fiber fault monitoring and positioning method, comprising the following steps:

The network management subsystem receives an alarm signal from a communication device in the communication network;

Query the corresponding optical fiber test unit from the optical fiber monitoring correspondence module according to the alarm signal, and start the optical fiber test unit for testing;

Analyzing the test result and the state of the communication equipment in the communication network to obtain a fault location result.

Among them, the following steps are also included:

Report the fault location result to the network administrator.

The alarm signal may be a remote signal loss signal or a remote frame loss signal or any necessary alarm signal specified by the user.

Through comparison, it can be found that the difference between the technical solution of the present invention and the prior art is that the original independent NMS and OTDR management systems are integrated into one system, information is shared, and a module of optical fiber monitoring correspondence is added, thereby realizing fault detection Automatic monitoring and fault location can provide early warning for gradually degraded optical fibers.

The difference in this technical solution has brought obvious beneficial effects, that is, the average repair time of equipment faults is shortened through automatic detection and location of faults, manpower is saved, and fault handling efficiency is improved; Early warning can prevent the occurrence of some failures and improve the reliability of the communication network.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a structural diagram of an integrated communication network optical fiber fault monitoring and location system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is the corresponding relationship table preserved in the optical fiber monitoring corresponding relationship module in the network management subsystem according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a flowchart of a method for monitoring and locating an optical fiber fault in a communication network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

In order to make the object, technical solution and advantages of the present invention clearer, the present invention will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

As shown in Figure 1, the integrated communication network fiber optic fault monitoring and location system of the present embodiment is made up of network management subsystem 10 and equipment 20, and wherein, equipment 20 is made up of transmission equipment 21 and OTDR optical fiber testing unit 22, and OTDR does A module of equipment is integrated into the system.

Wherein, the network management subsystem 10 is used for managing the optical fiber network, including analyzing and locating the fault according to the alarm signal and the test result of the OTDR optical fiber testing unit 22 . The optical network management subsystem 10 in the present invention is different from the existing network management system in that it integrates the functions of the original NMS management system and the functions of the OTDR management system. The user can control the OTDR optical fiber test unit 22 directly by setting it on the network management subsystem 10, so as to realize automatic monitoring of optical transmission equipment and automatic analysis and early warning of faults.

The device 20 is used to complete the functions of the device and integrate the test function of the OTDR at the same time. At the same time, when a fault occurs, an alarm signal, such as RLOS and RLOF, is sent to the NMS. The device 20 is composed of a transmission device 21 and an OTDR optical fiber test unit 22 .

The transmission device 21 is used to complete functions such as device transmission. At the same time, there is a port for communicating with the network management subsystem 10, which can send an alarm signal to the network management subsystem 10.

The OTDR optical fiber testing unit 22 is used to complete the transmission function and optical fiber testing function. OTDR is an optical time domain reflectometer, which is an instrument used to measure the performance of optical fiber. OTDR uses the backscattered light generated when light propagates in the fiber to obtain attenuation information, which can be used to measure fiber attenuation, joint loss, locate fiber fault points, and understand the loss distribution of the fiber along the length. Commercially available chips can perform the main functions. In the embodiment of the present invention, OTDR can be embedded in the device 20 as a single board of the transmission device 20, that is, the OTDR optical fiber test unit 22, which is connected between the transmission device 21 and the optical port of the optical fiber, At the same time, there is a port for communicating with the NMS, which is used for the NMS to issue test commands to the OTDR. The OTDR optical fiber test unit 22 can also be an independent device, and it only needs to provide a port for the NMS to issue test commands and report test results. OTDR has two test commands, automatic test function and roll call test function. Automatic test commands are used for periodic timing tests, and roll call test commands are mainly used for manually issuing test commands in the previous technology. In the present invention, the network management (Network Management, referred to as "NM") and OTDR use a management system, that is, the network management system NMS. The NMS can issue a roll call test command to the OTDR when needed, so that the system can start the OTDR test in time when a fault occurs, thereby shortening the average fault repair time and improving system efficiency.

The inventive point of this system is the combination of NMS and OTDR. In this embodiment, it refers to the combination of network management subsystem 10 and OTDR optical fiber testing unit 22 . In the present invention, there is a fiber monitoring correspondence module in the network management subsystem 10, as shown in FIG. 2 . The optical fiber monitoring corresponding relationship module records the information corresponding to the optical port of the network element at both ends of the monitoring optical fiber and the corresponding monitoring equipment. This corresponding relationship can be determined in the design drawing before the construction process. An OTDR device can monitor whether the communication of an optical fiber is normal or not, and if the optical fiber communication fails, there will be remote loss of signal (Remote Loss Of Signal, referred to as "RLOS"), remote Frame loss (Remote Loss Of Frame, referred to as "RLOF") and other alarms. Therefore, each OTDR port must correspond to the ports on the network elements at both ends. As shown in Figure 2, when the network management subsystem 10 receives predefined abnormal events such as RLOS and RLOF from the device 20, the program automatically queries the information in the optical fiber monitoring correspondence module, and finds the corresponding OTDR optical fiber test unit therefrom 22, and automatically issue a roll call test command to start the relevant OTDR optical fiber test unit 22 for testing. However, in the prior art, when a user receives alarm signals such as RLOS and RLOF of the equipment from the NMS, it is necessary to manually use an OTDR tester for testing. However, in the present invention, the application of the optical fiber monitoring correspondence module enables the combination of alarm and test to realize automation.

The network management subsystem 10 performs certain analysis and processing on the test results of the OTDR optical fiber test unit 22, and reports the final results to the user. For example, if the OTDR test finds that the optical fiber is normal, the necessary checks will be performed on the network elements and the results will be reported to the user. In this way, the user can eliminate the influence of fiber interruption when analyzing the problem, which is conducive to finding the cause of the fault faster; if the OTDR result is compared with the test reference curve and finds that the fiber is interrupted, the location of the fiber interruption will be directly reported to the user, such as the fault information through a short message Notify the network administrator by way of notification, and the network administrator does not even need to rush back to the computer room for processing, but directly informs the relevant maintenance personnel to go to the corresponding location for maintenance work according to the specific fault information. In this way, the response speed to failures can be effectively improved.

The network management subsystem 10 can also set the polling test for the OTDR. When the OTDR finds that the optical fiber has signs of deterioration, it will report to the NMS, and the NMS will automatically query the corresponding ports from the optical fiber monitoring correspondence module through the program, and then these ports can be found. All business information on the website, and automatic warnings for related businesses. It can also automatically store the curve when the optical fiber is working normally, as the test reference curve for a period of time thereafter.

There is also an alternative, that is, the OTDR optical fiber test unit 22 and the network management subsystem 10 still use the original respective management systems, and the OTDR can be an independent device here, but in the NM management system 10, the OTDR The communication mechanism of the management system, when an abnormal event occurs, the NM actively sends a test command to the OTDR management system, and the OTDR management system reports the test result to the NM management system, and the NM performs the next step according to the returned result. The fiber monitoring correspondence module in the original solution is still needed in the NM management system. Compared with the original solution, it only wastes some resources, that is, there is an additional management system and an additional communication mechanism between programs. The technical effect achieved is the same.

Fig. 3 shows a flow chart of a method for monitoring and locating an optical fiber fault in a communication network.

In step 100 , the network management subsystem 10 receives an alarm signal from the device 20 . The alarm signal can be RLOS, RLOF or any necessary alarm signal specified by the user.

Then enter step 110, the network management subsystem 10 queries the corresponding OTDR optical fiber test unit 22 from the optical fiber monitoring correspondence module according to the alarm signal, and starts the OTDR optical fiber test unit 22 for testing. For example, the alarm signal indicates that the left interface of transmission equipment B has an RLOS failure. In the optical fiber monitoring correspondence module shown in FIG. performance and fault location.

Then enter step 120, the network management subsystem 10 analyzes the test result and the state of the equipment 20 (also called network element) in the communication network, and obtains the fault location result. For example, the alarm signal indicates that the left interface of transmission equipment B has an RLOS failure, but the corresponding OTDR board A finds that the optical fiber is normal through detection, and other information of the network management subsystem 10 indicates that the state of the equipment 20 is not normal, then it can be obtained initially is the conclusion that the device 20 has failed. This conclusion is obtained completely automatically by the system and does not require the participation of the network administrator.

Then enter step 130, the network management subsystem 10 reports the fault location result to the network administrator. There are many ways to report, such as popping up an alarm dialog box in the graphical interface, and sending out sound and light alarms at the same time, or sending a brief fault location result to the system administrator's mobile phone through SMS, etc. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the fault location result is also recorded in the log of the system at the same time.

Although the present invention has been illustrated and described with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein, and without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims (9)

1. A communication network optical fiber fault monitoring and positioning system, characterized in that, comprising At least one optical fiber test unit for detecting the performance and fault location of the optical fiber; An optical fiber monitoring correspondence module, configured to record the correspondence between the optical fiber testing unit and the port of the communication device in the communication network it monitors; The network management subsystem is used to query the corresponding optical fiber test unit from the optical fiber monitoring correspondence module according to the alarm signal from the communication device, start the optical fiber test unit for testing, and analyze the fault according to the test result and position. 2. The communication network optical fiber fault monitoring and locating system according to claim 1, characterized in that, the optical fiber testing unit is an optical time domain reflectometer in the form of a board or an independent device. 3. The communication network optical fiber fault monitoring and locating system according to claim 1, characterized in that the optical fiber monitoring correspondence module is in the network management subsystem. 4. communication network optical fiber fault monitoring and location system according to claim 1, is characterized in that, described network management subsystem is also used for the management to whole communication network, and starts described optical fiber testing unit periodically to all The optical fiber in the above-mentioned communication network is polled and tested. 5. The communication network optical fiber fault monitoring and locating system according to claim 1, wherein the alarm signal can be a remote signal loss signal or a remote frame loss signal or any necessary alarm signal specified by the user. 6. The communication network optical fiber fault monitoring and locating system according to claim 1, wherein the network management subsystem activates the optical fiber testing unit for testing by a roll call test command. 7. A communication network optical fiber fault monitoring and location method, is characterized in that, comprises the following steps: The network management subsystem receives an alarm signal from a communication device in the communication network; Query the corresponding optical fiber test unit from the optical fiber monitoring correspondence module according to the alarm signal, and start the optical fiber test unit for testing; Analyzing the test result and the state of the communication equipment in the communication network to obtain a fault location result. 8. communication network optical fiber fault monitoring and location method according to claim 7, is characterized in that, also comprises the following steps: Report the fault location result to the network administrator. 9. The method for monitoring and locating fiber optic faults in communication networks according to claim 7, wherein the alarm signal can be a remote signal loss signal or a remote frame loss signal or any necessary alarm signal specified by the user.