RU2667711C1 - System of monitoring of optical cable connections - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: means of communication.SUBSTANCE: invention relates primarily to communication techniques. To achieve this technical result, the port of the patch panel is equipped with a sensor, perceiving secondary electromagnetic radiation that occurs near the optical fiber due to fiber transmission of signals to establish a network connection. Temporarily change the signal to establish a network connection and, comparing the signal change time for setting the network connection and the time of the sensor signal change, identifying the patch panel port, where the network device that transmits the signal for the network connection is connected.EFFECT: technical result consists in providing monitoring of optical cable connections without setting up a network connection, using signals to establish a connection.24 cl, 5 dwg

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates primarily to communication technology and can be used to monitor the connections of optical patch panels.

State of the art

In the world there are various monitoring tools for optical cable connections, the main task of which is to understand how the optical ports of the devices are interconnected using a cable.

For example, a method and a system are known as described in patent RU 2313800, having connection sensors on a patch panel. Optical sensors are triggered when a connection between devices is established, and the identification of the panel port where the network device is connected occurs by comparing the sensor triggering events and changing the status of the network device port (LinkUp / LinkDown). But such a system is not operational until a connection is established between network devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a means for monitoring optical cable connections that can identify the port of the optical patch panel where the optical port of the network device is connected without establishing a network connection between the network devices.

To achieve the technical result, a monitoring system for optical cable connections is proposed, comprising a network device including at least one optical port for network connections with a transmitter and a receiver; patch panel with optical ports for connecting optical fibers of an optical cable; optical fiber connected to one of the ports of the patch panel; a sensor located next to the optical fiber corresponding to one of the panel ports and receiving spurious electromagnetic radiation (PEMI) from the signals transmitted by the network device through the optical fiber; characterized in that the sensor senses a signal for establishing an optical connection; contains a hardware-software complex capable of changing a signal for establishing an optical connection of an optical port of a network device; and a hardware-software complex, identifies the port of the patch panel where the optical port of the network device is connected, comparing the time of the signal change to establish the optical connection and the time of the sensor signal change.

To expand the functionality of the system, the sensor can change the output signal when, through the panel port corresponding to the sensor, the network device transmits data to another network device. At the same time, the hardware-software complex identifies the port of the patch panel where the optical port of the network device is connected, comparing the connection setup / disconnection time between the network device and another network device and the time of the sensor signal change

In one embodiment, the sensor design comprises at least one sensing element that converts spurious electromagnetic radiation from the optical fiber into an electrical signal. In this case, the sensitive element may contain an avalanche photodiode, or a heterotructure phototransistor, or a radiation detector based on MEMS or NEMS, or a radiation detector based on graphene and quantum dot technology.

For a better perception of PEMI, the sensor may contain several sensing elements that are located along and / or around the optical fiber.

In another embodiment, for a better perception of PEMI, the sensor may include an optical system that focuses the incident electromagnetic radiation from the optical fiber on the sensing element (s). In this embodiment, the optical system may include a reflective surface, the cross section of which is close in a parabola, and a collecting lens or reflective surface, the cross section of which is close to an ellipse.

In order to change the signal for establishing an optical connection, the hardware-software complex can turn on / off (shutdown) the optical port of a network device or change the power of its transmitter.

For ease of use, the patch panel may contain infrared sensors that detect the presence of a patch cord connector in the panel port, and / or light indicators for its ports.

In order to provide additional functionality, the hardware-software complex with a sensor checks the presence of a signal for establishing an optical connection in an optical fiber and, in the absence of such a signal, decides that the patch panel port corresponding to the sensor is not connected to the port of any network device.

To improve the performance of the system, the sensor can be located at a distance of no more than 20 meters from the transmitter of the optical port of the network device.

An optical port for network connections can support one of the protocols: 100Base-FX, or 100Base-SX, or 1000Base-SX, or 1000Base-LX, or 1000Base-LX10, or 1000Base-EX, or 1000Base-ZX, or 10GBase-SR, or 10GBase-LR, or 10GBase-ZR, or 10GBase-ER, or 10GBase-LRM, or 100GBASE-SR10, or 100GBASE-LR4, or 100GBASE-ER4. And the optical fiber can be single-mode, plastic or multimode.

Additionally, in order not to break the previously established optical connection between the aforementioned network device and another network device, the hardware-software complex identifies the patch panel port where the optical port of the network device is connected by comparing the time of the change in the power of the data transmission signal in the optical fiber produced by the hardware-software complex , and the time of the sensor signal change.

In some embodiments, the signal for establishing an optical connection may comprise “Idle” ordered sets described in the Ethernet standard.

To achieve the same technical result, the present invention proposes a sensor that receives signals of spurious electromagnetic radiation from the optical fiber of the cable, characterized in that it perceives spurious electromagnetic radiation from signals for establishing an optical connection transmitted through the optical fiber.

The sensor may contain at least one sensing element that converts spurious electromagnetic radiation into an electrical signal. To improve sensitivity, the sensor may contain several sensitive elements that are located along or around the optical fiber. For the same purpose, an optical system can be included in the sensor, which focuses the incident electromagnetic radiation emanating from the optical fiber on the sensitive element (s). The optical system may contain a reflective surface, the cross section of which is close in a parabola, and a collecting lens or reflective surface, the cross section of which is close to an ellipse.

The sensing element may include an avalanche photodiode, or a heterostructure phototransistor, or a MEMS or NEMS based radiation detector, or a graphene based radiation detector and quantum dot technology.

Finally, the sensor can sense electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength of 850 nm, or 1310 nm, or 1550 nm.

Brief Description of the Drawings

In FIG. 1 shows a general diagram of a monitoring system for optical cable connections.

In FIG. 2 shows a variant of the sensor with sensing elements around the optical fiber.

In FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of a sensor with sensing elements along the optical fiber.

In FIG. 4 shows a variant of the sensor with a parabolic reflective surface.

In FIG. 5 shows a variant of the sensor with an elliptical reflective surface.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The system and sensor of the present invention can be implemented in several versions, which, however, are implemented in a similar way. In FIG. 1 shows a typical connection diagram of a network device 1, equipped with an optical port for network connections 2, to a patch panel 3 with optical ports 4. The network device can be a switch, router, or server with an optical port for network connections 2, supporting, for example, one of the options optical version of Ethernet speeds of 100, 1000 or 10G, or work on the Fiber Channel protocol. The port 2 connector can be of the ST, SC, or LC type, as well as the port 4 connector. In FIG. 1 shows a dual patch cord 5 with an LC duplex connector containing two optical fibers. Fiber 6 is used by network device 1 to transmit a signal, and fiber 7 is used for reception. Using a loop through socket, for example, LC (not shown), fiber 6 is connected to one of the fibers 8 of the optical cable 9, which can be connected to another network device 10, also through optical connectors (not shown). An indirect electromagnetic radiation sensor 11 is installed directly on the surface of the optical fiber 8. For more effective functioning of the system, the outer protective shells of the fiber 8 can be smoothed to a reflective shell having a standard diameter of 125 μm (plastic 1 mm).

In addition, the system contains a hardware-software complex 12, which is able to perceive the output signal of the sensor 11 and change the signal to establish an optical Ethernet connection of the optical port 2. The hardware-software complex in the general case is a distributed system that includes a network computer with appropriate software, a controller sensor (s), for example, based on the MCU STM32 with logic inputs or ADC inputs. The controller can transmit to the network computer the current state of the sensor 11 via the RS485 bus through the RS485-TCP / IP converter connected to the computer network. Or, a networked computer can be placed on its motherboard, which already has logic inputs or an ADC. There are many options for implementing a hardware-software complex, and they are not the subject of this invention.

If network device 1 is turned on and port 2 is up (and device 10 is turned off), then in accordance with Ethernet standards in optical fibers 6 and 8 there is a signal for establishing an optical Ethernet connection, for example, IDLE packets for 10GBase or IDLE packets and "CONFIGURATION" for 1000Base. Sensor 11 detects their presence in fiber 8. Due to Rayleigh scattering, some of the photons of the signal to establish an optical connection leave the fiber and are sensed by sensor 11. A hardware-software complex, for example, using terminal emulation using telnet or ssh protocols, or using SNMPSET can shutdown port 2 of a network device. Obviously, the port of the network device in this case will cease to transmit signals to establish a connection. The output of the sensor 11 will change. By comparing the turn-off time of port 2 and the time of signal loss in the optical fiber 8, the hardware-software complex 12 identifies the port of the patch panel 4, where port 2 of the network device 1 is connected without establishing a network connection between devices 1 and 10. Then, the port of network device 1 can be turned on again . A similar result can be obtained by turning off the laser, for example, using the command [edit interfaces interface-name otn-options] set laser-disable ”in Juniper devices.

It is clear that turning port 2 on / off in order to avoid data loss should not be performed when the connection between devices 1 and 10 is established, when device 10 is turned on.

In another embodiment, you can change the power of the signal that transmits port 2 to the optical fiber 8. Sometimes the power level of the optical transmitter can be set programmatically. For example, in Juniper routers this can be done using the command [edit interfaces interface-name optics-options] set tx-power value ”, for example, on the MIC3-100G-DWDM MIC module from -8 to 0 dBm, that is, more than 6 time. Similarly, by comparing the command time and the time the sensor 11 changed, you can identify the port of the patch panel 4, where port 2 of the network device 1 is connected without establishing a network connection.

Additionally, the system described above may function somewhat differently. At the time of establishing an optical connection between network devices 1 and 10, data begins to be transmitted almost immediately, because even in the absence of user data, the signal “Idle” is transmitted through the cable. At the same time, information on changes in the status of the port (LinkUp - using SNMP traps (trap), a log file or reading the current state of the MAC address table) is transmitted to the firmware-hardware complex 12 by device 1 over the network. The hardware-software complex 12 compares the connection setup time and the response time of the sensor 11, and determines which port 4 of panel 3 is connected to port 2.

If the connection between devices 1 and 10 is already established, then network monitoring means, for example, via SNMP can obtain the signal power of the optical transmitter of device 1, the received signal level at device 10, calculate the budget of the optical path, and temporarily change (increase or decrease) as much as possible the power level of the transmitter of device 1 so that the network connection is not disconnected. And then, after tracking the change in the output signal of the sensor 11, determine which port 4 of panel 3 is connected to port 2.

It is clear that the level of spurious electromagnetic radiation (PEMI) of an optical fiber is very small, in decreasing order of radiation power: multimode fiber wavelength 850 nm, multimode fiber - 1310 nm, single-mode fiber - 1310 nm, single-mode fiber - 1550 nm. But it can be perceived using existing technologies. The general design of the sensor, which receives signals for establishing an optical connection, may contain a sensing element that converts spurious electromagnetic radiation into an electrical signal, and an amplifier of this electrical signal based on operational amplifiers and / or comparators. On the other hand, the sensitive element can be optical: if the optical port 2 transmitter is very powerful, it can be directed to another optical fiber using reflectors and lenses and can be amplified there using a fiber amplifier (for example, erbium or thulium) and transmitted as an optical signal to the hardware and software complex 12.

It is clear that the closer the sensor 11 is located to the transmitter of port 2, the greater the number of photons arriving at it, because the total number of photons in the cable 9 decreases with distance from port 2. Therefore, the sensor should not be too far removed from the transmitter, for example, no more than 20 m.

There are photomultipliers made on the basis of avalanche diodes that are capable of crushing even one photon. They are quite expensive, but even one such photomultiplier is quite capable of picking up side electromagnetic radiation (PEMI) from optical fiber 8.

In addition, in the articles “High-performance graphene photodetector using interracial gating (Xitao Guo, Wenhui Wang, etc.)” and “Photodetectors based on graphene, other two-dimensional materials and hybrid systems” (FHL Koppens, T. Mueller et al. ) Sensitive elements based on graphene are described, including using quantum dot technology. The article “Graphene-aluminum nitride NEMS resonant infrared detector” (Zhenyun Qian, Yu Hui and others) describes MEMS (or NEMS, because the size of the structures are measured by nanometers) a sensitive element of similar functionality. The sensing elements indicated in the articles have the ability to perceive electromagnetic radiation of the infrared range with a power of a fraction of a nanowatt. Some are quite capable of replacing the photomultiplier in the case of multimode fiber.

On the other hand, the dimensions of these sensitive elements 13 (Fig. 2) are several tens of microns, which allows them to be placed around the optical fiber 8. As a result, the number of photons sensed by the sensor 11 increases significantly.

It should be taken into account that the optical fiber 8 is quite long and nothing prevents you from placing a large number of sensitive elements 13 along it, for example, phototransistors on heterostructures connected according to a common emitter circuit, where all the collectors are connected to one resistor, as shown in FIG. 3. The increase in sensor efficiency is almost proportional to the number of phototransistors. If necessary, such extended sensors can also be placed around fiber 8, picking up more PEMI photons.

In another embodiment, the number of photons arriving at the sensing element can be increased using an optical system. In FIG. 4 shows, in a perpendicular section (with respect to the optical fiber), an optical system with a reflecting surface 14, the cross section of which is close to a parabola, in the focus of which is the optical fiber 8, and the collecting lens 15 concentrates the PEMI on the sensing element 13 located in the focus of the lens 15.

Another version of the optical system can be manufactured using a reflective surface 16, the cross section of which is close to an ellipse. In this case, the optical fiber 8 and the sensing element 13 are in different foci of the ellipse.

In both cases, the reflecting surfaces can be bent out of polished metal by fixing the optical fiber 8 and the sensing element (s) 13 in the right place using brackets. The length of the mirror surface along the optical fiber can be selected by placing the required number of sensing elements 13. Alternatively, put the optical fiber 8 in a quartz glass casting, divided in half (so that the fiber 8 can be placed inside). If the outer surface of the casting is made in the form of a parabola or an ellipse, polished, coated externally with a reflective layer by metallization, and the refractive index of quartz glass is made smaller than that of the reflective shell of optical fiber 8, then PEMI photons will penetrate the casting almost without loss and focus on sensitive element 13.

In addition, it is additionally useful to equip the patch panel with IR sensors (for reflection or clearance), which are triggered by connecting the connector to the patch panel port, and with visual LED indicators above the panel ports. At the same time, if IR sensors detect the presence of a connector in the panel port, and there are no signals in the optical fiber for establishing an optical connection and data signals, the hardware-software complex may decide that the corresponding port on the patch panel is not connected to any network device and the second connector of the optical patch cord is loose.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that these illustrative examples in which various modifications can be made do not limit the scope of the invention defined only by the appended claims.

Claims (31)

1. A monitoring system for optical cable connections, comprising: - a network device containing at least one optical port for network connections with a transmitter and a receiver; - patch panel with optical ports for connecting optical fibers of an optical cable; - optical fiber connected to one of the panel ports; - a sensor located next to said optical fiber, corresponding to one of the panel ports and receiving spurious electromagnetic radiation from signals transmitted by said network device through said optical fiber; characterized in that: - said sensor senses a signal for establishing an optical connection; - contains a hardware-software complex capable of changing a signal for establishing an optical connection of said optical port of a network device; - said hardware-software complex identifies a port of said patch panel where said optical port of a network device is connected, comparing the signal change time for establishing an optical connection and the signal change time of said sensor. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein said sensor changes the output signal when, through a port of said panel corresponding to said sensor, said network device transmits data to another network device. 3. The system according to claim 2, characterized in that said software and hardware complex identifies a port of said patch panel where said optical port of a network device is connected, comparing the connection setup / disconnection time between said network device and another network device and the signal change time of said sensor. 4. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that said sensor comprises at least one sensing element that converts spurious electromagnetic radiation from said optical fiber into an electrical signal. 5. The system according to claim 4, characterized in that said sensing element comprises an avalanche photodiode, or a phototransistor on hetero structures, or a radiation detector based on MEMS or NEMS, or a radiation detector based on graphene and quantum dot technology. 6. The system according to p. 4, characterized in that said sensor contains several sensing elements that are located along said fiber. 7. The system of claim 4, wherein said sensor comprises several sensing elements that are located around said fiber. 8. The system according to p. 4 or 6, characterized in that said sensor comprises an optical system that focuses the incident electromagnetic radiation emanating from said optical fiber on said sensor element (s). 9. The system of claim 8, wherein said optical system comprises a reflective surface whose cross section is close to a parabola and a collecting lens or reflective surface whose cross section is close to an ellipse. 10. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that said software and hardware complex changes the signal to establish an optical connection for said optical port of a network device, turning on and off (shutdown) said optical port of a network device or changing the power of its transmitter. 11. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that said patch panel contains infrared sensors that detect the presence of a patch cord connector in the panel port and / or light indicators for its ports. 12. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that said software and hardware complex using said sensor checks for a signal to establish an optical connection in said optical fiber and, in the absence of such a signal, decides that the patch panel port corresponding to said sensor is not connected to port of any network device. 13. The system according to p. 1, characterized in that the said sensor is located at a distance of not more than 20 meters from the transmitter of the said optical port of the network device. 14. The system of claim 1, wherein said optical port for network connections supports 100Base-FX, or 100Base-SX, or 1000Base-SX, or 1000Base-LX, or 1000Base-LX10, or 1000Base-EX, or 1000Base-ZX, or 10GBase-SR, or 10GBase-LR, or 10GBase-ZR, or 10GBase-ER, or 10GBase-LRM, or 100GBASE-SR10, or 100GBASE-LR4, or 100GBASE-ER4. 15. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the said optical fiber is single-mode, plastic or multimode. 16. The system of claim 2, wherein said software and hardware complex identifies a port of said patch panel where an optical port of said network device is connected, comparing the time of change in power of a data signal in said optical fiber produced by said software and hardware complex without rupture of a previously established optical connection between said network device and another network device, and a signal change time of said sensor. 17. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that said signal for establishing an optical connection contains “Idle” ordered sets described in the Ethernet standard. 18. A sensor that receives signals of spurious electromagnetic radiation from an optical fiber of a cable, characterized in that it perceives spurious electromagnetic radiation from signals for establishing an optical connection transmitted over said fiber, and contains at least one sensing element that converts spurious electromagnetic radiation into an electrical signal . 19. The sensor according to claim 18, characterized in that it contains several sensitive elements that are located along the aforementioned optical fiber. 20. The sensor according to claim 18, characterized in that it contains several sensing elements that are located around said optical fiber. 21. The sensor according to claim 18 or 19, characterized in that said sensor comprises an optical system that focuses the incident electromagnetic radiation emanating from said optical fiber on said sensor element (s). 22. The sensor of claim 21, wherein said optical system comprises a reflective surface whose cross section is close to a parabola and a collecting lens or reflective surface whose cross section is close to an ellipse. 23. The sensor according to claim 18, characterized in that said sensor element comprises an avalanche photodiode, or a phototransistor on heterostructures, or a radiation detector based on MEMS or NEMS, or a radiation detector based on graphene and quantum dot technology. 24. The sensor according to claim 18, characterized in that it senses electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength of 850 nm, or 1310 nm, or 1550 nm.

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