Extended optical fiber line testing system using new eight-channel L/U-band crossed optical waveguide coupler for L-band WDM transmission

This paper describes the system design for an extended optical fiber line testing system that uses a new L/U-band crossed optical waveguide coupler and a fiber Bragg grating filter for L-band wavelength-division multiplexing transmission. We describe the reflection characteristic required for optical filters located in central offices in order to suppress the ghost signal caused by multireflection in the optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR) trace. We design and evaluate an eight-channel crossed optical waveguide coupler with a new thin dielectric film filter that separates a 1650-nm test light from the L-band communication light, and confirm that there was no degradation caused by multireflections in the OTDR trace. We also demonstrate the in-service line monitoring of a 10-Gb/s L-band transmission with no degradation in the transmission quality.