Optical System Monitoring Based on Reflection Spectrum of Fiber Bragg Grating

Problem statement: This study presents fiber fault monitoring approaches for Fiber-to-the Home (FTTH) with a Passive Optical Network (PON). Current fiber fault monitoring approaches are difficult to be implemented due to its complexity and high loss as the amount of branches increase. Approach: A fiber fault monitoring scheme is proposed whereas Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) is placed on each branch of the Optical Network Unit (ONU). The advantages of the scheme are that it is simple, low cost and efficient in monitoring fiber fault in ONU. FTTH based network design is simulated using Optisystemtem 8.0 in order to investigate the feasibility of the proposed scheme. Results: The reflection spectrum of Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBGs) with different spectrum shape, frequencies and amplitude is used to differentiate each optical network. The simulation result shows that the unique characteristic of fiber Bragg grating is able to distinguish each optical network for a 20 km Passive Optical Network (PON) system. Conclusion: This study suggests the implementation of Fiber Bragg Grating that is placed in each network instead of using Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) for fiber fault monitoring.