Method for lightpath monitoring in an optical routing network

1. A system for enabling light path monitoring in an optical network, comprising:

a polarization modulator/scrambler for introducing a pilot tone signal as an overlay on a plurality of optical signals from a source node;

a performance monitoring unit for detecting the pilot tone signal to enable light path monitoring and identification through the optical network;

an optical coupler for tapping the pilot tone signal from the optical network; and

an optical switch for receiving multiple pilot tone signals from different branches of the optical network,

wherein the performance monitoring unit further comprises an optical filter coupled to the optical switch, a polarizer coupled to the optical filter, and a photodetector coupled to the polarizer.

2. The system recited in claim 1 , wherein an optical frequency and channel power is estimated by measuring a function of filtered optical power after the polarizer with respect to a center wavelength of the optical filter.

3. The system recited in claim 2 , wherein an optical signal-to-noise ratio is estimated by measuring a function of filtered optical power after the polarizer with respect to a center wavelength of the optical fiber.

4. The system recited in claim 2 , wherein the pilot tone signal has a frequency that can be extracted via electrical spectrum analysis of the detected optical signal.

5. A system for enabling light path monitoring in an optical network, comprising:

a polarization modulator/scrambler for introducing a pilot tone signal as an overlay on a plurality of optical signals from a source node; and

a performance monitoring unit for detecting the pilot tone signal to enable light path monitoring and identification through the optical network,

wherein the performance monitoring unit further comprises a plurality of photodetectors, a first of which is constructed and arranged so as to detect a power of a filtered optical signal before polarization thereof, and a second of which is constructed and arranged to detect a power of the filtered optical signal after polarization thereof.

6. The system recited in claim 5 , wherein channel power can be directly monitored through a tunable filter and the first photodetector, and the pilot tone frequency can be extracted via low-frequency electrical spectrum analysis of the filtered optical signal at the second photodetector.

7. A system for enabling light path monitoring in an optical network, comprising:

a polarization modulator/scrambler for introducing a pilot tone signal as an overlay on a plurality of optical signals from a source node; and

a performance monitoring unit for detecting the pilot tone signal to enable light path monitoring and identification through the optical network,

wherein the performance monitoring unit comprises:

a first filter coupled to an optical switch;

a second filter coupled to the first filter, each of the first and second filters having different passbands and adapted to separate noise-induced signal depolarization and polarization mode dispersion (PMD) depolarization.

8. The system of claim 7 , further comprising a polarization beam splitter interposed between the first and second filters.

9. The system recited in claim 8 , wherein the filters are tunable.

10. The system recited in claim 8 , further comprising a module for monitoring polarization mode dispersion.

11. The system recited in claim 8 , further comprising a module for monitoring in-band optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR).

12. A system for simultaneous light path, channel power, polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and in-band optical signal-to-noise ratio monitoring in an optical network, comprising:

a polarization modulator/scrambler for introducing a pilot tone signal as an overlay on a plurality of optical signals from a source node; and

a performance monitoring unit for detecting the pilot tone signal to enable light path monitoring and identification through the optical network, the performance monitoring unit comprising:

a first filter coupled to an optical switch;

a second filter coupled to the first filter, each of the first and second filters having different passbands and adapted to separate noise-induced signal depolarization and polarization mode dispersion (PMD) depolarization;

a polarization beam splitter (PBS) interposed between the first and second filters;

at least one photodetector for detecting signals from the PBS and at least one of the first and second filters; and

at least one module for monitoring polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and in-band optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR).