Multiwavelength fiber laser for the fiber link monitoring system

•A novel fiber link monitoring system that uses a multiwavelength fiber laser is proposed.•The system has a high and stable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).•The system is a real-time fiber link monitoring system.

This work proposes a novel fiber link monitoring system that uses a multiwavelength fiber laser for wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) passive optical network (PON). The multiwavelength fiber laser is based on an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) and a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). Experimental results show the feasibility using the system to monitor a fiber link with a high and stable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of over 26 dB. The link quality of downstream signals as well as the fiber link on WDM channels can be monitored in real time. Favorable carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR), composite second-order (CSO), and composite triple beat (CTB) performance metrics were obtained for cable television (CATV) signals that were transported through 25 km of standard single-mode fiber (SMF).