Viavi Solutions Inc.

Jds Uniphase Corporation

Grant Tessaro

Chris Wagner

Robert Matthew Adams

Joshua Philipson

A test instrument tests an optical component of a fiber optic network. The test instrument determines signal parameters describing pulses to be emitted by lasers of the test instrument to test the optical component, and directly modulates the lasers to repeatedly emit the pulses at different wavelengths on a single fiber optic cable in a time division multiplexing manner. The test instrument triggers powering measurements to coincide with the emitted pulses, and determines performance parameters of the optical component based on the triggered power measurements.

Multi-wavelength pulsed optical test instrument

Mult-wavelength pulsed optical test instrument

According to an example, a polarization control system is to manipulate polarization manipulators to output light that achieves a trajectory on a Poincar&#xe9; sphere that tracks a known trajectory of a polarizer on the Poincar&#xe9; sphere, in which the trajectory of the output light enables definition of a reference polarization state of the output light. The polarization control system may also manipulate an output polarization manipulator to set the output light to a predefined polarization state based upon the reference polarization state.

Polarization control based upon a polarization reference state

According to an example, a plurality of pixels of a modulator upon which an input light beam impinges may be modulated to apply a first asymmetrical attenuation pattern on the input light beam and to direct a first attenuated light beam from the modulator and a first power level of the first attenuated light beam may be measured. The plurality of pixels may be modulated to apply a second asymmetrical attenuation pattern on the input light beam and to direct a second attenuated light beam from the modulator, and a second power level of the second attenuated light beam may be measured. A difference between the first power level and the second power level may be calculated and a modified peak frequency for an attenuated light beam from the calculated difference may be calculated.

Attenuated light beam peak frequency modification

A tunable laser system having fine and coarse wavelength discrimination is provided. The tunable laser system includes a first filter having a first free spectral range (FSR) and a second filter having a second FSR different from the first FSR. The first filter provides a first series of pulses from a first portion of a laser output, and a second filter provides a second series of pulses from a second portion of the laser output. A processing system compares the first series of pulses and the second series of pulses to identify a series of markers, in which the markers are separated by a beat period of the first series of pulses and the second series of pulses. Advantageously, the series of markers may be used for mode-hop detection and/or for wavelength referencing.

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Ottawa, Canada

Grant Tessaro