Method of switching optical path, and apparatus thereof

Abstract

Terminals of upstream and downstream sides of an in-service line and a detour line are connected by optical couplers. An optical oscilloscope is connected to one optical coupler, and a chirped pulse light source is connected to the other optical coupler to thereby form dualized lines. The detour line includes an optical line length adjuster for compensating for the phase difference of optical transmission signals that occurs because of the optical line length difference with the in-service line. Pulse light in which an optical frequency is chirped is transmitted from the chirped pulse light source. The pulse light is branched by the second optical coupler, passes through the in-service line and the detour line, is multiplexed again by the first optical coupler, and is measured by the optical oscilloscope. While matching an arrival time of the pulse light, the optical line length is adjusted by the optical line length adjuster so as to minimize the size of upper and lower limits of an interference waveform generated in an upper part of the pulse light waveform or so as to make a frequency of an interference waveform become zero.