<title>Planning tools for the optical access network</title>

Abstract

A software package is described which has been developed to assist in the process of both design and planning associated with passive optical access networks. The package constitutes a set of basic tools which enable the complete characterisation of a number of key technical parameters of optical access networks. The optical networks which can be configured and analysed using the package are specified visually on a design location and can adopt any topology. Hence a completely general interconnection of nodes and links is permitted. Furthermore an optical access network consisting of several independent networks can also be analysed. The analytical output of the package consists of a complete spectral power budget specification along any path in the network, the optical return losses on any path, an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) display, and the spectral dependence ofboth the power budget and the return loss.