Huawei WDM/OTN Product Family

Maintenance Series
——Maintenance Requirements and Fault Locating Principles

Routine Maintenance Requirements

The following routine maintenance procedure will identify and eliminate
potential network problems and quickly pinpoint a fault:
Preparation Checklist Equipment Status Checks
- Diagrams: Network topology(fiber connections, - Alarms and performance events
slot layouts, and NE names, IDs and IP address - Equipment operating environment
mapping), service configuration, wavelength - Protection groups
allocation, protection service trail - Whole-network board manufacturer information
- Configuration: protection groups, optical power - Dust filter cleaning and replacement
management functions
- Version mapping information Regular System Security Checks
- Maintenance tools - Whole-network optical power
- Maintenance accounts - NE data consistency
- Guidance documents - Data backup and inspection
- Spare part inventory

Operator Qualifications
- WDM/OTN system basics
- System alarm signal flow and generation mechanisms
- Common alarm troubleshooting
- Basic operations on common meters

Fault Diagnosis: Basic Principles

When a fault occurs, field data is first collected and saved for troubleshooting.
Fault diagnosis relies on the correct location of the faulty site.
External Before Internal Devices
Check external devices:
- Faulty external fibers and cables - Excessive bend radius of the fiber - Faulty equipment room
- Contaminated fiber connector or pigtail at the client-side optical port power supply
optical attenuator at the client-side or fiber pigtail damage or wear - Equipment operating
optical port - Faulty client equipment environment deterioration
Network Before Single Sites
A
Alarm
B
D B Alarm
C Alarm

Specific symptom analysis Faulty site located

narrows down diagnostic scope
Multiple sites report simultaneous alarms
Higher-Severity Before Lower-Severity Alarms

Analyze critical and major alarms first.

Critical Major Minor

Then analyze minor and warning alarms.
Warning
alarm alarm alarm alarm

Multi-Wavelength Before Single-Wavelength Signals

Faults reported by
multiple wavelength
signals tend to occur Alarm
during wavelength
Alarm
multiplexing.

Rectifying the fault also clears

the alarms for single-wavelength signals.

Transmit and Receive Bidirectional Alarms Before Unidirectional Alarms

Local Station Opposite Station

Alarms are present in both

the local receive and opposite
transmit directions

Check for a similar fault occurring in the direction from local to peer site.
Bidirectional alarms must first be analyzed and processed.
Common Before Isolated Issues
Determine whether:
The fault occurs on a single board or
multiple boards.
Bit errors occur on only one or multiple
optical ports on a board.

Fixed Network Information Dept.

ican@huawei.com
 Huawei WDM/OTN Product Family

Maintenance Series
——Common Fault Location Methods

Common Fault Location Methods

Suspected Fault Point Approaches
External devices or Signal flow analysis, alarm and performance analysis, replacement,
fibers/cables meter testing, and loopback
Site Signal flow analysis, alarm and performance analysis, and loopback
Board Signal flow analysis, alarm and performance analysis, and replacement

Alarm and Performance Analysis

A fault generates alarms and causes performance issues.Determine the fault
type and location by analyzing these alarms and performance issues.
NMS Maintenance Equipment Maintenance
By observing the alarm indicator and the
Information From the NMS. running status indicators on cabinets,
gathering subracks, and boards.
1. Analyze and assess the information 1. Cooperate with NMS maintenance
for whole-network troubleshooting personnel on site troubleshooting.
Operations instructions. 2. Observe indicators for the current
2. Rapidly locate the faults by analyzing status of the devices and boards but not
the alarm signal flows. the specific alarms.
Location-based:Obtain only the alarm
Comprehensive:Obtain information from
severity of local site devices but not
all network devices in real time.
historical information.
Highlights Accurate:Obtain current alarms, historical
Fuzzy:Obtain only alarm severity of
alarms, fault event times, and
devices from indicators but not specific
performance events.
alarms and performance event information.
Complete dependency on the quality of
Dependency NMS computers, NMS software, and Independent.
whole-network communications.
1. Prioritizes alarms according to the 1. Observes the blinking indicator and uses
following rules: critical and major alarms meters to analyze, locate, and rectify faults
handled before minor alarms; alarms on on the on-site devices.
line boards handled before alarms on 2. Observes the board indicators on for
tributary boards. minor alarms (sole observation of indicators
Analysis 2. Sequence of alarm handling and on cabinet tops, which do not light up, can
method removal: optical-layer LOS, result in the minor alarms being ignored.
electrical-layer OTUk_LOF, ODUk_SSF, The significance of minor alarms in most
protection-related PS, board. cases is an alert of a potential fault of the
3. For details about the alarm description equipment at the local end or a fault at the
and handling, see Alarms and peer end. Do not ignore these alarms.
Performance Events Reference. 3. For details, see "Indicators" in Hardware
Description.
Signal Flow Analysis
Quickly pinpoint where the fault occurs with signal flow.
Tributary Line Line Tributary
Client Client
board board MUX OA OA DEMUX board board
equipment equipment

DEMUX OA OA MUX

Station A (OTM) Station B (OTM)

Signal Flow Fault Point

Loopback
This testing approach sends signals section by section to pinpoint the fault
location and rectify external device faults. The steps are as follows:
1. Sample and loopback service channels. 3. Perform loopbacks on a section at a time.
2. Draw the service trail diagram. 4. Pinpoint the fault location.
Software Loopback
outloop inloop
Client-side Service Board Client-side Service Board
outloop inloop
Client side WDM side Client side WDM side

WDM-side Service Board WDM-side Service Board

outloop inloop
Client side WDM side Client side WDM side
Hardware Loopback
Optical Attenuator Optical Attenuator
Rx OUT Rx OUT
Service Board Service Board
Tx IN Tx IN
Client side WDM side Client side WDM side

Meter Testing
This approach is recommended for rectifying external device faults or locating
device connection faults.
Meter Application Scenario
Optical power meter Detects input or output optical power
Optical spectrum Detects optical power, optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR), and
analyzer (OSA) center wavelength, and analyzes the gain flatness of the OA board
SDH tester Detects line bit errors
Signal analyzer Detects frame signals and overhead bytes in communication services
Multimeter Detects power supply or ground voltage

Component Replacement
A fiber patch cord, board, optical module, fiber adapter, optical attenuator or
other component that works normally is used to replace a suspected abnormal
component to locate and rectify faults.

Fixed Network Information Dept.

ican@huawei.com
 Huawei WDM/OTN Product Family

Maintenance Series
——Common Emergency Troubleshooting Procedures(part 1)

Optical Power Abnormality Handling — Procedure 1

An optical power
abnormality occurs.

- Is a MUT_LOS alarm reported? Yes

- Is an R_LOS or R_LOF alarm Procedure 2
reported on multiple
wavelengths?

No

Check Loopback on the Correct the fiber

Is an LOS or LOF alarm
reported on the client-side optical port
of the board carrying the
faulty wavelength?
Yes optical power of the Yes client-side transmit and receive Yes
connection between the
client-side receive optical port with an optical optical ports. An optical attenuator is required.
power meter. Is it normal? Does this stop the alarm?
client-side device and
optical port of the board.

No No No

Replace the board.

Is an
IN_POWER_HIGH or Correct the fiber
Yes
IN_POWER_LOW alarm reported on the client-side connection between the
optical port on the board carrying the client-side device and
faulty wavelength?
optical port of the board.

No

Is an Compare the
IN_POWER_HIGH or Yes optical power performance changes Yes Correct the fiber
IN_POWER_LOW alarm reported on the WDM-side of the board with the local site multiplexer/ connections between
optical port of the board carrying the demultiplexer boards. Are there
the boards.
faulty wavelength? errors with the fiber
connections?

No No
Replace the board.

Check the Loopback on the

Is an LOS or LOF alarm Yes optical power of the Yes No
WDM-side transmit and receive
reported on the WDM-side optical port of the WDM-side receive optical port with an Replace the board.
optical ports. An optical attenuator is required.
board carrying the faulty optical power meter. Is Does this stop the
wavelength? it normal? alarm?

No No Yes

Compare the
optical power performance Yes Correct the fiber
changes of the board with the local site
multiplexer/demultiplexer boards. Are there connections between
errors with the fiber boards.
connections?

No

Yes
Are the boardparameter settings Align board parameter
(FEC mode and service rate settings) settings with those of
inconsistent with those of connecting boards.
connecting boards?

No

Contact Huawei.

No Has the optical

power abnormality been
resolved?

Yes

End
TIP：
An R_LOS or R_LOF alarm indicates specific service interruption. Test the receive optical power
on the corresponding port at the faulty site.
Abnormal optical power: address faults on the fiber connected to the port.
Normal optical power: perform hardware loopback on the corresponding port using the fiber pigtail.
Test requires a 10 dB fixed optical attenuator. Recheck R_LOS or R_LOF alarm. A resolved alarm
means that the local-end board status is normal and the fault is on the upstream equipment. A
persistent alarm means that the local-end board is faulty and must be replaced.

Optical Power Abnormality Handling — Procedure 2

An optical power
abnormality occurs.

Is an R_LOS or R_LOF Yes

alarm reported on a single Procedure 1
wavelength?

No

Has the network been Yes Rectify attenuation issues

reconstructed or expanded? caused by reconstruction
and expansion.

No

1 2 - Rectify faults on the

No Check the current Yes Are the current and No
Does a single site receive-end OA board.
and historical performance of the historical performance of the output
report a MUT_LOS alarm? - Correct the fiber
input optical power of the receive-end optical power of the receive-end connection between the TDC
OA board. Are they OA board normal? and RDC optical ports on the
normal?
OAU board.
Yes No Yes
- Rectify faults on the
demultiplexer board.
Check the current and Yes - Correct the fiber
historical performance of the input connection between the
optical power of the demultiplexer demultiplexer board and the
board. Are they OUT or line board.
normal?
No
Correct the fiber connection
between the demultiplexer
board and the OA board.

Is the MUT_LOS alarm Yes Check the IN optical port Yes Rectify attenuation issues
reported on the receive-end on the OSC board. Is the optical of the intra-site fiber
OA board at this site? power normal? connected to the OA board.

No No

Check the IN optical port Yes

on the FIU board. Is the optical Replace the FIU board.
power normal?

No

Check the
OUT optical port on the FIU
board at the peer-end site of the signal
flow. Is the optical power
normal?
Yes Rectify line attenuation
issues of the ODF and the
optical cable.

No Rectify the optical power

Is the MUT_LOS alarm
reported on the demultiplexing board
at this site?
abnormality of the peer-end
site using the signal flow
analysis and the alarm and
performance analysis
No approaches.
Go to 1

Yes No Has the optical power

Contact Huawei.
abnormality been resolved?

Go to 2
Yes

End

TIP：
A MUT_LOS alarm indicates total service interruption. Test the receive optical power of the OA
board, the demultiplexer board port, and the FIU board.
Abnormal FIU board optical power: troubleshoot interconnection faults between the board and
the ODF or optical cable.
Normal FIU board optical power: the fault occurs on intra-site fibers.

Fixed Network Information Dept.

ican@huawei.com
 Huawei WDM/OTN Product Family

Maintenance Series
——Common Emergency Troubleshooting Procedures(part 2)

Service Interruption Handling

Services are
interrupted.

Has the laser been manually Yes

Cancel misoperations
disabled and loopback performed?

No

Switch the affected services

Yes to the standby resources and
Are there any standby resources?
go to 1

No
1 1. Rectify abnormalities on
the client-side equipment.
1. Is the client-side equipment faulty? 2. Reconnect the optical
Yes Yes cables on the link.
2. Are optical cables on the link disconnected?
Can the NMS reach the NE? 3. Rectify the equipment room
3. Is the equipment room power supply faulty?
4. Are there any grounding issues? power supply abnormalities.
4. Rectify device grounding
No abnormalities.
No

Determine the Affected Yes

services according to the Is the control, OA, and multiplexer
fault symptoms and alarms. /demultiplexer board Status at the site normal?

No

1. Ensure consistency of working and protection channel configurations

Protection group configured and absence of forced or locked switching.
2. Perform forced switching between the working and protection channels
to restore services.
3. Forcibly switch services at the two ends of the protection group to the
Yes working channel, and restore services on the working channel using the
Are the interrupted services processing method for where no protection group is configured.
multi-wavelength services?
Check for normal input and output optical power of the boards on each
level with the signal flow analysis approach, abnormal alarms and
performance events, and correct board parameter settings. If no
No
Protection group not configured abnormalities are found, the fault lies on the pigtail.

1. Ensure that configurations of the working and protection channels are

Protection group configured consistent and there is no forced or locked switching.
2. Perform forced switching between the working and protection channels,
to restore services.
3. Forcibly switch services at the two ends of the protection group to the
Yes working channel, and restore services on the working channel using the
Are the interrupted services processing method for where no protection group is configured. Replace the
single-wavelength services? faulty boards.
1. Clear critical alarms that affect services.
2. Rectify single-wavelength optical power abnormalities at the receive end.
No 3. Ensure consistency of parameters of local site boards and the
Protection group not configured corresponding boards at the peer-end site.
4. Loopback to locate the faulty board section by section.

1. Ensure that configurations of the working and protection channels are

Protection group configured consistent and there is no forced or locked switching.
2. Perform forced switching between the working and protection channels,
to restore services.
3. Forcibly switch services at the two ends of the protection group to the
Are the interrupted services Yes working channel, and restore services on the working channel using the
carried by the electrical-layer ODUk? processing method for where no protection group is configured.

1. Clear critical alarms that affect services.

No 2. Loopback to locate the faulty board section by section.
Protection group not configured

1. Ensure that configurations of the working and protection channels are

Protection group configured consistent and there is no forced or locked switching.
2. Perform forced switching between the working and protection channels,
to restore services.
3. Forcibly switch services at the two ends of the protection group to the
Yes working channel, and restore services on the working channel using the
Are the interrupted processing method for where no protection group is configured.
services of the client side?

1. Clear critical alarms that affect services.

No 2. Loopback to locate the faulty board section by section.
Protection group not configured

Contact Huawei.

No
Interrupted services recovered？

Yes

End
TIP：
In the event of a fault, first analyze the service signal flow, and then check it sequentially for possible faulty points.
A fault tends to trigger alarms and performance events. Locate, handle, and remove the alarms reported on the
NMS. R_LOS, MUT_LOS, IN_PWR_LOW, or IN_PWR_HIGH alarm generated: perform "Optical Power Abnormality
Handling" procedures. Other alarms generated: reset, remove and re-insert, or replace the board to rectify the fault.

Bit Error Handling

Bit errors occur.

Yes Do the bit errors Yes Organize and clean Yes

Has the network been
reconstructed or expanded?
No
occur after the network
reconstruction and expansion?
No
related pigtails and fiber adapters.
Are the bit errors gone?
Check for consistency among
the lengths and types of the
No
optical cables used before and
after the network reconstruction
and expansion. Rectify
dispersion compensation issues.

Is a TF, BD_STATUS,
Yes Yes
Do the bit errors occur LSR_COOL_ALM, or LSR_WILL_DIF Replace the board.
on a single wavelength? alarm reported on the board carrying
the wavelength?

No No

Rectify the fault using "Optical

Power Abnormality Handling
— Procedure 1".

Yes Rectify the fault using

Do optical power abnormalities
"Optical Power Abnormality
exist on multiple wavelengths?
Handling — Procedure 2".

No

Increase the input optical

No
Can link nonlinearity power by 3 dB for the
issues be ruled out? transmit OA board at the
transmit-side site.

Yes No Locate the nonlinearity issues

Is the number of bit Yes section by section. Add an
errors increased? optical attenuator at the input
end of the fault cable to ensure
that the incident optical power
Find the of a single wavelength is less
first site with bit than +5 dB.
errors from the back of
the "transmit-receive" signal flow. No Are the current No Rectify the fault using
Measure each wavelength’s OSNR using and historical performance of the "Optical Power Abnormality
the MON optical port on the output optical power of the OA Handling — Procedure 2".
receive-end OA board. board normal?
Are they normal?
Yes
Yes Replace the board.

Rectify aging and multipoint

reflection issues of the link
optical fibers.

No
Contact Huawei. Have the bit errors been resolved?

Yes

End

TIP：
Rectify bit errors based on the signal flow sequence of the boards.
Bit errors are related to optical power abnormalities, optical fiber nonlinear effects, abnormal
fiber reflection, and board failures.
Bit errors on a single channel: the line carrying the multiplexed signal is functioning normally.
Bit errors on all channels: the fault is not localized to any single channel.

Fixed Network Information Dept.

ican@huawei.com