Methods and apparatus for detecting a signal degradation using the pre-forward error correction bit error rate at an optical transponder

An apparatus, comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• a processor operatively coupled to the memory, the processor configured to be operatively coupled to a first optical transponder, the first optical transponder configured to be operatively coupled to a second optical transponder via a plurality of optical links, the second optical transponder configured to be operatively coupled to a remote router,
• the processor configured to send first data packets and diagnosis packets to the first optical transponder such that the first optical transponder transmits the data packets to the remote router via the plurality of optical links and the second optical transponder,
• the processor configured to receive a signal from the remote router via the first optical transponder and the second optical transponder, in response to the second optical transponder (1) identifying, via pre-forward error correction (FEC) bit error rate detection, a degradation of a first optical link from the plurality of optical links, and (2) dropping a subset of the diagnosis packets,
• the processor configured to reroute second data packets in response to the signal such that the remote router receives the second data packets via a second optical link from the plurality of optical links.

A non-transitory processor-readable medium storing code representing instructions to be executed by a processor, the code comprising code to cause the processor to:

• receive, at an optical transponder, data packets and diagnosis packets via an optical link from a plurality of optical links;
• perform pre-forward error correction (FEC) bit error rate (BER) detection to identify a degradation of the optical link from the plurality of optical links;
• drop a subset of the diagnosis packets in response to the identifying of the degradation of the optical link;
• and
• send the data packets without the subset of the diagnosis packets to a router to be operatively coupled to the optical transponder to notify the router of the degradation of the optical link in response to the dropping of the subset of the diagnosis packets.