Systems and methods for detecting duplicate serial numbers in passive optical networks

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for tangibly storing computer program instructions capable of being executed by a computer processor, the computer program instructions defining steps of:

• receiving, at an optical line terminal (OLT), an activation request from an optical network unit (ONU) declaring a specific unique Serial Number (SN);
• computing an activation fingerprint based on characteristic parameters of an ONU activation attempt captured during activation of the ONU;
• receiving an activation digest computed by an activating ONU using the activation fingerprint and a privately maintained digest key;
• storing the activation digest;
• receiving, during a subsequent activation attempt by an ONU declaring a same unique Serial Number (SN), the digest key used to compute the stored activation digest;
• and
• determining whether the activating ONU is the same ONU that participated in the ONU activation attempt by comparing the stored activation digest with a verification digest computed using the stored activation fingerprint and the received digest key.

A device comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• receive, at an optical line terminal (OLT), an activation request from an optical network unit (ONU) declaring a specific unique Serial Number (SN);
• compute an activation fingerprint based on characteristic parameters of an ONU activation attempt captured during activation of the ONU;
• receive an activation digest computed by an activating ONU using the activation fingerprint and a privately maintained digest key;
• store the activation digest;
• receive, during a subsequent activation attempt by an ONU declaring a same unique Serial Number (SN), the digest key used to compute the stored activation digest;
• and
• determine whether the activating ONU is the same ONU that participated in the ONU activation attempt by comparing the stored activation digest with a verification digest computed using the stored activation fingerprint and the received digest key.