Abstract
We present theoretical and experimental investigation of enhancing the performance of a WDM-based high-loss loopback monitoring system using an increased number of averages of the returned supervisory pulses. We prove that the electrical signal-to-noise ratio of the supervisory signal is significantly improved with more averaging repeatability at the supervisory receiver. We also show that such an enhancement will be at the expense of the pulse measurement time if large number of averages is used. Therefore, we explore the optimal averaging situation in which the monitoring performance is reasonably enhanced while a satisfactory measurement time is simultaneously maintained.