“…[17][18][19], the monitoring system should be simple, cost-effective, non-invasive to data traffic and compatible with different PON topologies. Several real-time online fault monitoring systems have been reported, with traditional optical time domain reflector (OTDR) assisted by other devices or mechanisms, e. g., fiber Bragg grating (FBG) [20], high-pass filter [21], optical encoders [22], or the Brillouin frequency shift generated in the branch fibers [23]. Although they comply with some of the requirements, they remain complex and costly.…”