PASSIVE OPTICAL NETWORK MONITORING

A system, method, and device for monitoring a passive optical network (PON). A probe signal is transmitted into the PON. A waypoint device located in the PON proximate to a network waypoint reflects one or more portions of the probe signal in a manner that embeds an address of the waypoint device in a return signal. The address is extracted from the return signal and used to identify the network waypoint associated with the waypoint device. The waypoint device may be selectively perturbed, and the perturbation detected based on changes in the reflected signal to validate the physical identity of the waypoint device.