Protecting optical transports from consecutive identical digits in optical computer networks

An example method includes encapsulating, by an optical network device, at least a portion of a data packet to form a passive optical network (PON) frame. The method further includes applying, by the optical network device, a scrambling polynomial to at least a portion of the PON frame to generate a scrambled PON frame. The method further includes determining, by the optical network device, that the scrambled PON frame comprises a consecutive identical digit (CID) sequence greater than a threshold length. The method further includes replacing, by the optical network device the determined CID sequence with a correction pattern to generate a modified scrambled PON frame. The method further includes transmitting, by the optical network device, the modified scrambled PON frame.