Multiplexing Techniques

Multiplexing

• Multiplexing is a process of putting all the

signals into a common channel in different
ways and the component is called
multiplexer
• De-multiplexing is a process which separates
out all the multiplexer signals and the
component is called de-multiplexer
• This is required to increase system overall
capacity
 Multiplexing Techniques

• Time-division multiplexing (TDM)

• Wavelength-division multiplexing
(WDM)
• Subcarrier multiplexing (SCM)
• Code-division multiplexing (CDM)
• Polarization-division multiplexing
(PDM)
• Hybrid Types: WDM/TDM, WDM/SCM,
etc
 TDM - Time Division Multiplexing

• Combines traffic from multiple inputs

onto one common high capacity output
• Requires electrical mux/demux function
DWDM Technology
 What is Wave Division
Multiplexing ?
• Data from each TDM channel is loaded
on one optical frequency (or wavelength,
λ) of a particular wavelength band
• These wavelengths are then multiplexed
onto one fiber with the help of WDM
multiplexers
• Other side of the network these
wavelengths are demultiplexed by using
either optical filters, gratings or WDM
demultiplexers
 Increased Network Capacity

Independence Of Bit Rates And Formats

DWDM = Dense WDM

 DWDM

• Can achieve high system capacity by

multiplexing more WDM channels, each
with relatively low data rate
• Consist of a WDM combined with an
optical amplifier, to allow multiple
wavelengths on a single fiber and also
avoid individual regeneration equipment
for each wavelength by use of line
amplifiers
 Why WDM?
• Better utilization of fiber
• Overcome ‘fiber exhaust’, lack of fiber
availability
• Low unit cost of bandwidth in high capacity
systems
• Easily integrated with existing equipment in
the network
• Bit-rate and protocol independent interface
• Wavelength leasing instead of Bandwidth
leasing
Limitations of TDM Technology

• Maximum TDM line rate one can get in

market to date is 10 Gbps
• 40 Gbps is undergoing field trails, but
associated with lot of problem
– In making systems
– Testing and measurement equipments
– Degradation of fiber transmission
– Cost in having protection system
– Overall cost of the network
 Limitations of TDM Technology
• Line cards and other hardware required
to be changed to increase capacity
• Operators tend to build TDM networks
with higher capacity than required,
considering future capacity requirements
• TDM data rates stagnating at 10 Gbps
– Beyond 10 Gbps capacity increase is realized
by building parallel SDH networks
– Each SDH/SDH system required 2 fiber
without protection and 4 fibers with
protection
– So fiber exhaust?
Limitations of TDM Technology

Data Channel (Bit Rate=x)

TX Optical
RX
fiber

New
Optical Fiber TX/RX
required
Data Channel (Bit Rate =
x)
TX Optical RX
fiber
 Limitations of TDM Technology
Regenerators

LTE LTE
LTE LTE
LTE LTE
LTE LTE

40 Gbps (4 x 10 Gbps)
Capacity
 Limitations of TDM Technology

• Propagation delays due to O-E-O conversion

– All SDH NEs do O-E-O conversion for
processing of overhead information
– O-E-O conversion slows down the signal
• SDH not the ideal carrier for data traffic
– Data traffic has its own overheads
– SDH overheads are partly redundant while
carrying data traffic
 Purpose of WDM
Traditional Network with Repeaters, no WDM
LTE LTE
LTE LTE
LTE LTE
LTE LTE

WDM Network 75% fewer fibers

with Repeaters
LTE LTE
LTE LTE
LTE LTE
LTE LTE

WDM Network with 75% less equipment

Optical Amplifiers
LTE LTE
LTE LTE
LTE LTE
LTE LTE
TDM and WDM
 WDM Classifications
• Classification of WDM is based on the
channel spacing between the two
wavelengths
• Channel spacing > 200 GHz called CWDM
• Channel spacing < 100 GHz called DWDM
• Channel spacing < 25 GHz called UDWDM
0.8 nm = 100 GHz
CWDM
WDM
DWDM
 DWDM Bands

Wavelength band available for communication

• C band (1530nm - 1565nm, 35 nm)
• L band (1565nm - 1610nm, 45 nm)
Wavelength Bands
 ITU Wavelength Grid
channel
OSC 1547.72 nm – 1559.79 nm –( band) OSC
1510 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 1625

Wavelength (nm)

channel
OSC 1528.77 nm – 1540.56 nm –( band) OSC
1510 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 1625

Wavelength (nm)
 Wavelength grid
1 1528.77 nm 1 1547.72 nm
2 1529.55 nm 2 1548.51 nm
3 1530.33 nm 3 1549.32 nm
4 1531.12 nm 4 1550.12 nm
5 1531.90 nm 5 1550.92 nm
6 1532.68 nm 6 1551.72 nm
7 1533.47 nm 7 1552.52 nm
8 1534.25 nm 8 1553.33 nm
9 1535.04 nm 9 1554.13 nm
10 1535.82 nm 10 1554.94 nm
11 1536.61 nm 11 1555.75 nm
12 1537.40 nm 12 1556.55 nm
13 1538.19 nm 13 1557.36 nm
14 1538.98 nm 14 1558.17 nm
15 1539.77 nm 15 1558.98 nm
16 1540.56 nm 16 1559.79 nm
 Wavelength spacing
40-Channels, 100 GHz Spacing

1528.77 nm 1562.23 nm

196.1 THz 191.9THz

80-Channels, 50 GHz Spacing

1528.77 1562.23 nm
nm
191.9THz
196.1 THz
 DWDM Types

• Unidirectional & Bi-

Directional
• Transponder based systems
• Passive & Active
Unidirectional
Unidirectional
Bi directional
Bi-directional
Unidirectional versus Bidirectional

• Unidirectional
– More popular
– Ideal for high capacity growth
• Bidirectional system
– Ideal when there are fiber constraints
– Unsuitable for large capacity
 Transponder Based DWDM
• Transponder is a device that performs an
optical-electrical-optical conversion to a
specific wavelength
• Allows the input of any wavelength to
DWDM
• Allows better performance due to control
of input power, dispersion matching of
transmitters, allows use of non-ITU grid
• Better for wavelength leasing, as
customer can send any wavelength and
any wavelength pipe in the network can be
used, requires a bit-rate flexible
transponder
 Transponders
1310nm 1530nm
Any 1550nm 1540nm Any one
wavelength wavelength
1310nm 1550nm
from 1300- from ITU-grid
1600nm 1560nm
1600nm
Transponders
(Wavelength Translators)

OADM

Transponders in
Terminal Transponders in
OADM
 Types of Transponders
• Protocol specific transponders
– SONET, GigE Transponders available
• Transponders with open interfaces
– Protocol independent, hence flexibility
of application
– Incoming signals transparently
transported over DWDM
– Does not take care of OAM & P
Functionality provided in protocols
like SONET
 Types of Transponders
• FEC Transponders
– Suitable for error prone links,
systems
• High Dispersion Tolerant
Transponders
– Uses narrow pulse width laser /
modulation
– Used to increase tolerance to
dispersion
 DWDM - Non-Transponder Based
• Non-transponder system have the light
wave system transmitter directly input to
the DWDM
• Cheaper than transponder based
systems, do not have to buy the
transmitter twice (once in LTE and once
in DWDM)
• Requires LTE to be equipped with laser
TX of the exact wavelength
• More flexible for wavelength leasing, as
long as customer supplies proper
wavelength can use any bit-rate any
protocol
 Active vs. Passive WDM

• Active means optical amplifiers

• Allows long spans without regeneration
equipment
• One line amp can do the work of many
regenerators
• Passive means only the WDM equipment, no
amplification
• Useful for short distances where amplification
is not needed
• Avoids expensive OP-Amps
• Adds attenuation loss to the span, shortens
maximum span for non-amplified equipment
Fiber used for DWDM Applications
• DSF (Dispersion shifted fiber)
• + NZ-DSF (Positive dispersion shifted fiber )
• - NZ-DSF (Negative dispersion shifted fiber)
• LEAF (Larger effective area fiber)
• G.653 – Characteristics of a dispersion-shifted
single-mode optical fiber cable
• G.654 – Characteristics of a 1550 nm
wavelength loss-minimized single-mode optical
fiber cable
• G.655 – Characteristics of a non-zero
Why DWDM - Incremental Capacity
Growth
 WDM Networks Evolution

• First Generation: Dense WDM networks

with linear architecture used in point-to-
point link, as a high bandwidth pipes
between two network elements. These
systems are integrated with optical
amplifiers and electronic regenerators
 WDM Networks Evolution

• Second Generation: WDM networks with

ring and mesh architectures. These
systems are integrated with optical
amplifiers, OADM’s, Dispersion
compensators, OXC’s and electronic
regenerators
 WDM Networks Evolution

• Third Generation: DWDM and OTDM

networks (All-optical networks )with linear,
ring and mesh architectures. These
systems are integrated with optical 3R
regeneration, OADM, OXC (which supports
Photonic packet switching)
WDM Networks Evolution
 Recent WDM Records

▼ 1×40 G up to 65 km (Alcatel’98) PMD

Limited.
▼ 32× 5 G to 9300 km (1998)
▼ 64× 5 G to 7200 km (Lucent’97)
▼ 100×10 G to 400 km (Lucent’97)
▼ 16×10 G to 6000 km (1998)
▼ 132×20 G to 120 km (NEC’96)
▼ 70×20 G to 600 km (NTT’97)
▼ 1022 Wavelengths on one fiber (Lucent 99)

Source From Internet

Max DWDM Throughput Achieved
• NEC :10.9 Tbps over a single fiber; 273
channels, each at 40 Gbps over 117 km,
Used S-band, C- and L-bands for
amplification; ultra-dense channel
multiplexing scheme (March 2002)
• Alcatel -- 256 wavelengths at 40 Gbps for
10.2 Tbps, March 2001
• Siemens/Optisphere -- 176 wavelengths at
40 Gbps for 7.04 Tbps, October 2000
DWDM Networks
 Linear Backbone Link

Optical Multiplexer Optical Demultiplexer

Post Amplifier Line Amplifier Pre Amplifier

Wavelengths Wavelengths
 Backbone Link With OADM

Mux Demux Mux Demux

OADM

Drop Wavelengths Add Wavelengths

 Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer

Source From Internet

 Backbone Link With OXC

Add/Drop Ports

Mux Demux Mux Demux

OXC

Add/Drop Ports
Optical Systems
 WDM Systems

• 3R Compensators
• Optical Amplifiers
• Optical Add/Drop Multiplexers
• Optical Cross Connects
 3R - Regeneration

3R regeneration means:
First R :Re-amplification
Second 2R: R + Re-shaping
Third 3R :2R + Re-timing
 3R Regenerators
These Regeneration done by
R- Done by Optical amplifiers
2R- Done by dispersion compensation or
OEO
3R- By using PLL and optical clock
recovery
Dispersion Compensation Modules
 Purpose of DCM
• Dispersion is the function of the length of
the optical fiber and thus with respect of
the length it increases
• This accumulated dispersion lead to ISI
and the loss of the data in the
transmission
• To overcome this accumulated dispersion
and increase the length of the
transmission we need a module called
Dispersion Compensating Module (DCM)
• DCM generally consist of optical elements
having high negative dispersion
coefficient
Dispersion Compensation Module

DCM DCM with

with ILA Terminal
 Dispersion Compensation
Methods
• The problem of dispersion-compensation
can be solved by one of way such as;
• Dispersion Compensating fiber (DCF)
• Chirped Fiber Bragg Grating
• Mid-span spectral inversion
• Multilevel coding
• First two approaches are more practical
and implemented in the field while last
two has only academic interests
 Where DCM is Deployed?

DCM are deployed at various places in

the network
– After the transmitters
– With in Line amplifiers
– Before post amplifier
– After pre amplifier
 Optical Amplifier

Types of optical amplifiers

Principle of operation of
amplification
Amplifier vs. regenerators
 Introduction
• In any link, optical power pumped and the
receiver sensitivity is limited and can only
support for a limited distance
• To over come the losses in the network,
either electrical or optical amplification is
required
• Optical amplification is more cost effective
over electrical one
• An optical amplifier is a device which
amplifies the optical signal directly without
ever changing it to electricity
 Types of Optical Amplifiers

Two Types of optical amplifiers available

• Solid state Optical Amplifiers
 Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers
• Fiber Amplifiers
 Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers ( EDFAs )
 Raman Amplification ( RA )
 Amplifiers in Transmission

Three type of fiber amplifier used in

transmission
• Pre Amplifier
• In-line Amplifier
• Post Amplifier
 Typical Point To Point Optical Link

Tx Rx

Post Amplifier Line Amplifier Pre Amplifier

Signal Power

Receiver Sensitivity

Link Length
In Line Amplifier

ILA
 Pre and Post Amplifiers

• Post Amp is used to amplify the output of a

Multiplexer to a sufficient level to take care of
the link losses
• Preamp is used for amplifying the incoming
signal to a sufficient level for the detectors to
sense the signal
Unidirectional versus Bi-directional
Unidirectional System

ILA

Bidirectional System

ILA

Terminal Bidirectional Terminal

Coupler
 Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers

• An Erbium Doped Fibre Amplifier consists of a

short length of optical fibre doped by small
controlled amount of the rare earth element
erbium
• This rare earth element contributes in the
amplification process in presence of pump signal
• Pump laser excites erbium ions which give extra
energy to signal
• Principle of operation is similar to principle of a
laser
 Configuration of EDFA

The typical configuration of the EDFA consists

of:
– Optical pump source

– WDM coupler

– Er+ doped fiber

– Isolators
Configuration of EDFA
 Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier

• Pumping with 980nm laser is more effective

than 1480nm pumping
• Commonly used in submarine systems, and
increasingly on land
• Amplification possible at many wavelengths
around 1550nm
• Gain profile is not flat from the EDFA and
need some flatting mechanism
Principle of EDFA Amplification
 Principle of Operation
• An optical amplification is done with the help of
an optical pump laser of selective wavelength
• Erbium ions are excited by the pump signal
and reached to the higher energy states
• Erbium ion at high-energy state will stimulated
by the signal needs amplification leads these
ion return to a lower-energy called ground
energy state
• During this transition these ion emits a
radiation of similar to the signal
Amplification Profile
 Spectrum of a 32 Ch. DWDM
System

1528.77 nm 1562.23 nm

196.1 THz 191.9THz

C & L band of EDFA
 Raman Fiber Amplifier
• Basic principle of Raman fiber amplifier is
Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS)
• When stronger optical pump interacts with
the medium generates new signal (a
Stokes wave) in same direction
• New generated frequency is lesser then
the pump frequency by13.2 THz
• In normal fiber this effect is very small and
it takes a relatively long length to have
significant amplification
 Raman Fiber Amplifier
• From this phenomenon signal of lower
frequency then pump gets amplified and the
optimal amplification occurs when the difference
in wavelengths is around 13.2 THz
• Any signal lower then pump can be amplified
but the efficiency will not be the same for all
• Efficiency can be improved by adding an FBG
(Fibre Bragg Grating) reflector for the pump
wavelength
• Thus any frequency can be generated from this
phenomenon
Amplification in Different Bands
 Amplifiers at Different Bands

TDFA: Thulium doped fiber amplifier

EDTFA:Erbium doped tellurite based fiber
amplifier
FRA: Fiber Raman amplifier
GS-EDFA:Gain shifted Erbium doped fiber
amplifier
 Amplifier Vs. Repeaters
• Optical amplifier, amplifies an optical
signal without changing it to electrical
signal
• Repeaters, Amplifies the optical signal
after converting back to electronics and
generates a new optical signal of the
same format
• Reshaping & timing of data stream
Amplification Vs. Regeneration
 Amplifier Vs. Repeaters Cont.

• Optical amplifiers are required typical after 30

to 100 km depends on the losses in the link
• Optical amplifier are very cost effective fo
DWDM systems
• Regenerations are typically necessary after
about 600 km (at 2.5 Gbps)
• Regenerations operation become very
cumbersome for DWDM systems
Optical Add/Drop Mux
 Optical Add/Drop Mux
• System made of optical Mux & Demux
components
• It selects the dropping wavelengths from the
incoming DWDM signals
• Adds the same wavelengths to the outgoing
DWDM signals
• It is a passive system and everything
add/drop wavelengths are fixed at the
designing of this system
 Optical Add Drop Multiplexer

OADM

OADM along OADM along

with ILA OADM with ILA
having MSA without MSA

MSA- Mid Stage Access

 Optical Add/Drop Mux

• Allows a few wavelengths to drop out of

fiber path, not all will need LTE
equipment
• Useful at sites where a small number of
signals need to drop, not all
wavelengths
 OADM EXAMPLE

ATM ATM IP IP

Terminal OADM Terminal

Site Site Site
Optical Cross Connects
 Optical Cross Connect
• It is consist of Optical Mux/Demux, Optical
switch
• Required this device where multiple rings are
interconnection to each other
• Switching can be done in fiber, wavelength
and packet level
• Packet level switching is performed in
electronics domain
• Costly devices, but gives flexible networks
can be made intelligent networks
Architecture of OXC
 Hybrid Switching

Source From Internet

DWDM Network Configuration
 Typical DWDM Networks
Terminal

Terminal
OADM OADM

OADM
Terminal

OADM

OADM
 Typical DWDM Networks
Termi
nal

Site A Termin
O O
AD AD al
M M Regenera
tor Termin
al
Termi
nal

Site B O O
AD AD
M M
 Cross Connecting DWDM
Networks
OADM OADM

Terminal
Terminal

OXC
OAD

OAD
Terminal
Terminal

OADM

OXC: Optical Cross Connect

 Overlay of SONET over DWDM
SONET
ADM

SONET
SONET ADM
ADM
SONET
ADM
OADM

OADM
Terminal

OADM

OADM ILA
 Physical Ring, Logical Star
SONET
ADM

SONET

Terminal
ADM Terminal
SONET
ADM

SONET
ADM

OADM

SONET
TM

• Overlaying of Point-to-Multipoint SONET Network using one

wavelength for every link
• Route diverse protection could be implemented using extra
wavelengths
• No reuse of wavelengths
• Underutilization of capacity
 Physical Ring, Logical Mesh
SONET
ADM
SONET
ADM

Terminal
Terminal

SONET
ADM

OADM

SONET
ADM

• Multiple SONET Rings are overlaid on the DWDM

Ring
• Reuse of wavelengths
• Optimum utilization of capacity
 Signal Velocity in Various Media

Propagation Velocity
Material Index of Velocity of
(fraction of speed of
refraction signal (km/s)
light in a vacuum)

Optical Fiber .68 1.46 205,000

Flint glass .58 1.71 175,000

Water .75 1.33 226,000

Diamond .41 2.45 122,000

Air .99971 1.00029 299,890

Copper Wire .77 N/A 231,000

(Category 5 cable)
 Chromatic Dispersion

• Optical Amplifiers does not correct the

dispersion of the fiber it only amplify the
optical pulses
 Type of Chromatic Dispersion

• When velocity variation is caused by some

property of the wave guide materials - Effect
is called “Material Dispersion”
• When velocity variation is caused by structure
of the wave guide itself - Effect is called “Wave
guide Dispersion”
• When velocity variation is caused by refractive
index profile of the wave guide itself - Effect is
called “Profile Dispersion”
 Chromatic Dispersion vs. Bit rate

Not significant
effect at OC-
48

Significant at
OC-192
 Polarization Mode Dispersion

• Light traveling in single mode fiber vibrate in

two polarization states called modes,
represents by x and y axis of the optical fiber
• Two modes of polarization are at right angle
(i.e. orthogonal to each other)
• Refractive indices of the two polarization modes
are different due to imperfect circular symmetry
of optical fiber
 Polarization Mode Dispersion
• Difference in refractive indices lead to
variation in the velocity of these modes
through the fiber, causing a delay in time
domain
• This delay in time domain between the
optical pulses is known as polarization
mode dispersion (PMD)
• PMD is defined as this difference in
arrival times in pico-seconds, normalized
to the square root of the fiber length (ps/√
Km)
Polarization Mode Dispersion
Non-Linear Effects
 Nonlinear Effects in Fiber

• Kerr Effects
– FWM
– SPM
– XPM
• Scattering effects
– Stimulated Raman Scattering
– Stimulated Brillouin Scattering
 Non-linear Effects

Kerr Effects

Cross phase modulation Self Phase Modulation

Four Wave Mixing

Scattering Effects

Stimulated Brillouin Scattering

Stimulated Raman Scattering
Degradation Due to Non-linear Effects
Signal Losses
Noise
Cross Talk
Pulse broadening

ns
i o Lim
it at ita
t io
m ns
Li Channel Spacing Power Output

Capacity Span Length

FOUR WAVE MIXING
 Four Wave Mixing

• Also known as four photon mixing

• Combination of three optical wave produced a
new optical wave
• The frequency of the new optical wave will be
f FWM = f1 + f2 - f3
• This effect dominates when the spacing of
channels are equal because the mixing
products can fall directly into other channel
• This increased the cross talk between the
channels
 Four Wave Mixing (FWM)
FWM optical power generated by three equally spaced signals
f1 f2 f3

f213 f332
f123 f312 f321

f113 f112 f223 f132 f221 f231 f331

Optical
frequency

f1 f2 f3

f132 f312 f321 f231

f213
f223 f221 f332
f113 f112 f123 f331

Optical
frequency

FWM optical power generated by three unequally spaced signals

 Stimulated Raman Scattering

Energy
Level
LW
Emission

SW Source Residue
Emission

Time
 Stimulated Raman Scattering
(contd.)
• Short wavelength stimulates long wavelength
emission
• If the long wavelength emission falls within
the usable signal spectrum cross talk will
occur
• Cross talk becomes significant when source
power crosses a threshold
• Example: In a 10 channel system with a
channel spacing of 1.3THz, the max power
per channel is 3 mw
• In Raman amplification the short wavelength
source acts as a pump
 Stimulated Brillouin Scattering
(SBS)
• Similar to Raman Scattering, but
stimulated emission is in a lower
wavelength
• SBS limits the total power that can be
injected into a single-mode fiber
• High capacity DWDM systems will have
high power output, which can lead to
SBS
• Using special modulation of signal light,
SBS threshold can be raised
 SPM: Self Phase Modulation

• Refractive index of fiber varies with intensity

(Kerr effect)
• Hence different intensity components of the
signal travels at different speeds, leading to
different phase delays for the components
• Phase delays cause signal distortion
• Predominant in G.652 and G.655 Fibers
• Maximum permitted channel power output will
depend on the span length, no. of spans etc.
 CPM: Cross Phase Modulation

• Occurs in DWDM systems when power

fluctuations of one signal result in distortion
on other adjacent channels
• Causes problems in systems with very narrow
channel spacing
• More dominant on G.652 fiber
• Maximum permitted channel power output will
depend on the span length, no. of spans etc.
also