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DWDM & Optical Fiber

Principle
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WDM Overview
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WDM Overview

 SDM increases the transmission capacity linearly by adding the number of optical fibers,
and the transmission equipment will be increased linearly, too.
 TDM keeps the same transmission medium but increases the bit rate. The equipment is
getting more and more complicated and expensive. Additionally, the maximum
transported capability over a fiber pair is in the range of a few 10Gbps.
 The way to scale to higher transported capacity is WDM. This technology keeps the same
fiber, the same bit rate, but uses multiple colours to multiply transported capacity.
 WDM is widely used in the national and metro backbone transmission systems.
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WDM Overview

 WDM combines multiple optical TDM data streams onto one fiber through the use of multiple wavelengths of light.
Each individual TDM data stream is sent over an individual laser transmitting a unique wavelength of light.
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TDM and DWDM Comparison
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TDM and DWDM Comparison
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WDM Overview

 Advantage Of WDM
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WDM , CWDM , DWDM

 WDM
Traditional, passive WDM systems are wide-spread with 2, 4, 8, 12, and 16 channel counts being the normal
deployments. This technique usually has a distance limitation of under 100 km.
 CWDM
Today, coarse WDM (CWDM) typically uses 20-nm spacing (3000 GHz) of up to 18 channels. The CWDM
Recommendation ITU-T G.694.2 provides a grid of wavelengths for target distances up to about 50 km on single mode
fibers as specified in ITU-T Recommendations G.652, G.653 and G.655. The CWDM grid is made up of 18
wavelengths defined within the range 1270 nm to 1610 nm spaced by 20 nm.
 DWDM
Dense WDM common spacing may be 200, 100, 50, or 25 GHz with channel count reaching up to 128 or more
channels at distances of several thousand kilometers with amplification and regeneration along such a route.
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WDM , CWDM , DWDM

Comparison between CWDM and DWDM

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Transmission Mode
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Transmission Mode

 For DWDM system, actually there are two different modes of transmission:
•Two-fiber unidirectional : Two fibers, only single direction signal transmitting on each fiber
•Single-fiber bidirectional : only has one fiber, but two direction signals transmitting on it at the
same time
•Note that Currently widely used is Two-fiber unidirectional WDM. Because it is easier to
implement technically and more economy. Everyone wants good performance-price ratio.
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WDM Components
 1. Transponders OTU OTU
O O
Channel Spacing M A
/ /
OTU O O OTU
Muxponders A
OA
D

 2. MUX & DMUX OTU OTU

Dielectric film filter type Optical

OSC OSC OSC
Waveguide type
optical Grating Type 4. Amplifiers
3. Dispersion compensators 5. Couplers , Isolators , …
Chromatic Dispersion Compensator 6. OSC (Optical Supervisorychannel)
PMD Compensator
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WDM Components

 Transponders

 Transponders are frequently formed by two transceivers back-to-back So called Optical

Electrical-Optical (OEO) transponders
 Expensive solution at present
 True all-optical transponders without OEO in development
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WDM Components

 Transponders
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WDM Components

 Transponders
 Direct Modulation
Output laser is controlled by input current. The variation of the modulation current causes the
variation of output wavelength.
This variation, called modulation chirp, is actually a kind of wavelength (frequency) jitter
inevitable for direct modulation of the sources. The chirp broadens the bandwidth of the emitting
spectrum of the laser, deteriorates its spectrum characteristics and limits the transmission rate and
distance of the system.
Transmission rate is limited to 2.5Gbit/s, and transmission distance is less than 100km.
Similar Specification –This kind of modulator is Widely used in CWDM system.
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WDM Components

 Transponders
 External Modulation
EA modulator adopts different structure, use stable DC current to let LD output a standard
wavelength (complied with ITU-T). EA module act as a door that open only happens to the
current change. In this way, the information is modulated into the wavelength.
Less chirp = Support long haul transmission (2.5Gb/s > 600km)
High Dispersion tolerance (2.5Gb/s: 7200~12800ps/nm)
Most widely used in DWDM
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WDM Components

 Transponders
 Mach-Zehnder Modulator
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WDM Components

 Transponders
Mach-Zehnder Modulator
This modulator separates the light input into two equal signals which enter the two optical branches of the
modulator respectively. These two optical branches employ an electro-optical material whose refractive index
changes with the magnitude of the external electrical signal applied to it. Changes of the refractive index of the
optical branches will result in the change variation of the signal phases. Hence, when the signals from the two
branches recombine at the output end, the combined optical signal is an interference signal with varying intensity.
With this method, the frequency chirp of the separated external modulated laser can be equal to zero.
Long dispersion limited distance
High cost with good performance
Negligible chirp
Not widely used.
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WDM Components

 Transponders
 Comparison of Modulators
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WDM Components

 Transponders

Transponder’s Receiver Side Requirements

Receivers Common to all Transponders

Not Specific to wavelength (Broadband)

PIN photodiodes Simple and fast

Avalanche photodiodes (APD)Slower,

but better sensitivity Better receiver

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WDM Components
 Channel Spacing
Trend is toward smaller channel spacing , to increase the channel count
• ITU channel spacing is 0.4 nm, 0.8 nm and 1.6 nm (50, 100 and 200 GHz)
• Proposed spacing of 0.2 nm (25 GHz) and even 0.1 nm (12.5 GHz)
• Requires laser sources with excellent long term wavelength stability, better than 10 pm
• One target is to allow more channels in the C-band without other upgrades
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WDM Components
 Channel Spacing
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WDM Components
 MUX & DMUX:
 Dielectric film filter type
Film Filter offers good stability
and isolation between channels
at moderate cost, but with a
high insertion loss.
So the number of dropping
wavelength is limited.
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WDM Components
 MUX & DMUX:
 Dielectric film filter type

The thin-film filter (TFF) is a device used in some optical networks to multiplex and demultiplex optical signals.
The TFFs are devices that use many ultrathin layers of dielectric material coating deposited on a glass or
polymer substrate. This substrate can be made to let only photons of a specific wavelength pass through, while
all others are reflected. By integrating several of these components, you can then demultiplex several
wavelengths. Figure shows what happens with four wavelengths. The first TFF section passes wavelength 1 and
reflects 2, 3 and 4 to the second, which then passes 2 and reflects 3 and 4. This allows for demultiplexing or
multiplexing of optical signals.
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WDM Components
 MUX & DMUX:
 Optical Gratings
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WDM Components
 MUX & DMUX:
 Optical Gratings

A Bragg Grating is made of a small section of fiber that has been modified by exposure to ultraviolet radiation to
create periodic changes in the refractive index of the fiber. The result, shown in Figure, is that light traveling
through the Bragg Grating is refracted and then reflected back slightly, usually occurring at one particular
wavelength. The reflected wavelength, known as the Bragg resonance wavelength, depends on the amount of
refractive index change that has been applied to the Bragg grating fiber and this also depends on how distantly
spaced these changes to refraction are.
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WDM Components
 MUX & DMUX:
 Integrated Optical Waveguide type
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WDM Components
 MUX & DMUX:
 Integrated Optical Waveguide type
In the transmit direction, the AWG mixes individual wavelengths, also called lambdas (λ) from different lines
etched into the AWG substrate (the base material that supports the waveguides) into one etched line called the
output waveguide, thereby acting as a multiplexer. In the opposite direction, the AWG can demultiplex the
composite λs onto individual etched lines. Usually one AWG is for transmit and a second one is for receive.
Figure illustrates the demultiplexing direction or receive. The AWG can replace multiple Bragg Gratings, each
Bragg Grating only supports one wavelength and occupies the same physical space as an 8-λ AWG. Multiple
Bragg Gratings also cost more than a single AWG. For some applications, AWG offers a higher channel capacity
at a lower cost per channel with a smaller footprint. This results in fewer components and provides
forcomponent integration (e.g., switching, variable optical attenuator).
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WDM Components
 Optical Amplifier:

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WDM Components
 Optical Amplifier:

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WDM Components
 Optical Amplifier:

The outer electrons of Er ions have 3 energy levels, where E1 is the basic state energy level, E2 is the metastable state
energy level and E3 is the high energy level.

When high-energy pump lasers are used to excite the EDF, lots of bound electrons of the erbium ions are excited from
E1 to E3 level, then soon dropped to the E2 level via a non-radiation decay process (i.e. no photon but heat is
released).

When a signal with the wavelength of 1550nm passes through this erbium-doped fiber, particles in the metastable state
are transited to the basic state via stimulated radiation and generate photons identical to those in the incident signal
light.

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WDM Components
 Optical Amplifier:
 Features Of EDFA
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WDM Components
 Optical Amplifier:
 Automatic Gain Control
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WDM Components
 Optical Amplifier:
 Automatic Gain Control

If we cannot control the gain, optical surge generates. With AGC function:

When add wavelengths from 1 to 40, the gain will be not changed.

When drop wavelengths from 40 to 1, the gain will be not changed also

Key Component is the DSP that makes the nonlinear calculation.

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WDM Components
 Optical Amplifier:
 Raman Fiber Amplifier
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WDM Components
 Optical Amplifier:
 Raman Fiber Amplifier
Fiber has wide SRS gain spectrum and a wide gain peak around a frequency 13THz lower than
that of the pumping light. If a weak signal and a strong pumping light wave are transmitted
through the fiber at the same time, and the wavelength of the weak signal is set within the Raman
gain bandwidth of the strong pumping light, the weak signal can be amplified. Such SRS-based
OA is call Raman optical amplifier. Raman optical amplifier’s gain is the switch gain, that is, the
difference between the output power when the amplifier is on and that when the amplifier is off.
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WDM Components
 Optical Amplifier:
 Features Of Raman
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WDM Components
 Supervisory Technologies
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WDM Components
 Optical Supervisory Channel
Pumping wavelength of OA: 980nm or 1480nm.
1310nm already defined by ITU-T for future use.
OA fails, all signal lost, requires the supervisory
signal continue to transmit alarms and other
indications. The receive sensitivity of the OSC
unit is very good, up to -48dBm.
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WDM Components
 Optical Supervisory Channel
Frame Structure :
FA: Frame alignment.
E1 E2 : Orderwire.
ALC: Automatic Level Control.
F1 F2 F3 : transparent serials data.
D1-D12: DCC bytes,
data communication channel.
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WDM Components
 Electrical Supervisory Channel
The optical transponder unit (OTU)
multiplexes the supervisory
information into the service
channel for transmission.
The ESC reduces the investment
of the OSC. It also deletes the
insertion loss of the FIU.
This lowers the cost and the power budget of optical channels.
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The Three “R”s of Optical Networking
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Span Design Limits
 Attenuation
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Span Design Limits
 Attenuation
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Span Design Limits
 Dispersion
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Span Design Limits
 Dispersion
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Span Design Limits

  Dispersion

How Far Can I Go Without Dispersion Issues?

A Laser Signal with Dispersion Tolerance of 3400 ps/nm Is Sent Across a Standard SM Fiber,
Which Has a Coefficient of Dispersion of 17 ps/nm*km It Will Reach 200 Km at Maximum
Bandwidth
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Span Design Limits
 OSNR
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Optical Fiber
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Optical Fiber

 Multimode Fiber
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Optical Fiber

 Step-Index Multimode Fiber

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Optical Fiber

 Graded-Index Multimode Fiber

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Optical Fiber

 Single-Mode Fiber
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Optical Fiber

 Comparison between Single-Mode and Multimode

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Optical Fiber

 Attenuation (dB/Km)
1. Light Absorption
Light is absorbed in the fiber material as its energy is converted to heat due to molecular
resonance and wavelength impurities. For example, hydrogen and hydroxide resonance occurs at
approximately 1244and 1383nm.
 2. Rayleigh Scattering
Scattering, primarily Rayleigh scattering, also contributes to attenuation. Scattering causes
dispersion of the light energy in all directions, with some of the light escaping the fiber core. A
small portion of this light energy is returned down the core and is termed backscattering
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Optical Fiber

 Optical Return Loss

Where Pe is the emitted power and Pr the reflected power, expressed in Watt (W)

Increased transmitter noise reducing optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) in analog video
transmission (CATV) systems and increasing BER in digital transmission systems

Increase light source interference changing the laser’s central wavelength and varying the output
power Higher incidence of transmitter damage
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Optical Fiber

 Solutions for a reduction in ORL

Solutions are available that allow for a reduction in ORL value or that limit the undesirable effects associated with a
high ORL value include:
Use of low-reflection connectors, such as 8° angled polished contacts (APC); high return loss (HRL) connectors; or
ultra polished contacts (UPC)
Use of optical isolators near the laser in order to
reduce back- reflection levels
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Optical Fiber

 Dispersion
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Optical Fiber

 Modal Dispersion
Modal dispersion typically occurs with
multimode fiber. When a very short light
pulse is injected into the fiber within the
numerical aperture, all of the energy
does not reach the end of the fiber
simultaneously. Different modes of
oscillation carry the energy down the
fiber using paths of differing lengths.
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Optical Fiber

 Chromatic Dispersion
Chromatic dispersion (CD) occurs because
a light pulse is made up of different
wavelengths, each traveling at different
speeds down the fiber.These different
propagation speeds broaden the light pulse
when it arrives at the receiver, reducing
the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and
increasing bit errors.
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Optical Fiber

 Causes of Chromatic Dispersion: Waveguide Dispersion

The IOR for the material that makes up the fiber core, such as glass or/and dopants, depends
upon wavelength. Consequently, the speed (group velocity) of each wavelength component can
vary with wavelength.
 Causes of Chromatic Dispersion: Material Dispersion

Engineering differences in the IOR between the fiber core and cladding regions cause light to
propagate faster in the cladding than in the core.
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Optical Fiber

 Combined Chromatic Dispersion

Combined CD refers to the value for both
material and waveguide dispersions together
The total combined CD for a fiber link
depends on distance (km).
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Optical Fiber

 Fiber Types
 Non-Dispersion-Shifted Fiber
 ITU-T G.652 fiber, often referred to as
 standard single-mode fiber (SSMF),
 was the first type of single-mode
 fiber manufactured. It was originally
 developed for optimized transmission
 around 1310 nm, with an abrupt index
 profile change between the core and
 the cladding .Today, the SSMF is well suited for DWDM transmission in the C and L bands.
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Optical Fiber

 Fiber Types
 Dispersion-Shifted Fiber
Dispersion-shifted fibers were designed with the zero
dispersion wavelength moved within the 1550 nm
region to increase the reach of long-distance
transmission systems as well as to take advantage
of the lower fiber attenuation. Classified as
ITU-T G.653 fiber, it is ideal for single wavelength
transmission in very long haul networks.
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Optical Fiber

 Fiber Types
 Non-Zero Dispersion-Shifted Fiber
With the advent of DWDM applications, a slightly
positive or negative CD is desirable for wavelengths
around 1550 nm as it eliminates nonlinear interactions
between multiple DWDM channels, known as
four-wave mixing. Typically, fiber classified
as ITU-T G.655 has a CD magnitude one-third
that of NDSF of positive or negative dispersion.
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Optical Fiber

 Fiber Types
Graphical Summary
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Optical Fiber

 Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD)

A basic property of single-mode fibers . PMD affects the magnitude of the transmission rate and
results from the difference in propagation times of the energy of a given wavelength , which is
split into two polarization axes that are at right angles to each other(see below).Main causes of
PMD are non circularities of the fiber design and external applied stress (macro-bending , micro-
bending , twist and temperature variations).
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Optical Fiber

 Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD)

 Distance Limitations
The maximal allowable PMD
coefficient decreases linearly
with increasing bit rate.
This can be clearly seen in
Figure , which displays the
maximal PMD cofficient as
a function of transmission
distance for the three different bit rates.
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Optical Fiber

 Nonlinear Effects
 1. Refractive index phenomena
• Self-phase modulation (SPM)

• Cross-phase modulation (XPM)

• Four-wave mixing (FWM)

 2. Stimulated scattering phenomena

• Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS)

• Stimulated Brillouinscattering (SBS)

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Optical Fiber

 Nonlinear Effects
Self-Phase Modulation
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Optical Fiber

 Nonlinear Effects
Self-Phase Modulation
SPM is the effect that a signal has on its own phase, resulting in signal spreading. With high signal intensities, the light
itself induces local variable changes in the refractive index of the fiber known as the Kerr effect. This phenomenon
produces a time-varying phase in the same channel. The time-varying refractive index modulates the phase of the
transmitted wavelength(s), broadening the wavelength spectrum of the transmitted optical pulse.
Where L is the link distance, S is the fiber section, and P is the optical power.
Δϕ = 2Π𝐿λ𝑆𝑃
The result is a shifted toward shorter wavelengths at the trailing edge of the signal (blue shifted) as well as a shifted
toward longer wavelengths at the leading edge of the signal (red shifted).
The wavelength shifts that SPM causes are the exact opposite of positive CD. In advanced network designs, SPM can
be used to partly compensate for the effects of CD.
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Optical Fiber

 Nonlinear Effects
 Cross Phase Modulation
XPM is the effect that a signal in one channel has
on the phase of another signal. Similar to SPM, XPM
occurs as a result of the Kerr effect. However, XPM
effects only arise when transmitting multiple channels
on the same fiber. In XPM, the same frequency shifts
at the edges of the signal in the modulated channel
occur as in SPM, spectrally broadening the signal pulse.
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Optical Fiber

 Nonlinear Effects
 Four-Wave Mixing
FWM is an interference phenomenon that
produces unwanted signals from three
signal frequencies (λ123 = λ1 + λ2 – λ3)
known as ghost channels that occur
when three different channels induce a
fourth channel.
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Optical Fiber

 Nonlinear Effects
 Four-Wave Mixing

In systems using dispersion-shifted fiber, FWM becomes a tremendous problem when transmitting
around 1550 nm or the zero dispersion wavelength. Different wavelengths traveling at the same
speed, or group velocity, and at a constant phase over a long period of time will increase the effects of
FWM. In standard fiber (non-dispersion-shifted fiber), a certain amount of CD occurs around 1550
nm, leading to different wavelengths having different group velocities, reducing the FWM effects.
Using irregular channel spacing can also achieve a reduction in FWM effects.
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Optical Fiber

 Stimulated Raman Scattering

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Optical Fiber

 Stimulated Raman Scattering

Scattering phenomena can be categorized according to the processes that occur when the laser
signal is scattered by fiber molecular vibrations (optical photons) or by induced virtual grating.

SRS is an effect that transfers power from a signal at a shorter wavelength to a signal at a longer
wavelength. The interaction of signal light waves with vibrating molecules (optical photons)
within the silica fiber causes SRS, thus scattering light in all directions. Wavelength differences
between two signals of about 100 nm (13.2 THz), 1550 to 1650 nm for example, show maximum
SRS effects.
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Optical Fiber

 Stimulated Brillouin Scattering

SBS is a backscattering phenomenon that causes loss of power. With high-power signals, the
light waves induce periodic changes in the refractive index of the fiber, which can be described
as induced virtual grating that travels away from the signal as an acoustic wave. The signal itself
is then scattered, but it is mostly reflected off this induced virtual grating. SBS effects occur
when transmitting only a few channels.
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Optical Fiber
 Summery Of Transmission effects
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Optical Fiber
 Summery Of Transmission effects