OptiX Metro 6100 MM

Troubleshooting

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3 Troubleshooting Bit Error

Bit error is usually defined as erroneous bits in the data flow received during system
operation. For channel with high bit error rate, the bit error performance is usually a
group of “block”-based parameters, expressed in errored second ratio (ESR),
severely errored second ratio (SESR) and background block error ratio (BBER).

3.1 Background Knowledge

1. Relationship between optical power and bit error

There are two circumstances under which bit error is generated as result of
abnormity of optical power:

One circumstance is the excessive optical power attenuation, which may lead to the
input optical power of the OTU at the receive end being below than the sensitivity of
the detector. There are 2 types of detectors adopted for the OTU at receive end: PIN
and APD. 2.5Gbit/s system can adopts PIN(with receiver sensitivity being -18dBm,
or below -21dBm if tested in laboratory) and APD(with receiver sensitivity being
-28dBm, or below -31dBm if tested in laboratory)

In actual application, since optical cable distance is usually very long, taking the
optical path penalty of the system into consideration, a redundancy of 2dB should be

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reserved for minimum receiver sensitivity. By far, 10Gbit/s system only adopts PIN
with receiver sensitivity being up to -17dBm, but when the optical power reaches
-14dBm, the system may generate alarm of over-low optical power.

The other circumstance is the decrease of optical power, which may affect the
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at receive end. If the SNR redundancy is not large
enough, the decrease of optical power may directly lead to the deterioration of the
SNR, triggering the occurrence of bit error in the OTU at receive end.

2. Dispersion

Single-mode optical dispersion includes chromatic dispersion and polarization mode

dispersion (PMD).

Chromatic dispersion means the spreading of a light pulse in an optical fiber caused
by the different group velocities of the different wavelengths composing the source
spectrum.

PMD is related to the materials and workmanship employed in optical fiber making.
When the section of fiber becomes ellipse-like to a certain degree, the difference
between two cross-polarization mode transmission constants may occur, resulting in
time delay, spreading of light pulse at transmitting end and increase in bit error rate.

The problem of chromatic dispersion can be solved by dispersion compensation

fiber (DCF). Dispersion of optical fiber is usually measured in dispersion coefficient,
with ps/nm •km as its unit. The dispersion coefficient for G.655 optical fiber is
4.5ps/nm•km and is 17ps/nm•km for G.652 optical fiber. No compensation is
required for the 2.5G signals, while it is needed when signals transmitted over the
G.652 fiber for more than 30km or over G.655 fiber for more than 100km. It is
because the dispersion tolerance of the 10Gbit/s optical transmitting module is
rather small (generally several hundreds ps/nm•km).

The PMD is a random value, which can not be compensated via DCF, or via any
effective means by far.

3. Fiber optical non-linearity

The nonlinear effects of the optical fiber include stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS),
stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), self phase modulation (SPM), cross phase

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modulation (XPM) and four-wave mixing (FWM). The last two have the most serious
effects on the system.

The optical nonlinear effects of fiber are related to input optical power to a large
degree. If the optical fiber transmission range is very long, the optical nonlinearities
may seriously affect the performance of the system, resulting in performance
deterioration at receiving end and generation of bit error.

4. Forward error correction (FEC) technology

Part of the OTUs of the OptiX Metro 6100 adopts the Reed-Solomon FEC
technology. They can offer correction for up to eight bytes in any location for every
255 bytes, featuring fairly powerful error correction capability. The FEC function can
improve the optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) budget of the DWDM transmission
system and increase the inter-NE DWDM transmission distance. In addition, the
FEC function can reduce the bit error rate of the line transmission, and alleviate the
bad effects on the signal transmission quality caused by the aging component or
deteriorating optical cable performance, thereby improving the communication
quality of the DWDM transmission network.

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3.2 Common Fault Causes

The occurrence of alarms B1_EXC, B2_EXC, B1_SD and B2_SD indicate the
emergence of bit errors in the equipment.

Table 1.1 shows the common causes of bit errors.

Table 1.1 Common causes of bit errors

Fault types Causes

Too low or too high receiving optical power

External causes Poor grounding

External interference

OTU failure or performance deterioration.

Equipment causes Optical amplifier board failure or performance deterioration.

Fan failure

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3.3 Methods and Procedures of Fault

Localization

3.3.1 Common Methods

 Alarm and performance analysis

 Section-by-section loopback

 Replacement

 Meter test

Please refer to Chapter 1 Basic Thoughts and Methods for Fault Localization for the
detailed description of the above methods.

3.3.2 Procedures

The flowchart of troubleshooting bit errors is as shown in Figure 1.2.

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Troubleshooting bit error

NM

1 yes Handle the problems of

Is the optical power abnormal? optical power abnormality

NO
2
yes Clear external
Is there external interference? interference

3 NO
yes Handle the problems of
Is the grounding abnomal？ grounding

NO
4 yes Handle the problems of
Is the fans abnormal? fans

NO
5 Is there any board performance yes
Replace the board
deterioration?
NO

NO
Go to the next step N Is the fault cleared
2≤N≤5

yes

Contact Huawei technical End

support

Figure 1.2 Flowchart of troubleshooting bit errors

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3.4 Classified Troubleshooting

3.4.1 Troubleshooting External Fault

1. Bit errors resulting from over-low optical power

In DWDM system, as the transmission range is usually very long, the equipment
usually contains a large number of optical fiber jumpers, adjustable attenuators and
flanges. Poor connections of fiber connectors, optical line break, external factors and
improper minor operations may lead to increase of the fiber optical power
attenuation. So, once bit error is detected, the optical power at every point should be
checked immediately. If the bit errors are caused by optical cable performance
deterioration or excessive loss of the connectors, repair the optical cable or adjust
the optical attenuator immediately.

2. Bit errors resulting from optical nonlinearities

Either too low or too strong optical power may cause bit error. When the optical
power is too strong, it may lead to optical non-linearity impairments of signals. To
eliminate bit errors resulting from non-linearity, you can query the optical transmitting
power on the NM and keep it within the specified range.

3. Bit errors resulting from external interferences

If the air conditioner and power source in the equipment room are not well grounded,
these machines, when started or stopped, may generate serious electromagnetic
interference to the optical cable, resulting in bit error generation. If the equipment
generates small amount of discontinuous bit errors, you can check for the external
interference and eliminate it timely.

3.4.2 Troubleshooting Equipment Failure

1. Board performance deterioration

If bit errors occur to all paths, it indicates that the fault exists in the line between MPI-
S and MPI-R; efforts should be focused on checking the main channel of the

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system. If bit errors only occur to part of the channels, it indicates that the system
may work in critical status; or the problem (such as optical fiber connection) lies in
few channels only, unrelated to the main channel. Then, the fault can be found out
quickly.

 OTU performance deterioration

Signals at client side may experience complex O/E/O conversion on the OTU.
During the conversion, faults in any stage may cause performance deterioration and
result in bit errors. Furthermore, unsteadiness or large fluctuation of laser
wavelength at transmit end, or insufficient spacing for neighboring wavelengths after
multiplexing process, may also result in bit errors.

The OTU is designed with B1 byte supervision capability. Through querying bit error
performance of the OTU, you can obtain the amount and occurrence time of bit
error. As the OTU without FEC function only transmit signals transparently without
any processing of the bit errors, the section with bit errors can be located.

For board with FEC function, if the amount of bit errors during 24 hours is within the
scope of board correction capacity, the board can work normally. In this case, no bit
error occurs but the NMS will report number of bit error corrections, which is
consistent with the amount of bit errors.

If bit errors are caused by the deterioration of OTU performance, the faults can be
removed by replacing the faulty board.

 Optical amplifier performance deterioration

The pump laser light of erbium-doped optical fiber amplifier may bring about very
strong amplified spontaneous emission noise (ASE), which may weaken the signal-
to-noise ratio (SNR), resulting in bit errors.

If bit errors are caused by the deterioration of optical amplifier performance, they can
only be cleared by board replacement.

2. Fan tray assembly abnormity

If abnormities occur to the fan tray assembly, the equipment temperature will
increase and bit errors will appear consequently.

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One possible cause for such a fault may be that the air outlet does not function well,
such as air filter being blocked. In such a case, clean the air filter immediately.
Another probable reason may be the fault of the fan tray assembly itself. In this
case, replace the fan tray assembly immediately!

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3.5 Common Cases of Troubleshooting

3.5.1 Bit Errors Resulting from Optical Power

Abnormity

1. System overview

Figure 1.3 shows a fully configured 32-wavelength system networking topology.

Station A Station B Station C

OTM OLA OTM

Figure 1.3 Networking topology

2. Fault

One day, when testing bit errors with meter, a small amount of bit errors are found in
channel CH1, CH2, CH3 and CH4.

3. Troubleshooting

(1) First, query the system for alarm events. No abnormal alarm is found in
station A, B and C.
(2) Query the performance event, bit errors are found at station C, in CH1,
CH2, CH3 and CH4 which receive signals from station A.
(3) According to the system signal flow, check whether the optical powers
transmitted from station A to station C is normal. First query the models of
receiving detectors of OTUs through the NM. As a result, all of them are of
PIN. Then query the input optical powers from the 15-minute and 24-hour
performance data of the receive OTUs at station A. As a result, all of them
are in the neighborhood of typical value. The input optical power of WBA
board at the transmit point of station A is tested normal. Station A is

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excluded from being faulty.

(4) Query the input optical power received by the WBA board at station B, and
find that of the WBA boards at both the transmit and receive points are less
than the normal value.
(5) Query the input optical power of the WBA board at receive point of station
C, and find it is smaller than normal value. That of the OTU is also in the low
side.
(6) The dropping of optical power of optical amplifiers at upstream stations may
lead to dropping of the optical power in downstream stations. Through
query, it is found that the problem is caused by excessive attenuation of the
optical power transmitted from station A to station B. Adjust the received
optical power of WBA board in station B from station A to normal value, bit
errors at station C disappear.
4. Conclusion and suggestion

Optical power dropping is a big hidden trouble of the system. To notice the optical
power dropping of the system at early stage, a backup querying data concerning
optical powers of every point of the system should be well prepared in the
implementation and maintenance. Thus, once bit errors occur, comparison can be
made between the optical power data at the time of bit error occurrence and that
recorded before, which will make the problem analysis easier.

In daily maintenance, maintenance personnel should record the optical power of the
system, and the receiving/transmitting optical power of various boards as well.
Regular query should be performed for early discovery of the problem. When optical
power dropping occurs, first make sure its dropping scope. The signal flow will play
an important role in helping you with finding out the common place of the boards
with dropping of the received optical power, and then you can locate the fault
accurately.

3.5.2 Bit Errors Resulting from Optical Nonlinearities

1. System overview

Figure 1.4 shows a DWDM engineering project. Station A and station D are OTM
stations, offering 4-wavelength services. Between station A and D are two OLA
stations B and C.

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Station A Station B Station C Station D

OTM OLA OLA OTM

Figure 1.4 Engineering networking diagram

2. Fault

Some day, query performance event of station A, and find all channels of station A
which receive signals from station D have RSBBE bit error performance event.
Query the alarms, and the B1-OVER alarm is found.

3. Troubleshooting

(1) First query the entire system for alarms and performance events. It is found
that all channel signals passing through station A to station D have bit errors
and alarms. It can be determined in the main that the fault is in the
transmission between station A and station D.
(2) According to system signal flow, check station A and D for fault location.
(3) First check the receiving optical power of the OTU in station A via NMS, and
find the receiving optical power of the 10Gbit/s and 2.5Gbit/s signal OTUs of
station A are normal.
(4) Connect a spectrum analyzer to the MON port of receive WBA of station A,
or analyze the output spectrum signal of the WBA of station A via MCA, and
find all receiving optical powers in station A is normal.
(5) Since the receiving optical power of each channel in station A is normal, the
fault is not related to the signal of single channel. It may be caused by the
non-linearity of the line optical cable.
(6) Consult the maintenance personnel of line service, and learn that the fiber
between station D and station A is segmented. One of the segments is
about 30km, using G.653 fiber, which is not suitable for DWDM signal
transmission. It produces the four-wave mixing (FWM) effect, and
consequently, bit error occurs.
(7) Replace G.653 fiber with G.655 fiber, and the problem is solved.

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4. Conclusion and suggestion

For bit errors, first locate their generation scope and causes. Bit errors in one or two
channels are usually caused by the channel itself, and unrelated to the main path. If
all channels have bit errors, focus on the system main path.

Sometimes, the ongoing services need to be interrupted for fault location. For
wavelengths with standby channels, they can be switched to the standby channel by
force. For those without standby channel, do the replacement when the traffic is
small to minimize the negative effect, for example, at midnight.

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