Experiment No.

(8) Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)

Experiment No. (8)

Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)

 Object:

This Experiment describes how to simulate a WDM system with

4 channels.

 Theory:

Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) involves the transmission of a

number of different peak wavelength optical signals in parallel on a single optical
fiber. Although in spectral terms optical WDM is analogous to electrical FDM, it
has the distinction that each WDM channel effectively has access to the entire
intensity modulation fiber bandwidth which with current technology is of the
order of several gigahertz. The technique is illustrated in figure (1) where a
conventional (i.e. single nominal wavelength) optical fiber communication
system is shown together with a duplex (i.e. two different nominal wavelength
optical signals traveling in opposite directions providing bidirectional
transmission), and also a multiplex (i.e. two or more different nominal wavelength
optical signals transmitted in the same direction) fiber communication system. It
is the latter WDM operation which has generated particular interest within
telecommunications. For example, two-channel WDM is very attractive for a
simple system enhancement such as piggybacking a 565 Mbit s−1 system onto an
installed 140 Mbit s−1 link, or for doubling the capacity of a 565 Mbit s −1 link.
Moreover, this multiplexing strategy overcomes certain power budgetary
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Experiment No. (8) Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)

restrictions associated with electrical TDM. When the transmission rate over a
particular optical link is doubled using TDM, a further 3 to 6 dB of optical power
is generally required at the receiver. In the case of WDM, however, additional
losses are also incurred from the incorporation of wavelength multiplexers and
demultiplexers. Wavelength division multiplexing in IM/DD optical fiber systems
can be implemented using either LED or injection laser sources with either
multimode or single-mode fiber. However, the widespread deployment of single-
mode fiber has encouraged the investigation of WDM on this transmission
medium.

In particular, developments concerned with single-mode fiber WDM

transmission can be distinguished into two broad categories namely:

1. Coarse WDM (CDWM)

2. Dense WDM (DWDM).

Although both categories use the same concept of multiple-wavelength

channels on a single fiber, they differ in the channel spacing they employ. CWDM
as implied by the terminology uses wider channel spacing and hence provides
significantly fewer channels than DWDM.

Coarse WDM is specified in ITU-T Recommendation G.694.2 which defines

a wavelength grid with 20 nm channel spacings and includes 18 wavelengths
between 1271 and 1611 nm as depicted in figure (2). Moreover, both the
unidirectional and bidirectional CDWM are provided in ITU-T Recommendation
G.695. In addition, recommendation G.694.2 provides optical interface
specifications for multichannel CWDM systems on target distances of 40 km and
80 km. figure (2) also displays an attenuation characteristic for standard single-
mode fiber shown by the dashed line which indicates that five of the CWDM
wavelength channels fall within the E-band that cannot be used due to the water
peak. However, as low-water-peak fiber (LWPF) can be employed in the E-band

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Experiment No. (8) Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)

wavelength region with an attenuation characteristic shown by the bold line in

figure (2), then 16-channel bidirectional CWDM modular systems have become
commercially available.

Dense WDM was originally concerned with optical signals multiplexed in the
1.55 μm wavelength region using the capabilities of erbium-doped fiber
amplifiers (EDFAs) to increase system capacity and therefore to reduce system
cost. Figure (3) shows a block schematic for a DWDM system where a large
number of channels N, each utilizing a single wavelength (i.e. from λ1 to λN), are
multiplexed onto a single-fiber transmission medium. Both the deployment of
EDFAs and dispersion compensation are required for long-haul DWDM systems
to offset any optical signal power losses caused by optical wavelength
multiplexers and other passive optical devices. Finally, a wavelength
demultiplexer distributes each channel to the corresponding receiver.

Dense WDM systems use narrow channel spacings and can therefore
accommodate several hundred wavelength channels on a single optical fiber. The
three possible channel spacings specified for DWDM systems are:

 1.6 nm (200 GHz).

 0.8 nm (100 GHz).
 0.4 nm (50 GHz)

While an even smaller channel spacing of 0.1 nm (12.5 GHz) is feasible in

which case the system may also be referred to as super-DWDM.

Unlike CWDM transmission, DWDM systems use narrowband optical filters

in the demultiplexing section due to the narrow channel spacing requirement.
Furthermore, DWDM transmitters require temperature-controlled laser sources to
stabilize the emitted signal wavelengths from each transmitter and also the large
number of channels consumes a much higher power level. For example,
a 16-channel CWDM system consumes as little as 4 W of power whereas
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Experiment No. (8) Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)

a conventional DWDM system requires about 80 W to transmit the same number

of channels. Recent DWDM system developments, however, include pluggable
and software-tunable transceiver modules which are capable of transmitting 40 or
80 channels. Such transceivers can be plugged in as required at any wavelength
and therefore they can handle a full range of wavelengths signals while reducing
the overall DWDM system cost. Furthermore, the power consumption of these
transceivers remains between 1 and 4 W when operating over a temperature range
of −5 to 70 C.

 Procedure:
1. Connect the circuit shown in figure (4) using optisystem.
2. Set project parameters as following:
Bit rate = 2.5 G bit/sec.
Sequence Length = 128 bits.
Samples per bit = 64.
3. For the CW lasers, set:
Linewidth = 10 MHz.
Power = 0 dBm.
Frequencies = {193.1, 193.2, 193.3, and 193.4} THz.
4. For the optical Amplifier EDFA, set:
Operation mode = Power control.
5. For the first optical fiber, set:
Fiber Length = 80 km.
6. For the second optical fiber, set:
Fiber Length = 100 km.
7. For the photo detector PIN, set
Thermal noise = 1e-021 W/Hz

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Experiment No. (8) Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)

8. Measure the value of Q-factor and BER using eye pattern analyzer.
9. Draw the output signal at WDM Multiplexer.
10. Record the values of power from WDM analyzer.
11. Convert the 4-channel WDM into 2-channel WDM.
12. Set the frequencies of CW laser to {193.1, and 193.2} THz.
13. Repeat steps 8, 9, and 10.

 Discussion:

1. What is a WDM used for?

2. What are the differences between dense WDM and coarse WDM?
3. Draw the 8-channel WDM.
4. What is the effect of increasing number of channels on WDM system?
5. What is the effect of increasing number of channels on WDM system on
the power per channel?
6. Define the polarization and briefly explain how can use the polarization to
increase the capacity of information in WDM system.

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Experiment No. (8) Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)

Figure (1) Optical fiber system operating modes illustrating wavelength division
multiplexing (WDM)

Figure (2) Optical wavelength channel allocation for coarse wavelength division
multiplexing system as specified by ITU-T Recommendation G.694.2

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Experiment No. (8) Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)

Figure (3) Block Schematic of a dense wavelength division multiplexed system.

Figure (4) Optical fiber system using OptiSystem.

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