Technology Introduction

A.1 FEC
The FEC technology is the forward error correction technology. The FEC technology adopts Reed-
Solomon Coding. It can correct eight byte errors at most in any location per 255 bytes, and has a fairly
powerful capability of error correction. The FEC technology plays an important role in the submarine
network, and currently it is penetrating into the land communication system. According to the latest ITU-T
G.709, G.975 and G.975.1 standards, the signals at a rate of STM-16/OC-48 or higher adopt the FEC
technology to correct the bit errors generated in transmission. In addition, the FEC function can improve
the OSNR tolerance of optical signals at the receive end and increase the distance of the repeater section.

A.1.1 Types of the FEC Coding

In all codes, the Bose, Ray-Chaudhuri, Hocquenghem (BCH) code and Reed-solomom (RS) code are
regarded as the code that is most likely to be used in the optical transmission system. They both belong to
the cyclic error correction code.

The BCH code can correct the random bit error. The BCH code is the cyclic code that can correct multiple
random errors respectively put forwarded by three inventors. As a result, it is named by combining the
initial letters of their names.

The RS code can correct the random symbol error. The RS code regards one octet or adjacent two bytes as
one symbol and can correct a symbol error or more in a code set.

A.1.2 FEC Classification

The FEC is classified into in-band and out-band FEC coding according to the different positions for
storing the overhead in the FEC code.

The in-band FEC coding is to carry the supervisory element of the FEC code by using a part of overhead
bytes in the SDH/SONET signal frame. The coding mode can reduce the bit error ratio on the premise that
the code rate is not increased. The in-band FEC coding must use the byte in the overhead. It is restricted
by the available bytes in the frame overhead and the length of the frame. As a result, the bit error ratio
cannot be greatly reduced.

Currently the in-band FEC coding is mainly compliant with the ITU-T G.707. It adopts the BCH3 code
with the proper complexity and good coding performance. Generally the in-band FEC coding is referred
as the defined solution adopting the BCH3 coding.

The out-band FEC coding is compliant with the ITU-T G.975. It uses the RS alternative encoding and
decoding and puts the check character to the end of frame. Because some overhead is inserted, the line
rate increases. The coding redundancy is 7% and the corresponding rate is increased by 7%. For example,
for the STM-16/OC-48, the signal rate is increased from 2.48832 Gbit/s to 2.666 Gbit/s. The coding
redundancy is large. As a result, the error correction capacity is powerful and not restricted by the format
of the SDH/SONET frame. The out-band FEC coding has a great flexibility.

The features of the RS code are described as follows:

           Powerful error correction capacity. The RS code can correct eight symbol (byte) errors per character (255 bytes).

           Low complexity of FEC encoding and decoding. There is no need for processing the complex frame overhead. 

           Small code overhead. The code rate is rather high and the extra overhead is 7%.

The OTU of the OptiX WDM products adopts the out-band FEC coding that is compliant with the ITU-T
G.975.1 or G.975 and supports the processing of overhead stated in the ITU-T G.709.

A.1.3 FEC and AFEC Scheme

The first FEC scheme is the RS (255, 239) coding stated in the ITU-T G.709, which is called as the
completely standard OTUk frame. The frame structure is shown in Figure A-1.

Figure A-1 Structure of the standard OTUk frame using the FEC scheme stated in the ITU-T G.709

The FEC scheme can improve the BER performance. If the signals with the BER 1.0E-4 are input, the
BER performance can be improved to 5.0E-15 after error correction by the FEC technology.

The second FEC scheme is the frame structure of the OTUkV stated in the ITU-T G.709, as shown in
Figure A-2. The overhead structure of the OTUkV frame is the same as that of the OTUk frame. The only
difference is that the FEC in the OTUkV frame is alternative FEC. The FEC coding can be defined by the
vendor itself. It is encouraged that the vendor researches the FEC coding whose coding gain capacity is
more powerful than that of the RS (255, 239). Some units of the OptiX WDM products of Huawei use the
self-defined FEC coding, called AFEC (Advanced FEC).

Figure A-2 Structure of the standard OTUk frame using the AFEC scheme stated in the ITU-T G.709

 
The Table A-1 lists the differences and the features of the FEC and the AFEC schemes. 

Table A-1 Comparison between the FEC and AFEC schemes

Item FEC AFEC

Overhead frame format OTUk OTUkV

Coding redundancy 7% 7%

Coding delay <20us <150us

Coding gain 6dB 8dB

The coding algorithm of the FEC and AFEC schemes are different. If two OTUs that have the WDM-side signals of the same rate
use the different coding scheme, the two OTUs cannot be interconnected. In the actual engineering, ensure that the FEC coding
modes of the upstream OTU and the downstream OTU are the same.

A.2 SuperWDM
The SuperWDM is a key technology for high-capacity, ultra long-haul, and reconfigurable transmission
solution by Huawei DWDM products, including SuperCRZ and SuperDRZ. The SuperCRZ is an ultra
long-haul application development technology with excellent non-linear accumulation tolerance and
dispersion compensation mismatch tolerance. The SuperDRZ realizes more powerful IP-oriented DWDM
networks with innovation based on SuperCRZ.

A.2.1 SuperCRZ
Introduction

With optical source coding, particular phase modulation, and reasonable dispersion management, the
SuperCRZ effectively suppresses the impact of non-linear effect upon long-haul transmission systems, and
improves the system tolerance of optical noise. The SuperWDM can realize low-cost and Raman-free ultra
long-haul transmission in ordinary DWDM systems.

Line code of SuperCRZ is a type of RZ code. In addition to all features inherited from RZ code, it has
particular phase modulation. Compared with NRZ code, the SuperCRZ has an extended frequency
spectrum. In this way, it effectively suppresses the non-linear effect accumulated in ultra long-haul
transmission. This considerably extends the linear transmission of DWDM systems.

Performance and Features

           The SuperWDM adopts RZ coding. Compared with ordinary NRZ coding, it has more tolerance of signal noise and
improves the tolerance of the OSNR at the receive end for 3 dB to 6 dB.

           The SuperWDM adopts relatively broad optical spectrum and particular phase modulation to reduce non-linear effects
such as SBS, SPM, XPM, and FWM. This releases the OSNR penalty that is reserved for non-linear effect.

           The SuperCRZ code has excellent clock jitter performance and higher extinction ratio. This improves the transmission
performance of the system to a certain extent.

           The SuperCRZ coding technology requires cooperation of good dispersion management.

A.2.2 SuperDRZ
Introduction

The SuperDRZ adopts RZ coding. On one hand, it inherits the excellent features of SuperCRZ and
introduces chirp to RZ pulse. On the other hand, it introduces differential phase control. With the
improvement, DWDM systems based on SuperDRZ provide excellent transmission performance and
support reconfigurable optical layer that is suitable for new services.

Performance and Features

           The internal phase feature of the SuperDRZ endows it with better tolerance of inter-symbol interference. As a result, good
pulses remain when accumulated dispersion is large; signal distortion caused by dispersion is mild. This realizes the optimal
balance between capacity and transmission distance to be a key technology for more powerful next generation DWDM systems.

           The SuperDRZ furthers the compressing of side mode in the frequency spectrum. As a result, SuperDRZ signals have
more tolerance of non-linear effect (SBS and FWM). This also allows the SuperDRZ to realize 10G ultra high-density DWDM
systems.

           Compared with ordinary point-to-point ultra long-haul transmission, ultra long-haul transmission in reconfigurable optical
layer networks requires that one wavelength can pass through multiple ROADM nodes, in addition to requirements in non-linear
effect and OSNR. However, cascading of multiple ROADMs brings obvious filtering effect. Broad frequency spectrum of signals
can considerably degrade the signal quality and affect the transmission distance. The less broad frequency spectrum of
SuperDRZ can effectively reduce the impact upon transmission signals. This leads to less electrical regenerators, lower network
investment, and more flexibility in network planning and service scheduling.
A.3 Raman Amplification
The Raman amplifier is an application of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS). Quartz fiber has a very wide
SRS gain spectrum. It has a wide peak near the frequency of 13 THz. If a weak signal and a strong pump
light are transmitted in the fiber simultaneously and their frequency difference is within the range of
Raman gain spectrum, the weak signal beam can be amplified. Figure A-3 shows the gain spectrum of fiber
Raman amplifier.

Figure A-3 Raman amplifier gain spectrum

The fiber Raman amplifier is always used with the EDFA at the receive end. The fiber Raman amplifier
adopts distributed amplification mechanism for extra long haul and extra long span applications. See Figure
A-4.

Figure A-4 Raman amplification application in OptiX BWS 1600A system

Usually the optical fiber Raman amplifier is used at the receive end of DWDM system. The Raman
amplifier mainly comprises pumping lasers and thus works in a manner of counter pumping.

Counter pumping means the pump light is injected at the fiber end and the light direction is opposite to the main signals. The
counter pumping achieves a big phase difference between the main signals and the pump light. The Raman pump power
vibration is leveled in the direction opposite to signal transmission, effectively suppressing the noise generated by the pump.