CASE STUDY 2ND IA 7th sem

Case Study of DWDM Networking

DWDM network is widely accepted as the best solution to increase network capacity over long distances. Making full use of
these DWDM wavelengths for transmission needs to consider both now and future. This makes the design of the DWDM
network complex. Here shares a true case of DWDM networking, which fulfills the requirement for now, but is also built for
the future.

DWDM Networking Requirement

Three duplex DWDM links (Link A, Link B and Link C) should be built between three different sites: Site 1, Site 2 and Site
3. The following table listed the distance and light loss of these three links.

Duplex DWDM Links Distance Light Loss

Link A: Site 1 – Site 2 31km 9dB

Link B: Site 2 – Site 3 31km 9dB

Link C: Site 1 – Site 3 59km 17dB

A backup link of Link C should be built as well. This backup link will use as length of dark fiber which passes Site 4. Thus,
another two links—Link D and Link E work together as the backup for Link C. Meanwhile, Link D and Link E also work
independently for 6 ways of optical transmission. The following table lists the distance and the light loss of these links.

Duplex DWDM Links Distance Light Loss

Link D 24km 7dB

Link E 47km 13dB

Backup Link C (Link D+E) 71km (24km+47km) 20dB (7dB+13dB)

DWDM Networking Solution

As not all the links in this DWDM network are transmitting the same information, different wavelengths should be used. For
instance, Link A and Link B only transmit 2 ways of optical signal, while Link C is required to transmit 10 ways of optical
signal. And some of them are of different data rates. Assignment of the DWDM wavelengths in these links is very important.
Considering the future network expanding needs, Site 1, Site 2 and Site 3 are suggested to deploy 40-channel DWDM
MUX/DEMUXs. The following will offer a detailed solution for each link.

Link A: 2*10G Over 31km

Link A is from Site 1 to Site 2, which is 31 kilometers long with light loss of 9dB. It only needs to transmit two ways 10G
optical signal. In this link, we use DWDM wavelength, C21 and C50 for transmission. DWDM SFP+ modules that support
80km is used. In this link, no other devices are required to booster the optical signals, as the light source from the 80km
modules are powerful enough to support this link.

Link B: 2*10G Over 31km

Link B is from Site 2 to Site 3. Just like Link A, it required to support two ways of 10G transmission over distance of 31km.
For Link B, we use the same products as for Link A.

Link C: 2*1G & 8*10G Over 57km

Link C is from Site 1 to Site 3. It is required to transmit 2 ways of 1G optical signal and 8 ways of 10G optical signal at t he
same time over a distance of 57km with light loss of 17dB. Compared with Link A and Link B, things are much different for
Link C, as the distance, network capacity and power consumption are all increased. It means more devices should be added.

Overcome Large Light Loss: To ensure that the optical signals are powerful enough to reach the distance, EDFA are
suggested to be deployed. An 13dB output booster EDFA is suggested to be deployed after the DWDM MUX Tx end in both
Site 1 and Site 3.

Overcome High Power Consumption: As the more wavelengths are used in Link C, more DWDM fiber optic modules should
be used. As the power consumption of DWDM modules are higher than normal optical modules, install large sum of DWDM
modules in one switch would increase the risk of fault caused by high power consumption. OEO converter which can support
the optical wavelengths transmission between normal SMF & MMF wavelengths to DWDM wavelengths are suggested to be
deployed between DWDM MUX/DEMUX and switch. This can reduce the fault risk caused by high power consumption
effectively.