IEEE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, VOL. 9, NO.
12, DECEMBER 1997
Fast-Link Control Protection of Surviving
Channels in Multiwavelength Optical Networks
A. K. Srivastava, J. L. Zyskind, Member, IEEE, Y. Sun, Member, IEEE, J. Ellson, G. Newsome, R. W. Tkach,
A. R. Chraplyvy, J. W. Sulhoff, T. A. Strasser, C. Wolf, and J. R. Pedrazzani
Abstract—Link control, a new technique for protecting surviv-
ing channels on a per-link basis from fast power transients re-
sulting from network reconfigurations or line failures, is demon-
strated in a 560-km eight-amplifier wavelength division multi-
plexed link carrying seven 2.5-Gb/s channels plus the link control
channel.
Index Terms—Erbium-doped fiber amplifier, optical networks,
power transients, wavelength-division multiplexing.
I N MULTIWAVELENGTH networks, erbium-doped fiber
amplifiers (EDFA’s) will be used at the repeaters and
switching elements [1], [2]. In such networks, different wave-
lengths will follow diverse paths. When wavelength channels
are interrupted and/or restored, due to network reconfigurations
or line failures, cross saturation in the EDFA’s will induce
power transients in the surviving channels. The surviving
channels will suffer error bursts if, for example, their powers
exceed thresholds for optical nonlinearities or become too
low to preserve adequate eye opening. Such error bursts in
surviving channels represent a service impairment which is
absent in electronically switched networks and is unacceptable
to service providers. The speed of power transients resulting
from changes in channel loading, and therefore the speed
required to protect against such error bursts, is proportional
to the number of amplifiers in the network and, for large
networks, can be extremely fast [3], [4], orders of magnitude
faster than the dynamic time scales normally associated with
EDFA’s.
Dynamic gain compensation in an EDFA was demonstrated
at low frequencies ( 1 kHz) by Desurvire et al. [5] using a
compensation signal. Shehadeh et al. [6] have demonstrated
in a static experiment that a similar scheme, as well as pump
control, could be used to adjust an EDFA’s gain spectrum
but dynamic issues were not addressed. Recently, fast pump
control was demonstrated to limit the power excursions of
surviving channels against fast power transients [7]. In a
multiwavelength optical network, these schemes would require
Manuscript received April 17, 1997; revised August 29, 1997. This work
was supported by the MONET Consortium funded in part by Advanced
Research Projects Agency under Agreement MDA972-95-3-0027.
A. K. Srivastava, J. L. Zyskind, Y. Sun, J. Ellson, G. Newsome, A. R.
Chraplyvy, J. W. Sulhoff, T. A. Strasser, C. Wolf, and J. R. Pedrazzani are with
Lucent Technologies, Bell Laboratories, Crawford Hill Laboratory, Holmdel,
NJ 07733 USA.
R. W. Tkach is with AT&T Research, Crawford Hill Laboratory, Holmdel,
NJ 07733 USA.
Publisher Item Identifier S 1041-1135(97)08540-6.
1041–1135/97$10.00  1997 IEEE
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1667
Fig. 1. Schematic representation of link control for surviving channel protec-
tion in optical networks. LCU: Link control unit. OXC: Optical cross-connect.
WSC: Wavelength selective coupler.
protection at every amplifier in the network. In this letter, we
propose and demonstrate link control, a novel scheme to pro-
tect surviving channels in optically amplified multiwavelength
networks against fast transients; all amplifiers and all channels
in a link between wavelength routing network elements are
protected by a single link control channel.
The proposed scheme illustrated in Fig. 1 protects surviv-
ing channels on a link by link basis. A control channel is
added before the first optical amplifier in a link (this will
commonly be the output amplifier of a network element).
The control channel is stripped off at the next network
element (commonly after its input amplifier) to prevent im-
proper loading of downstream links. This is easily achieved
either by addition of another filter or as a byproduct of
the filtering action of the demultiplexers commonly located
in network elements. The power of the control channel is
adjusted to hold constant the total power of the signal channels
and the control channel at the input of the first amplifier.
This will maintain constant channel loading of all EDFA’s
in the link.
The experimental demonstration of link control surviving
power protection is illustrated in Fig. 2. The outputs of seven
tunable lasers tuned to MONET channel wavelengths [2] were
combined as shown, five through a 1 8 fused fiber coupler
and the other two through a 1 2 coupler and each group was
amplified. The output of the five lasers was passed through an
acoustooptic modulator to simulate the loss and addition of
these channels and then combined with the other pair in a
2 2 coupler. The channels were then modulated at 2.5 Gb/s
using a lithium niobate modulator.
1668
Fig. 2. Experimental setup for demonstration of link control surviving
channel protection.
Fig. 3. Spectrum at link control power tap with seven signal channels and
link control channel between channels 3 and 5 (in place of channel 4).
The link control channel was then added before the first
amplifier in the link using a circulator and Bragg grating. As
the Bragg wavelength of the grating (1554 nm) coincided
closely with , the control channel was substituted for
the fourth channel. (In an actual system, the grating Bragg
wavelength might be chosen close to, but outside, the band
of signal channels so as to permit use of the full complement
of signal channels.) A portion of the total power of the signal
channels and the control channels was tapped off and detected.
A spectrum showing the signal channels and control channel
when all channels are present is shown in Fig. 3. A fast
feedback circuit with 4- s response time was used to adjust the
line control channel’s power to maintain total power constant.
The signal channels and control channel were then transmitted
through seven amplified spans of single mode fiber with at
1310 nm and passed through a bandpass filter to select channel
7, to monitor bit-error-rate (BER) performance.
Measurements were carried out in which all seven signal
channels were transmitted and in which channels 1, 2, 3, 5, 7,
and 8 were transmitted. Measurements were also carried out
in which each of these sets of channels was transmitted but the
five channels 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8 were modulated on and off with a
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IEEE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, VOL. 9, NO. 12, DECEMBER 1997
Fig. 4. BER’s measured for transmission of six and seven channels. For each
case data are also shown when channels 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8 are modulated on/off
at 1 kHz and when in addition the link control is operating.
Fig. 5. End of system power excursions due to cross saturation for surviving
channel 7 when six channels are transmitted and the other five channels are
modulated at 1 kHz. The power excursions are shown with and without the
link control surviving channel protection in operation.
period of 1 kHz. When these channels were modulated (Fig. 4)
surviving channel 7 suffers a power penalty exceeding 2 dB
and a severe BER floor for seven channel transmission (two
surviving channels) and 3-dB power penalty and an even more
severe BER floor for six-channel transmission (one surviving
channel) due to the power excursions resulting from cross
saturation induced by change in channel loading.
Finally, measurements were carried out with the control
channel operating to maintain constant power through the link.
The power transients in channel 7 with and without the control
channel in operation are shown in Fig. 5. Without control,
channel 7 suffers large power excursions which degrade the
BER performance due to self phase modulation in the trans-
mission fiber induced by substantial spectral broadening in
channel 7 compared to the case when all channels are present.
With the fast link control in operation, on the other hand, the
power excursions are mitigated and the spectral broadening
in channel 7 is eliminated. The present circuit limits the
power increase after 4 s; a faster circuit would limit the
power excursions even more effectively. Even with the present
SRIVASTAVA et al.: FAST-LINK CONTROL PROTECTION OF SURVIVING CHANNELS IN OPTICAL NETWORKS
control circuit, Channel 7 is successfully protected (see Fig. 4);
penalties are reduced to a few tenths of a decibel and the error
floors disappear.
The technique demonstrated here is fast; changes in channel
loading result in prompt changes in a link’s total power
permitting much faster detection and response than schemes
which rely on detecting the much slower changes in channel
output power, gain or ASE in individual EDFA’s (which are
much slower than the fast transients resulting from collective
effects in EDFA chains and networks). Protection on a per-
link basis rather than a per amplifier basis does not increase
the complexity of the network’s EDFA’s and is simple, less
expensive and well suited to the architecture of wavelength
routed networks.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors thank the members of the MONET Technical
Steering Team for helpful discussions.
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