Towards multi-Pbps scale backbone

optical networking in support of

future 6G access networks
Dr. Ioannis Tomkos
Professor, University of Patras, Greece
Fellow IEEE, Fellow OSA, Fellow IET

Acknowledgements:
M. Nazarathy, D. Marom, R. Munoz, D. Uzunidis, K. Moschopoulos, Ch. Papapavlou, among others
Questions to be discussed (there are many answers…)
 How to improve the capabilities and performance of backbone optical networks in order to
address the increasing demands coming from maturing and emerging applications at the
5G/6G wireless/fixed access networks?
 Require new approaches in the fixed access/fronthaul networks: Coherent, SCMA-PONs, ?

 How to scale single-lane Interfaces beyond 10Tbps?

 Photonic integrated circuit-based energy-efficient all-optical transceiver subsystems

 How to scale multi-lane Optical Transmission Systems beyond multi-Petabit/s capacities?

 Capacity scaling via hybrid UWB & SDM (spectrally and spatially multiplexed) systems

 How to scale efficiently Optical Switching Nodes towards Exabits/s throughput?

 Multi-Granular Optical Nodes supporting various forms of spectral and spatial lanes
switching, utilizing a novel intermediate Wave-Band Selective Switching (“WBSS”) layer

 Targets: Achieve flexible capacity scaling with >10 Tb/s rate per interface, >10 Pb/s capacity
per link and >100 Pb/s throughput per optical node!
 How to achieve these targets with viable cost & energy per bit?
Scope: x-haul Optical infrastructure
to support end-to-end 6G networks
 The figure shows the various 6G network segments (Radio Access Network – RAN,
Front-haul, Mid-haul, Back-haul, Core Network – CN)
Edge computing Core computing
(MEC) (Cloud)
CORE NETWORK (CN)

UPF CN
RADIO ACCES NETWORK (RAN)

RU DU CU CN
Front-haul Mid-haul Back-haul

Access Router Aggregation Metro Core

(Cell site Gateway) Router Router Router

FLEX-SCALE
≥10 Tb/s Energy-Efficient
D-D DD and COH Transponders COH FLEX-SCALE COH
l ≥1 Pb/s UWB/SDM l
Fiber Links

FLEX-SCALE
≥10 Pb/s UWB/SDM
Optical Node

TRANSPORT NETWORK (TN)

 The traffic from the RAN is directed via the Front-haul to Aggregation Routers and
via the Mid-haul and Back-haul to Metro and Core IP routers, respectively.
 The IP routers interconnection is realized via the Optical Transport Network (OTN)
consisting of connections and nodes capable of Tbps speeds & Pbps throughput
Access Networks transformation
B5G/6G networks enable a suit of
new bandwidth-hungry applications
Cellular Mobile Network Generations
1G (80’s) – Analog network
2G (90’s) – Digital circuit switched network
3G (00’s) – Packet switched network
4G (10’s) – New approach (OFDM)
5G (20’s) – A Multitude of new technologies!
5G Key Characteristics:
✓ Abundance of frequency spectrum
✓ NR, MIMO, SDN, NFV, AI, …
✓ Convergence of networks (wireless & wireline)
✓ Convergence of communications & computing
✓ Leading to:
✓ >1 Gbps for high mobility users,
✓ Less than 1ms latency,
✓ Billions of connected devices (IoT)…
Key Beyond-5G Technologies

To put things into perspective, a

future beyond-5G mobile
network deployment scenario
utilizing 200-MHz carrier-
aggregated signals and 64×64
massive-MIMO requires 2.4Tbps
rate front-haul interfaces (when
using CPRI; split option-7) to
connect the RRHs with the BBUs

Springer “Handbook of Optical Networks”,

Editors: Mukherjee, B., Tomkos, I., Tornatore, M., Winzer, P., Zhao, Y.
 Key aspect of 5G is the new radio technologies being incorporated in the RAN (e.g.
new frequencies, wider spectrum bandwidths, multiple-input multiple-output
MIMO antennas, multi-band carrier aggregation, etc.; as shown at the figure).
 However, “a 5G wireless network is only as good as the fixed network it runs on”)
https://www.verizon.com/business/en-nl/resources/articles/5g-architecture/
Evolution of fixed access networks: Applications

 The Generations of the Fixed Networks, as has been the case for
the Mobile Networks, follow the needs of the end users and the
requirements of the services that are offered to them 8
Evolution of Fixed Access Networks
1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
PSTN
Early ISDN
Stand. HFC
DOCSIS
BPL BPL
HDSL
ADSL
VDSL
DSL ADSL2
ADSL2-RE
ADSL2+
VDSL2
APON
BPON
GPON
Point to Multi-Point
EPON
Fiber 10G-EPON
Passive Optical Network
XG-PON (PON) based
NG-PON2
XGS-PON

9
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
Unpublished, D. Uzunidis, Th. Chrysikos, M. Logothetis and I. Tomkos
Both Wireless & Fixed Networks evolve in
parallel and are converging towards 6G networks

o The development of the wireless and wireline telecom generations followed a different path
up to the 5th generation when the two started being closer interrelated
o The term “5G” refers to the fifth generation of wireless networks
o The term “F5G” refers to the fifth generation of wireline networks
o Working Group set by ETSI to define F5G
o This evolving convergence of fixed/wireless infrastructures, alongside with computing,
storage and sensing infrastructures will give rise to “6G”
Converged optical/radio communications &
computing infrastructures in 6G networks
Abstract 6G Architecture Model for a converged
Optical/Radio/Computing infrastructure
 Spatial-Spectral
Fronthaul resources
 … in radio domain
- RF band
- Beam
- Radio Channel
 … in Optical domain
- Cores/Fibres
- Wavelengths

 Computing resources
required at edge
Joint Allocation of Radio, Optical, and MEC Resources for 6G Fronthaul 11
T Lagkas, D Klonidis, PG Sarigiannidis, I Tomkos
IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, 2021
Are TDM/TDMA and DD the only solutions for PONs?
 TDM has been used since
the introduction of PONs
 Now used in the new
50G PON offerings
 However, it requires
burst mode receivers
that are difficult to
operate at +100Gbps
 It is also problematic in
achieving low latency

 Other Options based on

PONs/P2MP architecture are
under discussion, utilizing
coherent detection, like:
12
 Subcarrier Multiple
Access-PONs
Need for higher rates will require intro of
coherent Rx at the access FTTH & x-haul networks
 Novel low-complexity coherent systems should be introduced gradually in
fiber-based short-haul networks, in order to meet the capacity demands
due to fixed/wireless network convergence (and intra-DCI), like it happed
at the backbone counterpart segments of the network

 Cost and energy efficiency are of utmost importance!

Evolution to 100G TDM-PON

CableLabs

 After 50G PON, the next step for PON evolution is 100G, but 200G might be possible as well
(i.e. skipping an intermediate step).
 A n* 50G TWDM PON is in early stages of development at ITU-T and may be completed
in 2023, with lab trials and deployments in the 2023/2025 timeframe.
14

 CableLabs recently announced the development of a symmetric 100G Coherent PON

(“C-PON”) that offers 100Gbps per λ, at a reach of 80 km and up to a 1:512 split ratio.
Coherent will enable “λ-to-the-user” UD-WDM-PON
 The Ultra-Dense WDM-PON, (UD)-WDM-PON, solution, relying on simplified coherent
approaches, paves the way to the “wavelength-to-the-user” (WTTU) concept

“Scalable extended reach PON”

JA Lázaro, J Prat, P Chanclou,
GMT Beleffi, A Teixeira, I Tomkos;
Optical Fiber Communication
Conference, 2008

15
EC funded SARDANA project, 2009
Coherent will enable SCMA-PONs
 Subcarrier-multiple access (SCMA) PONs could reduce the latency issues of
TDM-PONs
 First proposals were based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
(OFDMA); e.g. EU project ACCORDANCE

“An OFDMA-based optical access

network exhibiting ultra-high
capacity and wireline-wireles EC funded ACCORDANCE project, 2012
convergence”, K Kanonakis, I
Tomkos, et.al.; IEEE 16

Communications Magazine, 2012

Backbone Networks transformation
Optical Transmission Systems Evolution
1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
Transmission in MMF @ 850 nm
Transmission in SMF @ 1310 nm
Transmission in SMF @ 1550 nm

Optical Amplification

Wavelength Division Multiplexing

Dispersion Management

Gain Equalization

Forward Error Correction

Advanced Modulation Formats

Advanced Fiber Designs

Full C-band Amplification

Dynamic Optical Switching

Raman/Hybrid Amplification

Coherent Transceivers
Superchannels/Flexgrid
Prob. Shaping
SDM

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

Evolution of Capacity per channel
@Commercial Systems (advanced modulation formats)
10000

1 Tb/s capacity per channel

Transported Capacity

11000
Tb/s

1st Decade: 2nd Decade: 3rd Decade: 4th Decade:

per channel

100
100 Gb/s
5th Decade:

PM-QPSK Probabilistic
10
10 Gb/s Shaping 8-QAM

NRZ NRZ

1 Gb/s1 X-pol Y-pol

Probabilistic
PM-16QAM Shaping 16-QAM

0.1
100 Mb/s
DPSK DQPSK

X-pol Y-pol
0.01
10 Mb/s
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

 10-Tb/s per channel/fiber I/O optical interfaces that may be needed before
2030, will be implemented using various combinations of higher-level
modulation formats and number of spectral/spatial channels/lanes (and 19

radical new approaches!)

 Evolution of Total Capacity per Single Fiber
10000000
100 Pb/s

10000000
10 Pb/s
Transported Capacity

1 Pb/s
1000000 100 Tb/s capacity limit for current
optical transmission technologies
100 Tb/s
100000
2nd Decade: 3rd Decade: 6th Decade:
per fiber

1st Decade: o λ: 1300/1550 nm o λ: 1550 nm o λ: 1260-1625 nm

1010000
Tb/s o λ: 850 nm o Rb: 10 Gb/s o Rb: 40 Gb/s o Rb: > 1 Tb/s
o Rb: 45 Mb/s o Nch: 1 o Nch: 40 o Nch: up to 1000
o Nch: 1 o Fiber: SMF, DSF, DFF o Fiber: SMF, MCF, FMF
1 1000
Tb/s 5th Decade:
o Fiber: MMF o Tr. Reach: 100 km o Tr. Reach: > 4000 km
o λ: 1500/1550/1600
o Tr. Reach: 10 km o MF: OOK o MF: Propab. Shaping
nm
o MF: OOK o Key Tech.: new lasers o Key Tech.: MB
100 Gb/s o Rb: up to 800 Gb/s
100 o Key Tech.: Introduction o Nch: 100+ transmission via novel
of Optical Fiber 4th Decade: amplifiers and filters,
o Fiber: SMF
o λ: 1550/1600 nm band switching, ML-
10 Gb/s o Tr. Reach: >4000 km
10 o Fiber: SMF, DSF,
o Rb: 100 Gb/s
o MF: Propab. Shaping assisted signal
o Nch: 80 processing, SDM
DFF o Key Tech.:
o Fiber: SMF exploitation
expansion of
1 Gb/s1 o Tr. Reach: 1000 km o Tr. Reach: 4000 km
coherent reception,
o MF: DPSK, DQPSK o MF: PM-QAM
o Key Tech.: WDM, o Key Tech.: full C-band
flexgrid, DSP,
Propab. Shaping
Research
100 Mb/s
0.1 optical amplifiers and amplifiers, dynamic
DCMs, new fibers, optical switching Commercial
advanced MFs
10 Mb/s
0.01
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030

Unpublished, D. Uzunidis, Th. Chrysikos, M. Logothetis and I. Tomkos

 Considering the network traffic growth rate of 40-60%/yr (depending on

application), it becomes evident that we should deploy multi-Pbps line-systems
operating on:
 i) extended wavelength-bands (UWB) eventually reaching the full-fiber
20
bandwidth of 300nm), alongside with
 ii) massive spatial multiplexing (SDM) using multiple fibers/cores/modes
Capacity Scaling approaches
 Network capacity must be increased in a flexible and
cost/energy efficient way

 Possible solutions identified:

provide capacity
 Increase spectral efficiency
increase in the
 Use the “unutilized” fibre bandwidth spectrum domain

 Install more fibres links provide capacity

increase in the
 Use multi-mode/multi-core fibres space domain

 Capacity upgrades utilizing more of the available spectrum are, so far,

preferable over any spatial-based upgrades due to cost issues
 Need to move to new bands (Ultra-Wide-Band Systems)
 However, the wavelength domain is becoming too fine granularity-level
resource compared to the growing aggregated traffic demands
 As a result, we moved to super-channel switching
 Naturally in the future, we will move to wave-bands switching, before
reaching the time that full-spectrum switching will be implemented
Single fiber I/O single lane Tbps Transceivers
 Interconnects Roadmaps in terms of bitrate
2027??
6.4T
2025?
3.2T 8l?
2023
32-QAM 1.6T 4l
2021
16-QAM 2l
800G/l
2019
QPSK 400G/l 800G/l
2019 …gets to Tb/s rates over just 2-4 ls
QPSK 200G/l
2019
100G/l

Single-l 100…800G photonic SERDES for datacenters

“Scalability Golden Rule“:

The fastest serial solution wins over parallel ones
(at same aggregate rate)!
24
Today’s Coherent Transceiver Implementation…

Tx-side upgrades with

photonics-based processing
likely to occur earlier than
Rx-side upgrades

Such upgrades will start

from short-reach networks
and will gradually expand
to backbone networks

Too costly and more importantly too much power consuming for access/intra-DCI networks!
Can we replace electronics (DACs/ADCs/DSPs) with photonic-based OSP? (Or simplify DSP?)
Today’s & Tomorrow’s Optical Transceivers
M. Nazarathy and I. Tomkos, “Accurate
Traditional Design Power-Efficient Format-Scalable Multi-
Visionary Design
Parallel Optical Digital-to-Analogue Opto-electronic circuit
Electronic Circuit Conversion,” Photonics, vol. 8, no. 2, p.
D
38, Feb. 2021
D D R
I M. Nazarathy and I. Tomkos, "‘Perfect’ o-DAC
S A V PAM4 Serial Digital-Optical Conversion,"
E
P C R
in IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, vol.
33, no. 10, pp. 475-478, 15 May15, 2021
Transceiver
Transceiver
Transmitter
Transmitter
DATA Opto- Photonic
DATA Electronic Photonic electronic Circuit
Circuit Circuit IN
IN Optical
Optical Receiver
Receiver Wave
Wave DATA Opto- Photonic
DATA Electronic Photonic electronic Circuit
Circuit Circuit OUT
OUT

I Tomkos, A Tolmachev, A Agmon, M Meltsin, T

T Nikas, M Nazarathy, “Low-cost/power coherent
D I A transceivers for intra-datacenter interconnections
A ? ? ?
S -A D and 5G fronthaul links”, IEEE ICTON, 2019
G
P C C 27

( Opto-electronic )
Electronic Circuit
oDACs Concept / State-of-the-art
 Initial efforts on oDACs has pertained to ‘Serial’ oDACs structures that are based on
partitioning the electrodes of the basic Mach-Zehnder Modulator (MZM) into segments
(i.e. Segmented Mach-Zehnder Modulator (SE-MZM).
 Each segment amounts to a 1-bit modulation gate driven by a separate binary signal.
 It is the summation of the optical phases contributed by an array of 1-bit segments along
the device that generates a multilevel output optical signal by interference of the optical
fields, at the output combiner.
M. Nazarathy and I. Tomkos, "‘Perfect’ PAM4 Serial Digital-Optical Conversion," in IEEE Photonics
Technology Letters, vol. 33, no. 10, pp. 475-478, 15 May15, 2021, doi: 10.1109/LPT.2021.3069527.

 As alternatives to the incumbent SE-MZM ‘serial’ oDACs, there have been few
demonstrations, of ‘Parallel’ oDACs, arraying in parallel a pair of 1-bit (OOK) or 2-bit (QPSK)
modulation gates.
 Prior parallel oDAC work achieved only PAM4/DD based on the use of two parallel EAMs
(a design that is not possible to be used for either higher-order mPAM DD or COH
oDACs).

 Our novel patented design ‘Multi-Parallel’ oDAC (MP-oDAC) outperforms existing

eDACs/oDACs (both our optimized “Serial” and other “Parallel” designs) in terms of
scalability/efficiency, while it also enables flexible programmable operation between
PAM (DD) or QAM (COH) of any variable constellation size (mPAM and mQAM).
M. Nazarathy and I. Tomkos, “Accurate Power-Efficient Format-Scalable Multi-Parallel Optical Digital-
to-Analogue Conversion,” Photonics, vol. 8, no. 2, p. 38, Feb. 2021, doi: 10.3390/photonics8020038
Example of our MZM 2-bit (2-paths) programmable
oDAC for 4PAM/DD (or 16QAM/COH) systems
 Our oDAC for 2-bits case is based on 2 MZMs, placed at 2-paths of the oDAC, that
act as reconfigurable 1-bit Optical Gates (OG), each driven by ePAM2|4 signals.
 The two parallel reconfigurable MZMs/1-bit OGs could function as OOK/BASK modulators
(i.e., 0 or 1) for a mode of operation generating PAM signals to be detected with Direct
Detect (DD) receivers, or as bipolar- BPSK/4PAM modulators for a mode of operation
generating QAM signals to be detected with coherent (COH) receivers .
 Operation as BASK or BPSK (to transition from PAM to QAM) is easily reconfigured by simply
adjusting the bias and the drive electrical signals of the MZMs from unipolar to bipolar.
M. Nazarathy and I. Tomkos,
“Accurate Power-Efficient
Format-Scalable Multi-Parallel
Optical Digital-to-Analogue
Conversion,” Photonics, vol. 8,
no. 2, p. 38, Feb. 2021

Use of Bipolar PAM for generating the I/Q

quadratures of QAM for COH-detection:
QAMCOH [𝑚2 ] = PAMCOH [𝑚] + 𝑗PAMCOH [𝑚]
PAM2 results from
PAM4 by turning off This simple 2-paths oDAC could be
the two inner levels
programed on-the-fly to generate
PAM-m (PAM2|4|8|16) & QAM-m2!
Flexible generation of Optical PAM-m
(PAM2|4|8|16) using the 2-paths oDAC - II
The oDAC splitter/combiners & driver parameters for each of the optical PAM2|4|8|16 signals
S-paths (either 1 or 2 bits per path) programmable
oDAC PAM (for 2S-PAM or 22S-PAM) with DD receivers
 The oDAC PIC concept, could be easily extended as shown in the figure) for
higher-rates TxRx (towards 10Tbps) of unprecedented performance!

S denotes the number of parallel paths (each

using 1-bit gates) to generate (2S- or 22S-PAM)!

where m-PAM M=2S or 22S-PAM; m=2,4,8,16,… is the

targeted PAM order

ePAM2/PAM4 conveys 1/2bits per path

 Note that proper dynamic device operation requires calibrating the amplitudes
and slowing-varying average phases of the parallel optical paths.
 The in-phase coherence of the optical paths is achieved by utilizing slow-PMs
and the AIC controller
 Flexible 4|16|64|256-QAM generator
by IQ-nesting a pair of oDACs

eDAC-less
Digital-encoder-free Uses mature PAM2/PAM4
decoupled drivers
Note: With this
approach you just need
PAM2/PAM4 drivers!

 This reconfigurable 4|16|64|256-QAM generator may be further pol/λ- multiplexed.

 Giving an extra factor of 4 increase in data-rate
 Datarate per quadrature/polarization/lambda can be doubled at any given
baudrate with the use of just PAM4 drivers;
 e.g. a next-gen 200Gbd performance effectively attained with 100Gbd PAM4 drivers.
Single-lane oDAC bit-rate capacity
 The Figure on the left shows oDAC capacity as a single standalone optical engine
(which, as discussed, may be parallelized into an oDAC-array within each
transceiver), yielding reprogrammable 128, 256, 384, 512 Gb/s per single lane,
depending on the number of bits per symbol.

 The Figure on the right compares the single (spectral or spatial) lane oDAC TRx’s
data-rate when configured for either PAM/DD or QAM/COH mode of operation.
 As an example, in the COH case, using 128GBaud electronics we can achieve
512 Gb/s per oDAC lane with bipolar 16-PAM drive option, and for a TRx
featuring four oDACs with IQ/XY-pol combining, we can generate 2Tb/s per
spectral/spatial lane.
oDAC building-blocks’ aggregation for
Spectral/Spatial Multiplexing transceivers
 The oDACs can be aggregated by several forms of multiplexing, namely spectral (UWB), spatial (SDM),
polarization, besides quadratures/polarizations (in the COH transmission case), as depicted below.

 Multi-Pb/s TRx block diagram in an UWB-SDM scenario showing arrays of UWB/SDM transceivers by
multiplexing spectral slices (Li, i=1,…,L) and spatial lanes {Nj, j=1,…N), for DD (left) or COH (right).
UWB/SDM Multi-lane oDAC TxRx capacity
 The Figure below refers to the case of UWB/SDM spectral-spatial multiplexing,
where each lane can be replicated L×N times (i.e., multiplexing degrees-of-
freedom: muxing DOF).
 To be moderate, the Figure displays only up to 8 muxing DOFs.
 The slopes of the various lines are proportional to log2m (with m being the PAM order)
generated by the oDACs, yielding the depicted number of bits per symbol.
What about the Coherent Receiver?
How to reduce its power consumption?

Our approach:
Replace Conventional Coherent with Analogue Optical SP (OSP) Coherent
I Tomkos, A Tolmachev, A Agmon, M Meltsin, T Nikas, M Nazarathy, “Low-cost/power coherent
transceivers for intra-datacenter interconnections and 5G fronthaul links”, IEEE ICTON, 2019

Duplex Fiber OUT/IN

Analog
Conventional Coherent
Digital Signal Client Data
Processor IN/OUT
Long-haul/metro Coherent: Optics (ACO)

SiliconPhotonic chip

OSP coherent: Analog

Digital Signal
(for short reach) Coherent
OSP Processor
Optics (ACO)

44
How the OSP-coherent Receiver Works?
OSP performs the following functionalities in the analog/optical domain:
 Analog Optical Carrier Phase Recovery (OPLL) - laser driver+adaptive controller
 Analog Optical Polarization Demultiplexing (OSP) - on the PIC+adaptive controller

After these operations, the four coherently recovered analog lanes

Ix, Qx, Iy, Qy, display clear PAM4 eye diagrams, detectible using conventional CDR
performing Analog Electronic Symbol Timing Recovery & 4-level slicing

Amplitude [arbitrary units]

Time [unit intervals]

Note: In short-reach applications the compensation for CD and PMD is not so demanding. These effects
are negligible at 50Gbaud, for <10 km links at 1310nm, upon the use of coherent detection.
47
The layout of an OSP PIC has been essentially
demonstrated in bits-and-pieces before
I Tomkos, A Tolmachev, A Agmon, M Meltsin, T
Nikas, M Nazarathy, “Low-cost/power coherent
transceivers for intra-datacenter interconnections
A form of integrated AOCO unit and 5G fronthaul links”, IEEE ICTON, 2019
realized in SiPho (front-end of
coherent transceiver
for longhaul/metro)

[Acacia 2016, Elenion 2017]

“COSA”
Missing ingredient till now:
Robust precise adaptive algorithm
for OSP tracking control

[Doerr et al, Bell Labs, 2010]

“AOSP”
48

48
Feasibility demo - Experimental proof-of-concept
DSP-less OSP Coherent transmission 100Gb/s per l over 2km SMF
 25.6Gbaud OSPcoherent transmission - over single l
 Transmitted: POL-DIV QPSK (NRZ signals over Ix,Qx,Iy,Qy);
 Received: QPSK constellation over the Y-POL only
 2km SMF link
 1550nm DFB laser source
 OSP based on discrete optical components:
low-speed phase modulators, MZMs, 2x2 couplers

OSP
Coherent
Hybrid

Dynamic stability, due to the intelligent PIC controller, was verified under harsh conditions
49
Ultra-Wide-Band (UWB) Systems
Ultra-Wideband transmission system elements

 Developments are required with respect to all system elements in order to

enable UWB transmission systems
 Transceivers “Investigation of mid-term network migration scenarios
comparing multi-band and multi-fiber deployments”,
 Amplifiers/Pumps B Shariati, PS Khodashenas, JM Rivas-Moscoso, S Ben-
Ezra, D Klonidis, I. Tomkos, OFC 2016
 WSSs/ROADMs
Wideband TRx and MUX/DEMUX
 Wideband transceivers:
 Wideband tunable laser or several lasers in arrays covering different spectral
windows
 Not practical to have the full range of λ-sources at every port since their number
is huge
 Use of comb-laser sources is a good approach
 Modulators and Receivers
 Appropriate modules operating at different parts of the optical spectrum are
required; something that is challenging to be addressed for the full fiber spectrum
 Techniques performing waveband conversion to convert the signals from C&L
bands to other wavelength bands may be considered

 Wideband MUX/DEMUX:
 Solutions that cover the full bandwidth are sought
 Number of ports is huge but can be reduced considering the MUX FSR properties
 Combination with band splitters/combiners may be required
UWB amplification technology options
 Bi- (or other rare-earth) doped fibre amplifiers:
 1st gen: operating window 100 nm, over O-band and in
addition to current SotA for C-L band (EDFA based) (Total
150nm to 200nm)
 2nd gen: operating window expansion >100 nm over E, part
of S band (Total ~300nm)
 Raman amplifiers:  Pumps for new wavelengths:
 Current laser sources up to
 1st gen: operating window 100nm, over O-band in addition to 1300+nm with 0.5W output
SotA work by ASTON for S-C-L band (Total 200nm) power
 2nd gen: operating window 100nm, over E-S bands with  Improving output power of
discrit solutions (Total of 300nm) single device up to 1W
(target of >0.75W)
 Develop pumps at 1350-
 Wideband SOAs: 1400nm window
 Current SotA is about 100nm around part of S,C,L band
 Need to move gain profile over 1300-1440nm and 1400-
1500nm
Amplification – Doped Fibre based

 Achievements @ 1.3 μm
Amplification – Distributed Raman based
 1st order Distributed Raman Amplification
– Seamless and flat 20dB gain >100nm bandwidth
– 5 pump wavelengths gives good compromise between gain
flatness, gain bandwidth and simplicity of design
– >12dB gain with high tolerance of input signal power
– Various Raman gain fibre available (DCF, IDF, HNLF)
SMF

WDM
signal WDM Rx

WDM pump combiner

1425 1444 1462 1476 1508

nm nm nm nm nm
Pump Pump Pump Pump Pump

Pump powers in
500mW – 20mW range
Amplification – Discrete (lumped) Raman based
 300nm Bandwidth via multiple sub-band discrete Raman amplifiers
 1st order pumping – 3 sub-bands for 300nm bandwidth
 15XX – 16XX nm band: 5 pumps in 14XX – 15XXnm range
 14XX – 15XX nm band: 5 pumps in 13XX – 14XX nm range
 13XX – 14XX nm band: 5 pumps in 12XX – 13XX nm range
 Pump powers ranging from 500mW – 20mW

 Dual 2nd & 1st order pumping 4 – 5 sub-bands for 300nm bandwidth
 11XX - 14XX nm pump lasers with 1-2W power
Switching - Wideband Optical Nodes/WSSs
 Conventional thinking: extend the capabilities of current LCoS based WSS

“Survey of photonic
switching architectures”
D. Marom, PD
Colbourne, A D’errico,
NK Fontaine, Y Ikuma,
R Proietti, I. Tomkos
JOCN, 2017

 Mature technology for C/L bands

 However, for further spectral extension, the complexity of WSSs scales with the
number of addressable spectral points (= supported bandwidth / optical resolution)
and the number of output fibre ports.
 Changes leads to larger, more complicated WSS switches.
 This makes it challenging, with the current approach, to support UWB at the same
optical resolution (increases addressable spectral points) and SDM (which requires
an increase in the fibre ports)
UWB Network planning advancements
 System modeling
 Modeling of linear and non-linear effects at different operating bands
 To identify the optimum power conditions per operating band in the
presence of other channels and determine the number of UWB channels
that can be supported
 Consider different amplifier/components characteristics per band
 Development of UWB performance evaluation tool (QTool) based on
new analytical models
 Incorporation in the Q-tool, of ML-based optimization based on
measured data

 Network modelling
 Development of algorithms to incorporate optimized physical-layer
aware resource allocation approaches for UWB networks
Space Divition Multiplexing (SDM) Systems
SDM Transmission media
Options:
• Use of SMF fiber bundles:
• Already deployed  No extra cost!
• Can be used for early SDM deployments
• Already deployed in Submarine nets
• New fiber types possible in the future for
specific use-cases:
• Reduced thickness SMF fibers
• Multi Core Fiber (MCF)
• Few Mode Fiber (FMF), or
• combinations
• All these fiber types require costly installations
but can multiply the achievable capacity with
minimal change in the occupied duct space.
Integrated spatial super-channel SDM transceivers

I
DAC Pol-X PBC
Q
DAC PBS
IQ-MZM LINE
DAC
I Q
Pol-Y
DAC
Single-carrier transceiver
DSP

MAQ61↔KSPQ
ytisnetnI Laser
rettilps BFD
ADC
rotaludom
MAQ61↔KSPQ 05/05
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ADC rotcetedotohp 05/05 LO

90

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decnalaB rettilps rotaXluUdMom BFD

ADC
rotcetedotohp
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ot
05/05
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rotcetedotohp 05/05
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Integrated spatial super-channel transceivers
Case of
Bundles of SMF
In spatial super-channel TRx,
since all sub-channels are
transmitted at the same
frequency, we do not
require frequency combs or
AWGs, and can bring the
cost down by 5-20% for
integrated spatial Sp-Ch TRx
with 8-10 Sb-Chs vs. a
spectral Sp-Ch TRx .

Splitters Laser LINE OUT - MIMO DSP is not required

LO for bundles of SMFs, but it
will increase the cost in
other SDM cases
LINE IN

The cost of the DSP chip is a significant part of the transceiver cost, so we have to find
ways to reduce it. For instance, frequency and phase estimation modules can be shared
among spatial sub-channels resulting in reduced complexity, power consumption, and cost
[Ref] M. D. Feuer et al, “Joint digital signal processing receivers for spatial superchannels”, IEEE PTL, 24(21), 2012.
Integrated SDM Amplifiers
▪ Various schemes for SDM Amplifiers have been explored:
• core pumping using individual single-mode pump diodes,
• shared pump, and
• cladding-pumping using a single high power (over 1 W) multimode pump laser diode.

Based on available component cost values,

the cost of spatially-integrated EDFA for a
bundle of 9 SMFs, is estimated to be about
3.3 times the cost of a conventional EDFA.
[Ref] Y. Jung et al, OFC 2016, Workshop M1E.
Spacial-Spectral flexible channel allocation concept
(INSPACE project)
Degrees of Flexibility
Modes/Cores f

f Modes
or
f Cores
Wavelengths f

f
Data rate
(Modulation level)
: end-to-end allocated channel “A tutorial on the flexible optical
networking paradigm”;
N is the channel number (=7 in this example)
N-WDM I Tomkos, S Azodolmolky, J
(a) (N-1)/T
(b)
(N-1)/2T
or Pareta, D Careglio, E Palkopoulou
SMF- Proceedings of the IEEE, 2014
Bundle Fibre OFDM
,
Frequency Frequency

or Conventional optical OFDM Optical fast OFDM

or “Spatial expansion of the spectrum
Mode over multiple modes/cores/fibers
FMF ,Core
SC-M-QAM
or and therefore definition of a super-
MCF channel over two dimensions
(instead of the spectrum only
dimension)”
• Channels with flexible capacity can be allocated over:
– one or few modes/multi cores
– occupying a single or multiple spectral slots
Switching classification in support of the
spatial-spectral switching/allocation options

Independent channel switching Spatial channel joint switching

Spectral channel switching Fractional switching of spatial subgroups

* D. M. Marom et al.,''Switching Solutions for WDM-SDM Optical Networks'', IEEE Comm. Mag. 53, 60-68 (2015)
SDM Switching Strategies
 Independent switching (Ind-Sw)
 All spectral slices and spatial modes/cores can be independently directed to
any output port
 Works only for limited SDM transmission media!
[Ref] D. Marom et al, IEEE. Commun. Mag., 53(2), Feb 2015.

spatial group-switching

 Joint switching (J-Sw)

 All spatial modes/cores are treated as a single entity, while spectral
slices can be freely switched by WSSs

 Fractional-joint switching (FrJ-Sw)

 A kind of hybrid approach in which a number of subgroups of G spatial
modes/cores, as well as all spectral slices, can be independently
switched to all output ports
Operation of SDM switching approaches
North

West J-Sw
Ind-Sw
FrJ-Sw East

Comparison of Spectral and Spatial Super-

channel Allocation Schemes for SDM
NetworksPS Khodasenas, JM Rivas-Moscoso,
D Siracusa, F Pederzolli, B Shariati, I. Tomkos
Journal of Lightwave Technology, 2016

South
 1st and 2nd generation SDM submarine
networks are already deployed or announced!

“Towards SDM-based
submarine optical
networks”, Ch.Papapavlou,
K. Paximadis, D. Uzunidis
and I. Tomkos; “pump farming” technique
Telecom Journal, 2022

 Blue and red dots represent non-SDM vs SDM cable systems. Orange dots
represent multiband (C + L) cable systems.
 SDM systems are divided in two categories: the SDM systems using a high-
count of parallel Fiber Pairs (FPs) in the same cable (1st gen) and SDM
systems using “pump farming” (2nd gen) Pumping methods for MC-EDFA
How to effectively combine
UWB & SDM Systems
How to scale optical transmission and switching systems
beyond multi-Petabit/s capacities in core networks?
Solution: optimum combination of UWB & SDM in Multi-Band/Multi-Rail optical networks

See also: “Solving for Scalability From Multi-Band

to Multi-Rail Core Networks”, R Schmogrow
*Google); Journal of Lightwave Technology, 2022
How to combine UWB & SDM switching to scale
optical networks towards multi-Petabit/s throughput?
 What prevents us from scaling Dynamic traffic
existing optical switching management at
band level
architectures?
 Limited capabilities of current WSS
technology
OXC level to
 Cost!... manage
add/drops and
legacy interfaces
 Solution(s)?
 Introduce a novel Multi-Granular Node
architecture (MG-ON) that can switch Legacy DWDM
data at variable granularity that traffic handled
by free-space
results in optimum cost/power based WSS
consumption for a given network
“Survey of photonic switching architectures”
 Introduction of a new network D. Marom, PD Colbourne, A D’errico, NK

element is required! WBSS

Fontaine, Y Ikuma, R Proietti, I. Tomkos
JOCN, 2017
WBSS(subsystem): The “missing link”…
 The novel Pbps UWB/SDM optical node should be based on a multi-
granular node architecture (MG-ON) supporting flexible:
 A) spectral-lane switching of:
i. spectral super-channels,
ii. wavebands (e.g., C or/and L or/and S and everything in-between) and
iii. full-spectrum switching of an individual spatial lane (i.e. core or/and mode),
 B) spatial lane switching of: We envision PIC SiN-based chip-
i. independently switched, scale UWB and fast Wave-band
SSs (WBSSs) of large port scale
ii. fractionally-joint switched and (e.g., 1×24 or higher), to be the
iii. joint switched spatial super-channels successor of WSSs!

 Several subsystems and technologies are available to implement such a

novel optical switching node, but the “missing-link” bridging the gap
from today’s super-channel switching to the far-future’s full-spectrum
fibre switching, is a WBSS subsystem that can support flexible
reconfigurable switching of Ultra-Wide wavebands.
Example Three-Band 1×N Fast WBSS functionality
(for fixed size bands; it can be variable)
 The WBSS should support switching of widebands
flexibly defined (variable size) across its broad
bandwidth.
 Its filtering function is not that of a demultiplexer, not even a
flexible channel demux, but that of an adaptive filtering
stage that supports the options of two or even all bands being
destined to the same output.

 Possible filtering options are depicted in the Figure, with

the three outputs labelled A-C.
 Note that permutations between these intermediate filter
outputs are not required to be supported, as these outputs
could be subsequently fed to the 3×N crossbar switch
implemented on the same PIC, that sends the separated
wavebands to the actual output fibre ports.

 Hence these contiguous bands can be thought of as a

single ultrawide band channel. When all bandwidth is
destined to one port, the WBSS supports whole spectrum
utilization and switching, effectively functioning as a 1×N
space switch and can route complete fibre content.
 Note that WaveBands cab be flexible in sizing
PIC-based WBSS implementation
 Functional form of WBSS, compatible with PIC building blocks  Key attributes:
 Entire chip is effectively
implemented with many MZI
units (filters and switches).
 Band selection achieved
with tunable lattice filters.
 Large FSR makes MZI length
differences minimal, reducing
 Conceptual chip layout of WBSS, with two cascaded FIR lattice filters, size.
highlighted, followed by 3×N crossbar (shown N=8).  Crossbar scales to high drop
port count.
 SiN well matched for this
application (low loss, pol
indep.) and provides UWB
operation
 Phase modulators can be fast
(ms-scale) using piezo effect.
 Mature technology, already
commercially deployed.
SDM control of UWB & SDM Systems
Multi-layer Multi-Segment UWB/SDM Resource Allocation
 Novel Multi-layer Resource Allocation algorithms need to be developed to addresses
the management challenge of high-capacity, UWB+SDM transmission & switching
SDN Control of the SDM/UWB based network
 An efficient SDN control system needs to be developed for the proposed
optical transport network that will optimize the joint management of packet
flows and optical channels with the goal to reduce the energy consumption
while maintaining a low blocking probability under dynamic.
 Various monitoring methods can be implemented to collect data and improve the
performance
 Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) algorithms can utilize the
collected data to predict performance and failures with high reliability or/and
open new opportunities in network operation by providing enhanced accuracy of
Quality of Transmission (QoT) models in future UWB/SDM networks
Summary
 Discussed the evolution of x-haul towards the 6th Generation of networks
 Emerging applications that need to be served

 Presented novel Photonics-based all optical transceiver subsystems

 eDAC-free Transmitters & eADC/DSP-free (coherent) Receiver for advanced modulation formats

 Discussed Capacity scaling of Optical Transmission systems via UWB & SDM
approaches
 Capacity increase employing a greater number of spectral/spatial lanes

 Introduced Ultra-high-capacity Optical Switching nodes supporting UWB & SDM

 Throughput increase relying on UWB spectral (super-channels/wavebands-spectrum
switching with WBSSs) & SDM spatial switching (modes/cores/fibers)

Acknowledgements:
M. Nazarathy, D. Marom, R. Munoz, D. Uzunidis, K. Moschopoulos, K. Paximadis, among others.
 Edge computing Core computing
(MEC) (Cloud)
CORE NETWORK (CN)

UPF CN
RADIO ACCES NETWORK (RAN)

RU DU CU CN
Front-haul Mid-haul Back-haul

Access Router Aggregation Metro Core

(Cell site Gateway) Router Router Router

FLEX-SCALE
≥10 Tb/s Energy-Efficient
D-D DD and COH Transponders COH FLEX-SCALE COH
l ≥1 Pb/s UWB/SDM l
Fiber Links

FLEX-SCALE
≥10 Pb/s UWB/SDM
Optical Node

TRANSPORT NETWORK (TN)

Thank you for your attention!

Prof. Ioannis Tomkos

email: itom@ece.upatras.gr

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-ioannis-tomkos-086b102/