CHAPTER 7

WDM CONCEPTS AND

COMPONENTS
Evolution of fiber optic
systems
Operating range of 4 key components in
the 3 different optical windows
 Wavelength Division Multiplexing
• The technology of combining a number
of wavelengths onto the same fiber is
known as Wavelength Division
Multiplexing
 Key system features of WDM
• Capacity Upgrade—to upgrade the capacity of
• existing point to point fiber optic transmission links
• Transparency– Each optical channel can carry any
• transmission format. Does not need a common signal
• structure
• Wavelength routing– works on light path concept ->
• established on the physical connection using different
• wavelengths
• Wavelength switching– Allows reconfigurations of the
• optical layer, Wavelength reuse
 Operational principles of WDM
• An optical source has a narrow linewidth . So
• optical transmission makes use of only a
• narrow portion of the transmission bandwidth
• capability of the fiber
• The low loss windows provide many
• additional operating regions
• A number of light sources each emitting at a
• different peak wavelength and sufficiently
• spaced from its neighbour can be used
 TDM and WDM in fiber optic
communications
• Multiplexing is transmission of several signals
over
• the same channel
• If there are 4 transmitters each transmitting at
• 2.5GBits/second, then in TDM the fiber has to
• carry a signal at a bit rate of 10 GBits/second
• Thus TDM increases the bit rate of a transmitted
• signal. If the number of channels are increased,
• both the MUX and the DEMUX will have to
• operate at a higher bit rate
 Wavelength Division
Multiplexing
• Several light beams at different wavelengths
• can travel over the same optical fiber without
• interference
• TDM is analogous to increasing the speed of
• moving down a highway
• WDM is analogous to adding more lanes on
• the same road.
• TDM increases the transmission in series,
• WDM uses parallel transmission
 TDM

•Combines traffic from multiple inputs onto one

common high capacity output
•Allows high flexibility in managing traffic , fixed
bandwidth
•Requires electrical mux, demux function
 WDM
• •Merges optical traffic onto one common
fiber
• •Allows high flexibility in expanding
bandwidth
• •Reduces expensive mux , demux function
 Wavelength Division
Multiplexing
• Discrete wavelengths form an orthogonal set
• of carriers that can be separated , routed,
• and switched without interfering with one
• another
• This holds as long as the optical intensity is
• kept sufficiently low to prevent non linear
• effects such as Brillouin scattering and four
• wave mixing
 TDM and WDM
• TDM and WDM supplement and
• enhance each other
• Each wavelength can carry several TDM
• channels
• TDM is restricted by the speed of the
• electronic components and is limited to
• 10 Gbits/s
 Types of WDM

• Broadband WDM uses 1300 nm and 1550

nm
• wavelengths for duplex transmission
• Narrowband WDM also called Dense
WDM is
• the multiplexing of 4, 8, … in the range of
• 1530 nm to 1610 nm with a narrow
• separation between wavelengths
 TDM

• If TDM is employed, an add drop node

• is required to extract the desired signal
• from the main data stream. The main
• data stream is at a higher bit rate while
• the individual channel operates at a
• much lower bit rate. So the main data
• stream needs to be demultiplexed to
• the bit rate of the individual channel
TDM contd…
WDM concept
 Broadcast and select in WDM

• Each node transmits signals on its wavelength to all

• its nodes
• Each node selects the desired wavelength by filtering
• the entire signal
• The WDM mux is a passive device which splits the
• signal power equally among all the nodes
• The same wavelength is picked up by all receivers. It
• is called multicast
• This system can be accessed by many nodes. So it is
• called multiaccess
Broadcast and select in WDM
 Wavelength routing

• Based on light path concept

• A light path is the temporary optical communication
• channel between two nodes
• The same wavelength can be used for different light
• paths. This is called wavelength reuse
• There is no power splitting between links of the
• network . So a wavelength routing network allows
• many more connections
• Wavelength routing also eliminates broadcasting a
• signal to unwanted receivers
Wavelength routing
 Repeaters and Amplifiers

• A repeater / regenerator accepts an

• optical signal , converts it into an
• electrical signal, makes a decision
• whether it is bit 1 or 0, generates a new
• electrical pulse converts it back into an
• optical signal and transmits the
• reshaped signal farther into the fiber
Repeater
 3 methods to regenerate a
signal
• 3R –Regeneration with retiming and reshaping
• Extracts clock information from a signal. Then the
• signal is completely reclocked and reshaped.
• Generates a new electrical signal which carries the
• same logic as the original
• 3R produces a fresh copy of the received signal
• It can work only with a specific bitrate and signal
• format. So the transmission characteristics of both
• transmitters and receivers at the ends of a fiber optic
• link are pre determined.
• It eliminates transparency to bit rates and framing
• protocols
 2R repeater

• Regeneration and reshaping without retiming

• Restrictions on the bit rate and frame format
• are not very stringent but does not work well
• at higher data rates ( a few hundred Mbps)
• This is because, without retiming, jitter
• accumulates over all the regeneration steps
• Limits the number of regeneration steps
• allowed
Optical amplifiers
Types of optical amplifiers
 Passive components

• N x N couplers with N>=2

• Power splitters
• Power taps
• Star couplers
 Couplers

• Basic star coupler concept for combining

• or splitting optical powers.
2 x 2 Fiber Coupler
2 x 2 Waveguide Coupler
Couplers
Fused biconical taper fiber
coupler
 8x8 star coupler formed by
interconnecting twelve 2x2 couplers
OADM