WDM

Piotr Turowicz
Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center

piotrek@man.poznan.pl

9-10 October 2006

1
 Agenda

Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing

– The traditional and emerging challenges
– How does DWDM work?
– What are the enabling technologies?
– The evolution of optical fibres

2
 Optical Networking Challenges

Traditional Challenges

Faster

Further

More Wavelengths

3
 Optical Networking Challenges

Traditional Challenges Emerging Challenges

Access
Faster
(FTTN, FTTC, FTTH)

Further Switching

More Wavelengths Muxing

4
 What is a Wavelength Mux?

Tributaries are sent in their own timeslots

Time
Division
Mux

5
 What is a Wavelength Mux?

Tributaries are sent in their own timeslots

Time
Division
Mux
Tributaries are buffered and sent when
capacity is available

Statistic
al Mux

6
 What is a Wavelength Mux?

Electrical inputs
Tributaries are sent in their own timeslots

Time
Division
Mux
Tributaries are buffered and sent when
capacity is available

Statistic
al Mux

Tributaries are sent over the same fibre,

but at different wavelengths

Wavelength
Division Mux

Tributaries may arrive on different

fibres, and at "grey" wavelengths 7
 Early WDM Deployment

• Two transmission
wavelengths, most
common...
 1310nm
 1550nm
• Coupler used to
combine streams into
the fibre
• Splitter (another coupler)
and filters used to
separate and detect
specific streams
8
 Dense WDM

How many
channels?

• Many more than 2 channels!

• Initial ITU Grid allows 32 channels with 100GHz Spacing
• Proprietary systems with up to 160 channels are
currently available as slideware

Be very, very careful regarding manufacturer claims!

(c.f. Never ask a barber if he thinks you need a haircut)
9
 Question...

Why don't the streams

on different wavelengths
get "mixed up"?

10
 Dense WDM:
ITU Channel Spacing

0.6

1530

1535

1540

1545

1550

1555

1560

1565
1525
0.5
Attenuation (dB/km)

0.4 ITU Channel

Spacing 100GHz
(Currently)
0.3

0.2

0.1
1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700
Wavelength (nm) 11
 A Basic Answer

• Light is sent into the fibre on a very narrow range of

wavelengths…
 A typical DFB laser peak width is ~10MHz (~1pm at 1500nm)
• Different channels are spaced so that they don't "overlap"
 In this context, "overlap" implies a power coupling (ie. interference)
between one channel and its neighbours
 Typical spacing "rule of thumb"…take the transmission rate in Gbps,
multiply by 2.5, and you have the minimum channel spacing in GHz
(eg. 100GHz at 40Gbps)
 Another "rule of thumb": each time you double the transmission rate
or the number of channels, an additional 3dB of transmission budget
is needed
• Need to know the range of available wavelengths in the fibre
12
 DWDM Channel Spacing

• Must have enough channel spacing to prevent

interaction at a given transmission rate…
 40Gbps 100GHz
 10Gbps 25GHz
 2.5Gbps 6GHz
• Must test lasers from large batch, ensure temperature
stability, and include margins for component ageing
• Total range of wavelengths must be able to be
consistently and reliably amplified by EDFA
 "Accepted" EDFA range is 1530 to 1565 nm (C-band)
• Must be aware of fibre limitations (see later)

13
 Why (and Where) DWDM?

• DWDM increases capacity on a given point to point link

Bandwidth is multiplied by factor of 4, 8, 16 etc.
• Typical 1st generation DWDM is deployed in point to
point topologies, over long-haul distances
• In Metro installations, there is an active debate between
mesh and ring-based topologies
• Economics of Metro DWDM are not clear-cut
Often is cheaper to deploy more fibre

These markets are…

 Changing rapidly
 Are sensitive to nature of installed fibre
…more later!
 Are very sensitive to disruptive technologies
14
 DWDM Enabling Technologies

• The notion of "Service Transparency"

• Laser sources
• Receivers
• Tuneable filters
• Fibre gratings
• Modulation and Modulators
• Wavelength couplers and demuxers
• Optical amplifiers
• Points of flexibility
Optical Cross-Connect (OXC)
Optical Add-Drop Mux (OADM)
15
 Service Transparency

• Each Lambda can carry any serial digital service

for which it has an appropriate physical interface
 SONET/SDH
Which can be carrying ATM, PoS and other services
 ESCON
 c.f. SCSI, which is a parallel communication channel
(parallel to serial converters are available for SCSI)
 Fast/Gigabit Ethernet
• Each channel can be transmitting at different rates
16
 Why Lasers?

• Lasers in general...
 High power output (compared to beam diameter)
 Narrow transmission spectrum
 High spatial quality beam (diffraction limited)
 Well-defined polarisation state
• Semiconductor lasers
 Small Size
To improve efficiency with fibre coupling
To allow high density port counts
 Industrial scale production
Needs lots of them!

17
A Basic Semiconductor Laser

Reflective coating

Partially
reflective
coating

18
 How Do Lasers Work?

"High"
Energy energy Electrons exist in a stable "low" energy
absorbed level state until we pump in energy to promote
(pump) them to a higher state

"Low"
energy
level
Electron
"High"
Energy energy
emitted level

High energy state is unstable and electron "Low"

will soon decay back to the low energy energy
state, giving out a characteristic level of level
energy in the process Electron

Characteristic
energy
19

Containment
Reflective
Surface
Electrodes
Atom in "high" energy state
Photon of characteristic energy
Atom in "low" energy state
A Laser Cavity
Layer Gain Medium Reflective
Surface
Atom will emit photon and
return to "low" energy state.
The emitted photon has
exactly the right energy to
stimulate emission in the
other high energy atoms
Photons that travel parallel to
sides of resonant cavity are
returned to stimulate further
emissions
20
 Tuneable Lasers
What and Why?

• The ability to select the output wavelength of the laser…

 The primary sources are fixed wavelength

• What happens if one of these lasers fails?

 How many backup lasers would we need?
 What is the range of wavelengths over which we need to
operate?
• We could use one tuneable laser to back up all of the
primary sources
21
 Tuneable Lasers
What and Why?
• There are three parameters that we
trade-off in a tuneable laser…
 Tuning range (goal 35nm)
 Power output (goal 10mW)
 Settling latency (app. specific)

• Tunable lasers with a "slow" settling

speed can be used in service
Module 9831L Tuning Comb; Superimposed Spectra

-5

restoration applications
-10

-15

-20

Output (dB rel.)

-25

-30

-35

• Tunable laser with a "fast" settling

-40

-45

-50

speed can also be used in next

-55

-60
1525 1530 1535 1540 1545 1550 1555 1560 1565 1570 1575
Wavelength (nm)

generation optical switching designs

22
 Signal Modulation

• Notion of imposing a digital signal on a carrier wave

 Amplitude Modulation
 Frequency Modulation
 Phase Modulation
• In Optical Communications, typically Amplitude
Modulation
 NRZ and RZ encoding
• Directly modulated lasers
• Externally modulated lasers

23
 Modulation Schemes

• NRZ: non-return to zero

 Most common modulation Signal
1 1 1
scheme for short-medium-
long haul
0 0 0

• RZ: return to zero Signal

1 1 1
 Ultra-long haul
0 0 0

24
 A Traditional Optical Repeater

•High speed electrical components

High cost, lower reliability
•Single wavelength operation
•Regenerator will make amplifier rate-specific

This system is not Service-Transparent!

25
 OEO Amps in a DWDM System

~40km
TX Amp RX
TX Amp RX
TX Amp RX

RX Amp TX
RX Amp TX
RX Amp TX

26
 Solution:
Broadband, All-Optical Amplifier

•Single amplifier for multiple wavelengths

•No electrical components
Cheaper, more reliable, not rate-dependent

Gain element

27
 The EDFA
What is "Erbium Doped"?

• Fibre is "doped" with the element Erbium

 Controlled level of Erbium introduced into silica core
and cladding

Cladding

Core

28
 The EDFA
How Does It Work?

• Energy is "pumped" into the fibre

using a pump laser operating at
980nm
• Erbium acts as lasing medium,
energy transferred to signal
• Not specific to wavelength
(operates in the EDFA Window)
• Not specific to transmission rate

29
 The EDFA
How Does It Work?

30
 The EDFA Window
Region of "flat gain"
5

4 EDFA Window: 1530-1565nm

Attenuation (dB/km)

- -
2 OH OH

-
1 OH

0
700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700
First window
Wavelength (nm) Second window
Third window
Fourth window
31
Fifth window
CWDM

32
 CWDM

Coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM)

is a method of combining multiple signals on laser beams at
various wavelenghts for transmission along fiber optic cables,
such that the number of chanels is fewer than in dense
wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) but more than in
standard wavelength division multiplexing (WDM).

33
 CWDM

CWDM systems have channels at wavelengths spaced 20 nanometers

apart, compared with 0.4 nm spacing for DWDM. This allows the use of
low-cost, uncooled lasers for CWDM.
In a typical CWDM system, laser emissions occur on eight channels at
eight defined wavelengths:
1610 nm, 1590 nm, 1570 nm, 1550 nm, 1530 nm, 1510 nm, 1490 nm, 1470 nm.

But up to 18 different channels are allowed, with wavelengths ranging down

to 1270 nm

34
CWDM

35
CWDM

36
 CWDM

System CWDM
Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing

37
 CWDM

System CWDM
Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing

38
 The Evolution of Fibre

• Fibre properties
 Attenuation
 Dispersion
 Non-linearlity
• Fibre Evolution
 Dispersion-Unshifted Fibre (USF)
 Dispersion-Shifted Fibre (DSF)
 Non-Zero Dispersion-Shifted Fibre (NZDF)
 Emerging fibre types
• Soliton Dispersion Management

39
 Optical Fibre Properties

Traditional Challenges Fibre Properties

 Attenuation
Faster  Modal Dispersion
 Chromatic Dispersion
 Polarisation Mode
Further Dispersion
 Non-linearity
» Self-phase modulation
More Wavelengths » Cross-phase
modulation
» 4-wave mixing

40
 Fibre Optic Properties
Signal Attenuation
5

4 ~190THz
Attenuation (dB/km)

1 ~50THz
3

- -
2 OH OH
2 5 3 4
-
1 OH

0
700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700
First window
Wavelength (nm) Second window
Third window
Fourth window 41
Fifth window
 Fibre Optic Properties
Modal Dispersion

• In multimode cable, different

modes travel at different
speeds down the fibre
 Result: signal is "smeared"
 Solution: single mode fibre

Signal in Signal out

42
 Fibre Optic Properties
Chromatic Dispersion
Different wavelengths travel at
different speeds down the cable
 Result: signal is "smeared"
 Solution: narrow spectrum lasers
 Solution: avoid modulation chirp
 Solution: dispersion management

Signal in Signal out

43
 Fibre Optic Properties
Polarisation Mode Dispersion
Different polarisation components travel at different speeds
down the cable
 Result: signal is "smeared"
 Solution: design and installation experience, good test equipment

Pulses start journey in phase

Fast PMD delay time

Slow After travelling down

fibre, pulses are now
44
out of phase
 Fibre Optic Properties
Non-Linear Effects

• Self Phase Modulation

• Cross Phase Modulation
• 4-Wave Mixing

Effects are "triggered" when

power level of signal exceeds a
certain threshold

45
 Self Phase Modulation (SPM)

• Non-linear effect
• Occurs in single and multi
Spectral
wavelength systems broadening
 In DWDM system, SPM will
occur within a single 
wavelength
• Two main effects…
 Spectral broadening

Intensity
 Pulse compression
• Solution is positive
dispersion in signal path
Time
46
 Cross-Phase Modulation (XPM)

• Pulses in adjacent WDM

channels exchange power
 ie. only happens in multi-
channel systems
• Primary effect is spectral
broadening
• Combined with high
dispersion, will produce
temporal broadening
• Low levels of positive 
dispersion will help prevent
inter-channel coupling
47
 Four Wave Mixing

Case 1: Intensity modulation between two primary channels

at beat frequency
Result is two "phantom" wavelengths

fp fq fr

2f1-f2 f1 f2 2f2-f1 fF

Case 2: Interaction of three primary frequencies

Result is a "phantom" fourth wavelength
fF = fp + fq - fr
48
 Fibre Evolution
1st Generation: USF
20
0.5

1310nm 1550nm 10

Dispersion (ps/nm-km)
Attenuation (dB/km)

0.4
0

0.3
-10

0.2 Dispersion
-20
USF
1300 1400 1500 1600
Wavelength (nm)

Attenuation 49
 Fibre Evolution
2nd Generation: DSF
20
0.5

1310nm 1550nm 10

Dispersion (ps/nm-km)
Attenuation (dB/km)

0.4
0

0.3
-10

0.2 Dispersion
-20
USF
1300 1400 1500 1600
Wavelength (nm) DSF

Attenuation 50
 Fibre Evolution
3nd Generation: NZDSF
20
0.5

1310nm 1550nm 10

Dispersion (ps/nm-km)
Attenuation (dB/km)

0.4
0

0.3
-10

0.2 Dispersion
-20
USF
1300 1400 1500 1600
Wavelength (nm) DSF
NZDF

Attenuation 51
 Next Generation Fibres...

• Remove OH- interaction to open 5th window

 Example: Lucent "All Wave" Fibre

• Minimise intrinsic PMD during manufacture

 PMD is the "2.5Gbps speed bump"
 Example: Corning LEAF
 PMD is very dependent on installation stresses

• Reduce loss at higher wavelengths (>1600nm)

 Selctive doping using chalcogenides
(Group VI elements)
 Fibre bend radius becomes significant

52
 References

Reichle & De-Massari

http://www.porta- 53
optica.org