WDM COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

Simulation and Design using OptiSystem

© 2008 Optiwave Sysstems, Inc.

 Outline
• A basic WDM system
• Design parameters to consider
• Loss and gain
• Signal to noise ratio
• Dispersion and dispersion compensation schemes
• Fiber nonlinearities
 types

 interplay with dispersion / advantageous nonlinearities

 strategies for their control

• Summary
A Basic WDM System
 Design Parameters
Bit rate Parameters System limitation

2.5 Gbps Loss, chromatic • Loss limited without

(Point to Point) dispersion transmit amplifier
• Dispersion limited with
transmit amplifiers
2.5 Gbps Loss, chromatic • Chromatic dispersion
(Optical link with optical dispersion, optical signal without dispersion
amplifiers) to noise ration (OSNR) compensation
• OSNR with dispersion
compensation
2.5 Gbps Loss, chromatic • OSNR with dispersion
(Optical link with optical dispersion, OSNR, four compensation
amplifiers + WDM) wave mixing (FWM)
10 Gbps Loss, chromatic • OSNR limited
(Optical link with optical dispersion, OSNR, FWM, • Eye distortion limited
amplifiers + WDM) SPM, SPM, PMD
 Parameters to Consider

• Loss/gain
• Optical signal to noise ratio
• Dispersion
• Fiber nonlinearities
– Self phase modulation (SPM)
– Cross phase modulation (XPM)
– Four wave mixing (FWM)
– Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS)
– Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS)
• Polarization effects
 Loss and Loss Compensation

Single channel Multi channel

• Fiber loss • Fiber loss
– Constant – Ȝ dependent
• Splice loss • Splice loss
• Connector loss • Connector loss
• Component loss • Component loss
– Well defined – May have Ȝ dependence
• Optical amplifiers • Optical amplifiers
– Gain depends on input – Gain is highly Ȝ dependent
power and Ȝ – Gain tilt depends on input power
– Output power depends – Gain at a certain Ȝ depends on
on input power and Ȝ input powers of other channels
 Fiber loss
Loss (dB/km)

Old
AllWave
1 Standard

0.1
1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
μm)
Wavelength (μ

Low loss windows:

Δλ∼80 nm at 1.3 μm
0.8 micron
~180 nm at 1.55 μm (Δf~35 THz)
1.3 micron
1.55 micron (~0.25 dB/km) Δf ~ (c/λ2)Δλ
 Typical Values
Description Loss value
Loss of a connector 0.25 dB
Loss of a splice 0.15 dB
Loss of the fiber span 0.25 dB/km
Loss of a multiplexer 4 dB
Loss of a demultiplexer 4 dB

Description Receiver Sensitivity

2.5 Gbps pin diode receiver sensitivity -23 dBm
10 Gbps pin diode receiver sensitivity -16 dBm
2.5 Gbps APD receiver sensitivity -38 dBm
10 Gbps APD receiver sensitivity -30 dBm

State of the art bandwidths

75 nm, 18 dB gain +/- 1.5 dB EDFA and
Raman
76 nm, 20 dB gain, +/- 1 dB Tellurite
EDFA
92 nm transparent bandwidth Raman
 EDFA Gain
8 channels
Pin

two cascaded
Pin = -13 dBm amplifiers

one amplifier

Pin = 0 dBm

Pin = 8 dBm

For all cases NF ≈ 4 dB

• Gain and gain tilt depend on • Effect of cascading

input power amplifiers
System Performance, 8 Channels

Gain variation
~ 4 dB
signal power 3 dBm/ch
Loss = 18 dB

BR = 2.5 Gbps
 Signal to Noise Ratio
Pout
• Accumulates SNRo ≈
• Different sources F × G × h × f × Δf × N amp
– Thermal hf: photon energy
– Shot noise
F: noise figure
– Optical amplifier noise
• Signal-spontaneous Δf: bandwidth
– Dominant effect
• Spontaneous- Namp: number of amplifiers
spontaneous
G: amplifier gain, assumed
• For multi-channel
equal to span loss
system consider
Values at the receiver:
– Ȝ dependence of NF
- 40-50 dB is good
– X-talk as noise source
- 30 dB is acceptable
Group Velocity (chromatic) Dispersion
• GVD leads to pulse
broadening

Single-channel
• Transmitter and receiver
dispersion tolerance
• Placement of dispersion
compensator Multi-channel
– Pre • Fiber dispersion slope
– Post – Net dispersion for
– Symmetrical different channels
• Accumulated net dispersion • Wavelength dependence of
• Nonlinear effects compensation element
 Fiber Dispersion Values

• In the Erbium window, fibers have different dispersion values and

slopes, which heightens the dispersion-compensation challenge

•J. Lively, “Dealing with the critical problem of chromatic dispersion”, Lightwave, September 1998.
 GVD limited Tx Distance
• Direct modulated DFB lasers 1
L<
4B D σ λ

For D=16 ps/(km-nm) rms spectral width, a typical

at 2.5 Gbps, L~ 42 km value is about 0.15 nm
2π c
• Externally modulated source L<
16 D λ 2 B 2
For D=16 ps/(km-nm)
at 2.5 Gbps, L~ 500 km
at 10 Gbps, L~ 30 km

•G. P. Agrawal, Applications of nonlinear fiber optics, Academic Press, 2001.

•R. Ramaswami and K. N. Sivarajan, Optical Networks: A practical Perspective, Morgan
Kaufmann, 1998.
 Dispersion Compensators
• Dispersion compensating fiber
(DCF)
– Uses large negative dispersion in 1.5
micrometer window
– Small effective area leading low
nonlinear power threshold
– Dispersion slope does not match with
that of transmission fiber
• Gratings
– Uses wavelength dependent reflective
delay
– Low insertion loss
– Dispersion slope can be written on
grating
– Nonlinear power threshold is same as
transmission fiber
– Phase response is not smooth

•J. Lively, “Dealing with the critical problem of chromatic dispersion”, Lightwave, September 1998.
Nonlinear Dispersion Compensation

•Illustrated later ( see “SPM + Dispersion…”,

slides # 32-34
 Dispersion Compensation Example
8 channels
100 GHz (0.8 nm) separation
10 Gbps bit rate

6 span

SMF DCF
90 km 19.6 km
D = 17 ps/nm/km at 1545 nm, D = -80 ps/nm/km at 1545 nm
S = 0.09 ps/nm2/km S = -0.15 ps/nm2/km
 DCF Calculation
Ch 1: 192.8 THz Ch 4: 193.1 THz Ch 8: 193.5 THz

SMF D = 17.89 ps/nm/km D = 17.67 ps/nm/km D = 17.38 ps/nm/km

90 km TD/span = 1610.5 ps/nm TD/span = 1590.9 TD/span = 1564.9
D = 17 ps/nm/km at ps/nm ps/nm
1545 nm
S = 0.09 ps/nm2/km

DCF D = -81.49 ps/nm/km D = -81.12 ps/nm/km D = -80.64 ps/nm/km

19.6 km TD/span = -1597.22 ps/nm TD/span = -1590.9 TD/span = -1580.6
D = -80 ps/nm/km at ps/nm ps/nm
1545 nm
S = -0.15 ps/nm2/km

Residual 80 ps/nm 0 -94 ps/nm

• OC-48 direct mod CD tolerance: ~1500 ps/nm

• OC-192 external mod without pre-chirp: ~600 ps/nm
• OC-192 external mod with pre-chirp: from 0 to 1500 ps/nm
 Simulation results for 8 channel system
-4 -4 dBm -3 dBm
x 10
ch 1
ch 4
ch 8 ch 1
2
Eye height (a.u.)

1.5

ch 4
1

0.5

-14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 ch 8

Received signal power (dBm)

Without dispersion compensation

 Dispersion compensation schemes

pre post

symmetrical

•M. I. Hayee and A. E. Willner, PTL 9, pp. 1271, 1997.

•Sebastian Biga et. al., PTL 11, pp. 605, 1999.
•Giovanni Bellotti et. al., PTL 11, pp.824, 1999.
 Simulation results
Bit rate = 2.5 Gbps post pre symmetrical

post/symmetrical

pre

Bit rate = 10 Gbps

Symmetrical compensation is the best

Simulation results with post-compensation
Higher powers
D = 16 and -80 D=0
11
Bit rate = 2.5 Gbps

22

22
11

33 33
Simulation results with post-compensation
Higher powers and higher bit rate
11
Bit rate = 10 Gbps

22
22
33
11

33
Dispersion compensation with FBG

SMF
100 km
L = 0.2 dB/km
D = 16 ps/nm/km
Aeff = 72 micron-square
Dispersion compensation with FBG

22 11
33

22

11

Bit rate = 10 Gbps 33

 Fiber nonlinearities
Single channel Multi channel

Related to the real part of Self phase modulation Cross phase modulation
the refractive index (SPM) (XPM)
Four wave mixing (FWM)
Related to the imaginary Stimulated Brillouin Stimulated Raman
part of the refractive scattering (SBS) scattering (SRS)
index

linear

nonlinear

Q factor verses launch power SNR verses launch power

 Self phase modulation
• SPM effects are negligible when P0 < α γ
• γ = n2ω 0 cA [W −1km −1 ]
eff
−1 −1
• For the fiber we used γ ≈ 1.5 W km
• SPM effects can be negligible when the pick power is
below 166 mW or 18 dBm average power
• If you use N A amplifiers along the link, the criteria
becomes P0 < α (γ N A ) . If you use two amplifiers along
the link, the maximum allowable power before the
nonlinearity becomes effective decreases by 3 dB
• Dispersion management using DCF can reduce SPM
 Self phase modulation
•Quite different scenarios if acting alone
•…or coupled with dispersion.
•The combination of SPM+Dispersion causes two
interesting phenomena with many consequences for real
transmission systems:
 Modulation instability
 Solitons

• Even when the system operates far from these “pure”

extreme cases, the presence of nonlinearity alters
strongly the dispersive signal propagation and vice versa.
 SPM, no Dispersion, L=15 km

Input spectrum P = 20 dBm Output spectrum P = 20 dBm Output spectrum P = 23 dBm

Output spectrum P = 26 dBm Output spectrum P = 29 dBm

 SPM + Dispersion + CW Input =
Modulation Instability

•L= 15+15 km
•DSF, D=0.16 ps/nm/km
•Input CW power P = 19 dBm
•Inline amplifier after the first 15 km span

“Optical Fiber Telecommunications IIIa”, ed. by I. Kaminov and T. Koch, chapter

“Fiber Nonlinearities and Their Impact on Transmission Systems” by F. Forghieri, R.
Tkach and A. Chraplyvy
 SPM + Dispersion + CW Input =
Modulation Instability
L=0 km L=15 km L=30 km

Spectra

Time Domain
Waveforms L=15 km L=30 km
SPM + Dispersion + Sech Input =
Solitons
•Multi-color solitons

• Δν = 1 THz, ΔτFWHM = 10 ps
•25 km SMF
 SPM + Dispersion + Arbitrary Input
D>0
•Nonlinear Dispersion Compensation ( nonl. pulse compression)
•Negative power penalties

D<0
•Additional pulse broadening
•Positive power penalties

“Optical Fiber Telecommunications IIIa”, ed. by I. Kaminov and T. Koch, chapter

“Fiber Nonlinearities and Their Impact on Transmission Systems” by F. Forghieri, R.
Tkach and A. Chraplyvy
 SPM + Dispersion + (D>0) =
Nonlinear Dispersion Compensation
|D| = 2.27 ps/km/km
(NZDSF)
L = 145 km
B = 10 Gb/s, NRZ

P0 = 14.5 dBm

D<0 D>0

“Optical Fiber Telecommunications IIIa”, ed. by I. Kaminov and T. Koch, chapter

“Fiber Nonlinearities and Their Impact on Transmission Systems” by F. Forghieri, R.
Tkach and A. Chraplyvy
 Nonlinear Compensation – continued
• Single channel transmission at 10 Gb/s in +/- NZDSF
Dependence of nonl. compensation on the fiber dispersion:150 km, NRZ
 Example layout
Bit rate = 10 Gbps

EDFA
G = 35 dB
NF= 0 dB

SMF DCF
100 km 20 km
L = 0.25 dB/km L = 0.5 dB/km
D = 16 ps/nm/km D = -80 or -72 ps/nm/km
Aeff = 72 micron-square Aeff = 30 micron-square
 Simulation results with single channel
accumulated dispersion
accumulated dispersion

Signal distance
distance
Residual dispersion = 800 ps/nm
power Total dispersion = 0
0 dBm

10 dBm

13 dBm
•G. Bellotti et. al., “Dependence of self-phase modulation impairments on residual dispersion in 10
Gb/s based terrestrial transmission using standard fiber”, IEEE Photon. Tech. Lett. 11, pp. 824,
1999.
 Cross phase modulation
• Refractive index modulation due to one signal causes
phase modulation in other co-directional channels
• As a rough estimate, the channel power is restricted with
Pch < α ⎡⎣γ ( 2 N ch − 1) ⎤⎦
N
where, ch is the number of channels
• For a two channel system, limiting power is approximately
56 mW (17.5 dBm). For a 10 wavelength system, the limit
is about 10 mW (10 dBm)
• Under ideal conditions (group velocities matched) XPM is
two times more effective than SPM
• Both similar and very different from SPM…
 Cross phase modulation
• The main difference is that the two (or more) channels have
different group velocities.
• That fact leads to averaging and possibly to complete
elimination of the XPM perturbation. An increase in the
separation decreases the penalty which originates from the
XPM
• Separation between channels also affects the XPM (negligible
for > 1 nm channel spacing for SMF, NZDSF, but not DSF )

L= 0 L= Lw
 Cross phase modulation example 1
• 2 channels at 2.5 Gb/s
• channel spacing 1 nm (1550 nm)
• Initial pulse separation 800 ps
• Conventional SMF, D=16 ps/nm/km
• Signal power Ps = 2 mW,
• "Pump" power Pp = 20 mW,
Results:
The calculated results show that the disperion can lessen the
efects of XPM
It can also induce:
• pulse jitter
• parasitic frequency shifts
“Optical Fiber Telecommunications IIIa”, ed. by I. Kaminov and T. Koch, chapter
“Fiber Nonlinearities and Their Impact on Transmission Systems” by F. Forghieri, R.
Tkach and A. Chraplyvy
 Cross phase modulation example 1
Signal spectra
zoomed

Signal spectra
 Example 2: layout
Bit rate = 10 Gbps

EDFA
G = 35 dB
NF= 0 dB

SMF DCF
100 km 20 km
L = 0.25 dB/km L = 0.5 dB/km
D = 16 ps/nm/km D = -80 or 72 ps/nm/km
Aeff = 72 micron-square Aeff = 30 micron-square
 Simulation results with 8 channels
Signal accumulated dispersion accumulated dispersion
accumulated dispersion
power
distance distance
input t.d = 0 ps/nm input distance
t.d = 1000 ps/nm
spectrum spectrum
0 dBm/ch

10 dBm/ch
output output
spectrum spectrum

13 dBm/ch

•S. Bigo et. al., “Investigation of cross-phase modulation limitation over various types of fiber infrastructures”,
IEEE Photon. Tech. Lett. 11, pp. 605, 1999.
•M. I. Hayee and A. E. Willner, “Pre- and post-compensation of dispersion and nonlinearities in 10-Gb/s WDM
systems”, IEEE Photon. Tech. Lett. 9, pp. 1271, 1997.
 Four Wave Mixing
• Beating between two signals generates harmonics at the
difference frequencies

• FWM causes noisy artifacts on the channel grid, nonlinear

crosstalk
 Four Wave Mixing
• FWM efficiency depends on signal power, channel
spacing, and dispersion
β
• If the GVD of the fiber is relatively high 2 > 5 ps 2
/ km ,
the FWM efficiency factor almost vanishes for a typical
channel spacing of 50 GHz or higher
• If the channel is close to zero dispersion wavelength of the
fiber, considerably high power can be transferred to FWM
components.
• To reduce the effect of FWM to the system performance,
you can use either uneven channel spacing or the
dispersion-management technique or both
 Four Wave Mixing
How does it depend on dispersion and channel spacing?

“Optical Fiber Telecommunications IIIa”, ed. by I. Kaminov and T. Koch

 10 Gbps, WDM transmission over 1500 km

•H. Taga, “Long distance transmission experiments using the WDM technology”, J. Lightwave Tech. 14, pp.
1287, 1996.
 10 Gbps, WDM transmission over 1500 km
•Total power is 11 dBm
•BR = 10 Gbps
•To reduce the interaction due to FWM:
 Managed dispersion
Zero dispersion wavelength of the system is at 1558.2 nm
Residual dispersion: -634.5 ps/nm at 1553.5 nm
-364.5 ps/nm at 1555.5 nm
-27 ps/nm at 1558.0 nm
243 ps/nm at 1560 nm
 Unequal channel spacing
1553.5 nm, 1555.5 nm, 1558.0 nm, and 15560.0 nm
•H. Taga, “Long distance transmission experiments using the WDM technology”, J. Lightwave Tech. 14, pp.
1287, 1996.
 Power spectrum

(a)

(b)

Experiment Simulation
a) baseline
b) after 1500 km transmission
 Eye diagrams

ch 2, Q = 15.9 ch 1, Q = 15.8 ch 2, Q = 14.9

ch 1, Q = 16.9

ch 4, Q = 17.9 ch 3, Q = 19.2 ch 4, Q = 13.5

ch 3, Q = 19.2
Experiment Simulation
•H. Taga, “Long distance transmission experiments using the WDM technology”, J. Lightwave Tech. 14, pp.
1287, 1996.
 Stimulated Raman scattering

• Short wavelength channels act as pumps for longer

wavelength channels
• The Raman threshold for a single channel system is given by
16 Aeff
Pth ≈
g R Leff where Leff ≈ α for long fibers
1

• SRS is also a function of the number of the channels and the

channel power
• For a single channel system, the Raman threshold is about
−13
500 mW near 1.55 micrometer if R g = 1 × 10 m /W
• For a 20 channel system, Pth exceeds 10 mW
• Pth is around 1 mW for a 70 channel system
• SRS has little impact on system performance
 Simulation results

16 CW channel
100 GHz separation
20 mW/channel
 Stimulated Brillouin scattering
• Lightwave interacts with acoustic wave in fiber, scatters
power backwards
• Threshold level depends on source line-width, effective
21Aeff
core area, and effective fiber length Pth ≈ g B Leff
g
• Typical value for B is about 5 × 10 −11
m /W
• The threshold value also depends on modulation format
and duration of pulse
• Some values:
 9 dBm for CW light
 12 dBm for externally modulated transmitter
 >18 dBm for externally modulated transmitter with
source wavelength dither
• SBS has little effect on system performance
 Modulation formats
• Most common modulation formats are Non-Return-to-Zero
(NRZ) and Return-to-Zero (RZ)
• Due to higher peak power, NRZ may suffer more from
nonlinearities
• Due to shorter pulse width, RZ may suffer more from
dispersion
• Studies show that 10 Gbps WDM systems, in general,
operate better by using RZ modulation in high power regime
• It is hard to go give any specific guideline due to complex
interaction between dispersion and nonlinear effects
J. Yu and P. Jeppesen, “Investigation of cross-phase modulation in WDM systems with NRZ and RZ
modulation formats”, Opt. Comm. 184, pp. 367, 2000
M. I. Hayee and A. E. Willner, “NRZ versus RZ on 10-40 Gb/s dispersion managed WDM transmission
systems”, IEEE Photon. Tech. Lett. 11, pp. 991, 1999
 Project layout

SMF DCF
D = 17 ps/nm/km D = -85 ps/nm/km
Bit rate = 10 Gbps
Aeff = 80 micron-square Aeff = 22 micron-square
 Simulation results
NRZ RZ
Launch power
-10 dBm

-7 dBm

0 dBm

10 dBm

15 dBm
 Summary
• During the design process consider
– SNR at low powers
– Nonlinear effects at high powers, WDM systems
– GVD at high bit rates
– Modulation format
• Several alternatives to compensate dispersion
• Symmetrical dispersion compensation preferred
• But post compensation can produce similar results
• Managed dispersion can reduce the effects of nonlinearities,
but manipulating chromatic dispersion has both positive and
negative influence on nonlinearities
• The nonlinearities can result in negative penalties if the
system is operated in the proper regime