In 

telecommunications, frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) is a technique by

which the total bandwidth available in a communication medium is divided into a
series of non-overlapping frequency bands, each of which is used to carry a separate
signal. This allows a single transmission medium such as a cable or optical fiber to be
shared by multiple independent signals. Another use is to carry separate serial bits or
segments of a higher rate signal in parallel.
The most common example of frequency-division multiplexing is radio and television
broadcasting, in which multiple radio signals at different frequencies pass through the
air at the same time. Another example is cable television, in which many television
channels are carried simultaneously on a single cable. FDM is also used by telephone
systems to transmit multiple telephone calls through high capacity
trunklines, communications satellites to transmit multiple channels of data on uplink
and downlink radio beams, and broadband DSL modems to transmit large amounts of
computer data through twisted pair telephone lines, among many other uses.
An analogous technique called wavelength division multiplexing is used in fiber-optic
communication, in which multiple channels of data are transmitted over a
single optical fiber using different wavelengths (frequencies) of light.
How it worksEdit

The passband of an FDM channel carrying digital data, modulated by QPSK quadrature phase-shift keying.

The multiple separate information (modulation) signals that are sent over an FDM
system, such as the video signals of the television channels that are sent over a cable
TV system, are called baseband signals. At the source end, for each frequency
channel, an electronic oscillator generates a carrier signal, a steady oscillating
waveform at a single frequency that serves to "carry" information. The carrier is much
higher in frequency than the baseband signal. The carrier signal and the baseband
signal are combined in a modulator circuit. The modulator alters some aspect of the
carrier signal, such as its amplitude, frequency, or phase, with the baseband signal,
"piggybacking" the data onto the carrier.
The result of modulating (mixing) the carrier with the baseband signal is to generate
sub-frequencies near the carrier frequency, at the sum (fC + fB) and difference (fC − fB)
of the frequencies. The information from the modulated signal is carried
in sidebands on each side of the carrier frequency. Therefore, all the information
carried by the channel is in a narrow band of frequencies clustered around the carrier
frequency, this is called the passband of the channel.
Similarly, additional baseband signals are used to modulate carriers at other
frequencies, creating other channels of information. The carriers are spaced far
enough apart in frequency that the band of frequencies occupied by each channel, the
passbands of the separate channels, do not overlap. All the channels are sent through
the transmission medium, such as a coaxial cable, optical fiber, or through the air
using a radio transmitter. As long as the channel frequencies are spaced far enough
apart that none of the passbands overlap, the separate channels will not interfere with
each other. Thus the available bandwidth is divided into "slots" or channels, each of
which can carry a separate modulated signal.
For example, the coaxial cable used by cable television systems has a bandwidth of
about 1000 MHz, but the passband of each television channel is only 6 MHz wide, so
there is room for many channels on the cable (in modern digital cable systems each
channel in turn is subdivided into subchannels and can carry up to 10 digital television
channels).
At the destination end of the cable or fiber, or the radio receiver, for each channel
a local oscillator produces a signal at the carrier frequency of that channel, that is
mixed with the incoming modulated signal. The frequencies subtract, producing the
baseband signal for that channel again. This is called demodulation. The resulting
baseband signal is filtered out of the other frequencies and output to the user.
TelephoneEdit
For long distance telephone connections, 20th century telephone companies used L-
carrier and similar coaxial cable systems carrying thousands of voice circuits
multiplexed in multiple stages by channel banks.
For shorter distances, cheaper balanced pair cables were used for various systems
including Bell System K- and N-Carrier. Those cables did not allow such large
bandwidths, so only 12 voice channels (double sideband) and later 24 (single
sideband) were multiplexed into four wires, one pair for each direction
with repeaters every several miles, approximately 10 km. See 12-channel carrier
system. By the end of the 20th century, FDM voice circuits had become rare. Modern
telephone systems employ digital transmission, in which time-division
multiplexing (TDM) is used instead of FDM.
Since the late 20th century, digital subscriber lines (DSL) have used a Discrete
multitone (DMT) system to divide their spectrum into frequency channels.
The concept corresponding to frequency-division multiplexing in the optical domain
is known as wavelength-division multiplexing.
Group and supergroupEdit
A once commonplace FDM system, used for example in L-carrier, uses crystal filters
which operate at the 8 MHz range to form a Channel Group of 12 channels, 48 kHz
bandwidth in the range 8140 to 8188 kHz by selecting carriers in the range 8140 to
8184 kHz selecting upper sideband this group can then be translated to the standard
range 60 to 108 kHz by a carrier of 8248 kHz. Such systems are used in DTL (Direct
To Line) and DFSG (Directly formed super group).
132 voice channels (2SG + 1G) can be formed using DTL plane the modulation
and frequency plan are given in FIG1 and FIG2 use of DTL technique allows the
formation of a maximum of 132 voice channels that can be placed direct to line. DTL
eliminates group and super group equipment.
DFSG can take similar steps where a direct formation of a number of super groups
can be obtained in the 8 kHz the DFSG also eliminates group equipment and can
offer:
 Reduction in cost 7% to 13%
 Less equipment to install and maintain
 Increased reliability due to less equipment
Both DTL and DFSG can fit the requirement of low density system (using DTL) and
higher density system (using DFSG). The DFSG terminal is similar to DTL terminal
except instead of two super groups many super groups are combined. A Mastergroup
of 600 channels (10 super-groups) is an example based on DFSG.

Other examplesEdit
FDM can also be used to combine signals before final modulation onto a carrier wave.
In this case the carrier signals are referred to as subcarriers: an example is stereo
FM transmission, where a 38 kHz subcarrier is used to separate the left-right
difference signal from the central left-right sum channel, prior to the frequency
modulation of the composite signal. An analog NTSC television channel is divided
into subcarrier frequencies for video, color, and audio. DSL uses different frequencies
for voice and for upstream and downstream data transmission on the same conductors,
which is also an example of frequency duplex.
Where frequency-division multiplexing is used as to allow multiple users to share a
physical communications channel, it is called frequency-division multiple
access (FDMA).[1]
FDMA is the traditional way of separating radio signals from different transmitters.
In the 1860s and 70s, several inventors attempted FDM under the names of acoustic
telegraphy and harmonic telegraphy. Practical FDM was only achieved in the
electronic age. Meanwhile, their efforts led to an elementary understanding of
electroacoustic technology, resulting in the invention of the telephone.

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Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (WDM)

WDM is an abbreviation for Wavelength-Division Multiplexing, and is now

one of the most widely used technology for high-capacity optical
communication systems. Figure 1 schematically shows a typical WDM
transmission system. At the transmitter side, multiple optical transmitters
– each emitting at a different wavelength – individually send signals and
these signals are multiplexed by a wavelength multiplexer (MUX). The
multiplexed signals are then transmitted over one main transmission line
(optical fiber cable). At the receiver side, the signals are de-multiplexed
by a wavelength de-multiplexer (DEMUX) and sent to multiple receivers.
 
 Figure 1: Schematic of WDM transmission system.

One primary advantage of using WDM technology is in reducing the

number of fibers used in the main transmission line. The distance of an
optical transmission line sometimes exceeds 1,000 km, and the cost of
fiber cable manufacturing/deployment would become a serious issue if
we need to install a high-fiber-count cable over a very long distance.
Using WDM technology, (1) the number of fibers in an optical cable is
reduced, and (2) the number of wavelength multiplexer/de-multiplexer
basically remains the same no matter how long the transmission distance
is. For that reason, WDM generally becomes advantageous as the
transmission distance becomes longer.

WDM technology for telecom

Dense WDM (DWDM)

In order to transmit optical signals over a long distance (> 100

km), optical fiber amplifiers are needed to compensate the loss of an
optical fiber. As the gain bandwidth of an optical fiber amplifier is rather
limited, a tight wavelength spacing is needed to put a large number of
channels into the gain bandwidth. The dense WDM (DWDM) technology
has been developed for a long distance transmission systems, fully
utilizing the gain bandwidth of erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA).
EDFA has optical gain in the C-band and L-band, and for example, a
total of 115 wavelength channels are transmitted in one fiber with 100-
GHz (~0.8 nm) frequency spacing, as shown in Figure 2. Several
different frequency spacings for DWDM applications are defined in ITU-T
G.694.1, and an appropriate spacing is chosen depending on system
requirements (total capacity, bit rate per channel, distance, etc.).
 

Figure 2: Center wavelengths of DWDM.

CWDM (Coarse WDM)

The need for a tight channel spacing in DWDM technology mainly arises
from the relatively narrow gain bandwidth of EDFA (compared to the
entire optical telecommunication bands). On the other hand, if the
transmission distance is less than 100 km and no amplifiers are needed,
a wider channel spacing can be an option. A wider channel spacing allows
the use of inexpensive components such as:
 Uncooled transmitter laser diode (LD) with a large wavelength
variation,

 MUX and DEMUX with a relaxed channel spacing;

and as a result, the total cost for installation and operation becomes less
expensive. Such WDM systems are called coarse WDM (CWDM),
and ITU-T G.694.2 defines one wavelengths allocation for CWDM
systems, as shown in Figure 3. There are 18 center wavelengths with 20
nm spacing from 1271 nm to 1611 nm, covering the O-, E-, S-, C- and L-
bands. All the 18 wavelengths are not necessarily be used, and in fact, it
is very common to use:
 4 wavelengths from 1531 to 1591 nm, or

 8 wavelengths from 1471 to 1611 nm.

This is mainly because many optical components (e.g. MUX/DEMUX and

CWDM add-drop filters) are mass produced and widely available in the
above wavelength ranges.

Figure 3: Center wavelengths of CWDM.

Use of WDM technology in telecom network

Telecom networks are roughly classified into three categories, the core,
metro, and access networks (see Figure 4). The core network connects
major cities (>100 km) and DWDM technology is often used. The metro
network is used inside a metropolitan area, typically 50~80 km, and
CWDM may be used. The access network rarely uses WDM technology at
present, as the requirement for transmission capacity is much less than
the core and metro networks.

Figure 4: Schematic of telecom network

WDM technology for datacom

Technological hurdles in high-speed datacom networks (e.g. data

centers) are power consumption and space efficiency. High-speed
telecom networks have been boosted by digital-coherent detection
technology with a digital signal processor (DSP); however the power
consumption is too big (>10W) and it is not realistic to apply the
technology to a large scale data center. Traditional “direct detection
without dispersion compensation” is preferred in terms of power
consumption, and WDM technology in datacom is often used to enable
high-speed transceivers in small size and with low power consumption.

For example, many 100G Ethernet transceivers – that are heavily used in
data centers – use four-wavelength WDM in the O-band. Chromatic
dispersion of the conventional single-mode fiber (ITU-T G.652 fiber)
becomes zero in the O-band, and fiber dispersion is minimized. In
addition, the four-wavelength WDM scheme reduces the bit rate per
channel (100/4=25Gbps), which makes the dispersion tolerance four
times larger than a single-channel 100Gbps system.
There are two choices for a set of four wavelengths in the O-band,
namely CWDM4 and LAN-WDM. The wavelength ranges are shown in
Figure 5 and 6, along with the maximum and minimum chromatic
dispersion of the conventional single-mode fiber. The CWDM4
wavelengths are the same as those used in telecom CWDM, allowing the
use of cost-effective optics developed for telecom applications. The LAN-
WDM wavelengths are more tightly spaced than CWDM4 wavelengths,
and are located nearly at the zero-dispersion wavelength of the fiber.
This wavelength allocation enables 100Gbps transmission longer than
10km (e.g. 100GBASE-LR4 and ER4) without restricted by fiber
chromatic dispersion.

Figure 5: CWDM4 wavelengths.

 Figure 6: LAN-WDM wavelengths.

FiberLabs product for WDM networks

FiberLabs offers C- and L-band EDFA for DWDM systems. We also offer
optical fiber amplifier for CWDM systems using our proprietary fluoride
fiber technology. CWDM amplifiers can be used to extend the reach in a
specific part of a CWDM network, while being benefited from inexpensive
optical components in the most part of the network.
DWDM
CWDM system CWDM system
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