Ambo Institute of Technology

Chapter 3: Light wave systems

Ambo Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Ambo Institute of Technology Ambo

 Outline

Light wave systems

Coherent detection

Homodyne detection

Heterodyne detection

BER

Multichannel systems

WDM systems

TDM

Access Networks

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 Direct detection

There are two optical fiber communication systems: IM/DD systems and coherent
systems.
IM/DD (Intensity modulation and direct detection) systems used intensity modulation of
semiconductor lasers, and the intensity of the optical signal transmitted through an
optical fiber was detected by a photodiode, which acted as a square-law detector. This
combination of transmitter and receiver is widely employed in optical communication
even today. The IM/DD scheme has a significant advantage in that the receiver
sensitivity is dependent neither on the carrier phase nor on the state of polarization
(SOP) of the incoming signal, which randomly fluctuate in real systems.
The photocurrent at the output of the photodiode is proportional to the square of the
signal amplitude:
𝐼𝐼𝐷 𝑡 ∝ 𝐸𝑠 𝐸𝑠′ = 𝐴𝑠 𝑒 𝑗 𝜔𝑠 𝑡+𝜙𝑠 𝐴′𝑠 𝑒 −𝑗 𝜔𝑠 𝑡+𝜙𝑠 = 𝐴2𝑠

Incoming signal
Photodetector
This results in loss of phase information, and is therefore unsuitable for advanced
modulation formats that use the phase dimension to encode data information.

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 Coherent detection

A receiver, in which the signal is interfered with a local oscillator (LO) so as to extract the
phase information of the signal, is called a coherent receiver.

In coherent systems full information

can be recovered:
Phase
Amplitude
polarization

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 Coherent detection

The transmitted optical signal is combined coherently with the continuous wave from
the narrow-linewidth LO laser, so that the detected optical intensity in the photodiode
(PD) ends can be increased and the phase information of the optical signal can be
obtained. The use of LO laser is to increase the receiver sensitivity of the detection of
optical signals, and the performance of coherent transmission can even behave close
to the Shannon limit.
If the input signal has an amplitude given by
𝐸𝑠 𝑡 = 𝐴𝑠 𝑒 𝑗(𝜔𝑠 𝑡+𝜙𝑠 )
and the local oscillator amplitude is given by
𝐸𝑙𝑜 𝑡 = 𝐴𝑙𝑜 𝑒 𝑗(𝜔𝑙𝑜𝑡+𝜙𝑙𝑜)

Then the optical power incident on the detector from the

𝐸𝑠 𝑡
resultant mixed beam is
P 𝑡 = |𝐸𝑠 𝑡 + 𝐸𝑙𝑜 𝑡 |2 = 𝐴𝑠 𝐴𝑠 ′ 𝑒 𝑗(𝜔𝑠 𝑡+𝜙𝑠 ) 𝑒 −𝑗(𝜔𝑠 𝑡+𝜙𝑠 )
+ 𝐴𝑠 𝐴𝑙𝑜 ′ 𝑒 𝑗(𝜔𝑠 𝑡+𝜙𝑠 ) 𝑒 −𝑗 𝜔𝑙𝑜 𝑡+𝜙𝑙𝑜
+ 𝐴𝑙𝑜 𝐴𝑠 ′ 𝑒 𝑗 𝜔𝑙𝑜 𝑡+𝜙𝑙𝑜 𝑒 −𝑗(𝜔𝑠 𝑡+𝜙𝑠 )
+ 𝐴𝑙𝑜 𝐴𝑙𝑜 ′ 𝑒 𝑗(𝜔𝑙𝑜𝑡+𝜙𝑙𝑜) 𝑒 −𝑗(𝜔𝑙𝑜 𝑡+𝜙𝑙𝑜)

𝐸𝑙𝑜 𝑡

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 Coherent detection

𝐴𝑠 𝐴𝑙𝑜 ′ 𝑒 𝑗(𝜔𝑠 𝑡+𝜙𝑠 ) 𝑒 −𝑗 𝜔𝑙𝑜 𝑡+𝜙𝑙𝑜 + 𝐴𝑙𝑜 𝐴𝑠 ′ 𝑒 𝑗 𝜔𝑙𝑜 𝑡+𝜙𝑙𝑜 𝑒 −𝑗(𝜔𝑠 𝑡+𝜙𝑠 )
= 𝑅𝑒 2 𝐴𝑠 𝐴′𝑙𝑜 𝑒 𝑗(𝜔𝑠 𝑡+𝜙𝑠 ) 𝑒 −𝑗 𝜔𝑙𝑜 𝑡+𝜙𝑙𝑜
= 𝑅𝑒 {2𝐴𝑠 𝐴′𝑙𝑜 cos(−𝜔𝑙𝑜 + 𝜙𝑠 − 𝜙𝑙𝑜 )} + 𝑗 2𝐴𝑠 𝐴𝑙𝑜 ′𝑠𝑖𝑛(−𝜔𝑙𝑜 + −𝜙𝑙𝑜 )
= 2𝐴𝑠 𝐴𝑙𝑜 ′ 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜔𝑠 − 𝜔𝑙𝑜 + 𝜙𝑠 − 𝜙𝑙𝑜

P 𝑡 = 𝑃𝑠 + 𝑃𝑙𝑜 + 2 𝑃𝑠 𝑃𝑙𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑠(𝜔𝐼𝐹 + 𝜙𝑠 − 𝜙𝑙𝑜 )

𝑘 𝐴𝑠 2 𝑘 𝐴𝑙𝑜 2
where 𝑃𝑠 = , 𝑃𝑙𝑜 =
2 2
𝑆𝑒𝑓𝑓
k= 𝜁
, 𝑆𝑒𝑓𝑓 denotes the effective beam area and ζ is the impedance of the
free space.
𝜔𝐼𝐹 = 𝜔𝑠 − 𝜔𝑙𝑜 is the intermediate frequency

The photocurrent is then

𝐼 𝑡 = 𝑅𝑃 𝑡 = 𝑅{𝑃𝑠 + 𝑃𝑙𝑜 + 2 𝑃𝑠 𝑃𝑙𝑜 cos 𝜔𝐼𝐹 + 𝜙𝑠 − 𝜙𝑙𝑜 }
and contains terms involving the signal amplitude, frequency and phase.

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 Coherent detection

For coherent detection there are two basic schemes depending on how the
downconversion from optical frequencies to baseband frequencies is performed. These
schemes are called heterodyne detection and homodyne detection.
Optical Hybrids
In coherent systems we need an optical hybrid in order to mix an optical signal
with a local oscillator source. The simplest hybrid is a 3dB coupler, also called 50/50
beam splitter or 1800 hybrid.

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 Homodyne detection

If we make the intermediate frequency, 𝜔𝐼𝐹 = 0 i.e. 𝜔𝑠 = 𝜔𝑙𝑜 then

𝐼 𝑡 = 𝑅𝑃 𝑡 = 𝑅 𝑃𝑠 + 𝑃𝑙𝑜 + 2𝑅 𝑃𝑠 𝑃𝑙𝑜 cos 𝜙𝑠 − 𝜙𝑙𝑜

DC current Signal current

In the practical case, 𝑃𝑙𝑜 ≫ 𝑃𝑠 and bandpass filtering to remove DC terms leaves
𝐼 𝑡 = 𝑅𝑃 𝑡 = 2𝑅 𝑃𝑠 𝑃𝑙𝑜 cos 𝜙𝑠 − 𝜙𝑙𝑜
Receiver is sensitive to both amplitude and phase
The signal and LO lasers are phase locked to each other using a phase-locked loop
(PLL). However, it is Hard to construct and will need highly coherent lasers and very
expensive laser sources.
In addition, equation above only gives the cosine component (in other words, the in-
phase component with respect to the LO phase), and the sine component (the
quadrature component) cannot be detected at the same time. Therefore, this type of
homodyne receiver is not able to extract full information on the signal complex amplitude.

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 Homodyne detection

In the practical case, 𝑃𝑙𝑜 ≫ 𝑃𝑠 and bandpass filtering to remove DC terms leaves
𝐼 𝑡 = 𝑅𝑃 𝑡 = 2𝑅 𝑃𝑠 𝑃𝑙𝑜 cos 𝜙𝑠 − 𝜙𝑙𝑜
This information cannot be detected
in direct detection systems
𝑃𝑙𝑜 ≫ 𝑃𝑠  𝑃𝑙𝑜 + 𝑃𝑠 ≈ 𝑃𝑙𝑜 , DC term can be eliminated.
Assuming 𝜙𝑠 = 𝜙𝑙𝑜 there is an improvement of SNR:
𝐼ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑒 2 2𝑅𝑑 𝑃𝑠 𝑃𝑙𝑜 2 4𝑃𝑙𝑜
( ) =( ) = ≫1
𝐼𝑑𝑖𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑒 𝑅𝑑 𝑃𝑠 𝑃𝑠

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 Heterodyne detection

If we make the intermediate frequency, 𝜔𝐼𝐹 ≠ 0 i.e. 𝜔𝑠 ≠ 𝜔𝑙𝑜 but have (𝑓𝑠 −𝑓𝑙𝑜 ) ≈
0.1 𝑡𝑜 5 𝐺𝐻𝑧, then we have intermediate frequency in the microwave range and standard
microwave components can be used in the detector. Assuming 𝑃𝑙𝑜 ≫ 𝑃𝑠 and bandpass
filtering to remove DC terms leaves
𝐼 𝑡 = 𝑅𝑃 𝑡 = 2𝑅 𝑃𝑠 𝑃𝑙𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜔𝐼𝐹 + 𝜙𝑠 − 𝜙𝑙𝑜 = 𝐼𝐼𝐹 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜔𝐼𝐹 + 𝜙𝑠 − 𝜙𝑙𝑜
Hence, intensity, frequency or phase modulation can be used.
𝑃 𝑡
The received photon rate ~ cos 𝜔𝐼𝐹 varies with the intermediate frequency 𝑓𝐼𝐹 =
ℎ𝑓
(𝑓𝑠 −𝑓𝑙𝑜 ).
A SNR improvement is obtained with regard to IM/DD systems
2𝑅𝑑2 𝑃𝑠 𝑃𝑙𝑜
𝑆𝑁𝑅 =
2𝑞(𝑅𝑑 𝑃𝑙𝑜 + 𝐼𝑑 )∆𝑓 + 𝜎𝑇 2

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 Coherent systems

Modulation and detection of 4 dimensions(x, y-polarizations and I-Q components)

Polarization

Source: G. Charlet , Nokia and Bell Labs

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 BER (Bit Error Ratio)

Measuring the quality of optical signals is one of the most important tasks in optical
communications. A variety of metrics are available, namely BER, the general shape of an
eye diagram, the optical signal-to-noise power ratio(OSNR), and the error vector
magnitude(EVM). In this section we only focus on BER.
BER is the probability that a bit is incorrectly identified by the receiver (due to the noise
and other signal distortion)
A better name would be bit error probability.
A traditional requirement for optical receivers is 𝐵𝐸𝑅 < 10−9
The bit error ratio (BER) is obtained by dividing the number of errors (𝑁𝑒 ) occurring over
a time interval t by the number of pulses (ones and zeros) transmitted during this
interval(𝑁𝑡 ):
𝑁𝑒 𝑁𝑒
𝐵𝐸𝑅 = =
𝑁𝑡 𝐵𝑇 𝑡
𝐵𝑇 is the bit rate (bits/sec) and is equivalent to 1/𝑇𝐵 where 𝑇𝐵 is the bit duration.
Given that most of the noise is added at the photoreceiver itself, it is desirable to
maximise the signal level (at the input to the receiver) so that the probability of bit errors
can be reduced.
However, this conflicts with the need to maximize transmission distances.

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 BER
Figure shows:
A signal affected by noise
The PDFs for the upper and lower current levels
The decision threshold 𝐼𝐷
The triangular areas indicate errors

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 BER calculation

Let’s assume
𝑝(1) is the probability to send a ”one”
𝑝 0 1 is the probability to detect a sent out ”one” as a ”zero
1
𝐵𝐸𝑅 = 𝑝 1 𝑝 0 1 + 𝑝 0 𝑝 1 0 = [𝑝 0 1 + 𝑝 1 0 ]
2
Assume that the noise has Gaussian statistics
𝐼1 , 𝐼0 are the upper and lower current levels
𝜎1 , 𝜎2 are the standard deviations of the upper and lower levels
𝐼𝐷
1 (𝐼 − 𝐼1 )2 1 𝐼1 − 𝐼𝐷
𝑝 01 = exp(− )𝑑𝐼 = erfc( )
𝜎1 2𝜋 2𝜎1 2 2 𝜎1 2
−∞
∞
1 (𝐼 − 𝐼0 )2 1 𝐼𝐷 − 𝐼0
𝑝 10 = exp(− )𝑑𝐼 = erfc( )
𝜎0 2𝜋 2𝜎0 2 2 𝜎0 2
𝐼𝐷
1 𝐼1 − 𝐼𝐷 𝐼𝐷 − 𝐼0
𝐵𝐸𝑅 = [erfc + erfc ]
4 𝜎1 2 𝜎0 2

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 Optimal decision threshold

𝑑 𝐵𝐸𝑅
Minimize the BER using =0
𝑑𝐼𝐷
Optimal value is the intersection of the PDF for the “one” and “zero” levels
(𝐼𝐷 −𝐼0 )/𝜎0 = (𝐼1 −𝐼𝐷 )/𝜎1 ≡ 𝑄

𝜎0 𝐼1 + 𝜎1 𝐼0
𝐼𝐷 =
𝜎0 + 𝜎1
𝑄 is often used as a measure of signal quality
Thermal case: 𝜎1 = 𝜎0 and 𝐼𝐷 = (𝐼1 + 𝐼0 )/2
When shot noise cannot be neglected, 𝐼𝐷 shifts towards the ”zero” level
The 𝑄 value is a measure of the eye opening since
𝐼1 − 𝐼0
𝑄=
𝜎0 + 𝜎1
The optimum BER is related to the 𝑄 value as
𝑄2
1 𝑄 𝑒𝑥𝑝( )
𝐵𝐸𝑅 = 𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑐 ≈ 2
2 2 𝑄 𝜋
If currents and noise levels are known, the BER can be found from 𝑄.

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 Receiver sensitivity

Receiver sensitivity:
Minimum average power needed to keep the BER below a certain value (< 10−9 ).
We need to relate 𝑄 parameter to incident optical power

𝐸𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑃𝑠

𝑆𝑁𝑅 = = = 𝑄2
𝑛𝑜𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑃𝑁

BER and power penalty:

Is it possible to compensate additional noise by increasing signal power?
Compensation by increase of optical input power 𝑃𝑜𝑝𝑡 is always possible for additive
noise!
Electrical signal 𝑃𝑠 ~ (𝑃𝑜𝑝𝑡 )2
The corresponding necessary increase in average received power to achieve a
certain BER is called the power penalty.

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 Limiting sensitivity for Direct Detection

Imagine that you can observe the arrival of photons at a detector. The detector counts
the number of electron-hole pairs that are generated in an interval ∆𝑡.
The following assumptions can be made:
The probability of one photon being detected in ∆𝑡 is proportional to ∆𝑡 when ∆𝑡 is
very small.
The probability that more than one photon is detected in ∆𝑡 is negligible when ∆𝑡 is
very small.
The number of photons detected in any one interval is independent of the number of
photons detected in any other separate interval.
Under these conditions, we can show that the probability of detecting 𝑁𝑒 electrons in a
time period T obeys the Poisson distribution:
𝑁𝑒 𝑁𝑒𝑒 − 𝑁𝑒
𝑃𝑁𝑒 (𝑁𝑒 ) =
𝑁𝑒 !
𝑁𝑒 is the mean number of detected electrons in the time period T.
Ideally, optical energy would only be sensed (and e-h pairs generated) if a “1” is sent.
Therefore, the ideal receiver would then be an electron-hole pair counter, and would
make a decision based on a threshold current.

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 Limiting sensitivity for Direct Detection

The most efficient situation is when the threshold is set between no pairs generated (a
“0” was sent) and “at least one pair generated” (a “1” was sent).
Therefore no errors occur if a “0” was sent (because no carriers can be generated).
However, errors may occur for a “1” if the incident optical power fails to generate any
carrier pairs at all (when 𝑁𝑒 could be expected).
The probability of this occurring is:
𝑁𝑒 0 𝑒 − 𝑁𝑒
𝑃𝑁𝑒 0 = = 𝑒 − 𝑁𝑒
0!

Since “0”s are received with no errors (𝑃0 0 = 0), and “1”s and “0”s are equally likely,
the overall error probability is:
1
𝐵𝐸𝑅 = 𝑒 − 𝑁𝑒
2
For 𝐵𝐸𝑅 = 10−9 therefore, 𝑁𝑒 = − ln 2 x10−9 = 20 photons

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 Sensitivity degradation mechanisms

So far, we have discussed an ideal situation where the perfect pulses are corrupted only
by (inevitable) noise. In reality, the receiver sensitivity is degraded by many sources of
signal distortion. In the following we discuss some of these sources or mechanisms.
Limited modulator extinction ratio
𝑃0
The extinction ratio (ER) is defined as 𝑟𝑒𝑥 =
𝑃1
𝑃0 (𝑃1 ) is the emitted power in the off (on) state
Ideally, 𝑟𝑒𝑥 = 0
Different for direct and external modulation
We use that
The average received power is 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑐 = (𝑃1 +𝑃0 )/2
𝐼1 −𝐼0
The definition of the 𝑄 parameter is 𝑄 =
𝜎0 +𝜎1
We find the sensitivity degradation to be
1 − 𝑟𝑒𝑥 2 𝑅𝑑 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑐
𝑄=( )
1 + 𝑟𝑒𝑥 𝜎0 + 𝜎1

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 Sensitivity degradation mechanisms

Timing jitter of electronic circuits

Deterministic jitter: caused by dispersion in fiber and, and inadequate bandwidth of

transceiver components
Random jitter: caused by thermal noise and shot noise in components
Pulse broadening induced by fiber dispersion

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 Sensitivity degradation mechanisms

Local Oscillator(LO) laser intensity noise

A laser oscillator with an average output power 𝑃0 exhibits classical amplitude
noise, so called Relative Intensity Noise (RIN) with a one-sided power spectrum
RIN(f), which describes power fluctuations due to amplified spontaneous
𝛿𝑃02
emission(ASE): 𝑅𝐼𝑁 =
𝑃02
If LO laser has relative intensity noise (RIN), SNR is degraded
Using balanced detection, DC term is canceled out  Solves the problem.
Signal and LO laser phase noise
Detection is phase sensitive, phase drifts degrade performance
Phase stability is quantified by the coherence time
Inversely proportional to the laser linewidth
The phase drift is modeled as a Wiener process
Integrated white noise
Mean is zero, variance is given by 𝜎𝜙 2 = 2𝜋 𝛥𝜈 𝑇𝑠
𝛥𝜈 is the sum of ∆𝜈𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑙 and ∆𝜈𝐿𝑂
The phase drift is tracked using DSP(Digital signal Processing)
Phase drift is a serious limitation, in particular for QAM

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 Sensitivity degradation mechanisms

Signal polarization fluctuations

The signal output polarization is unknown and drifts with time
The LO has a given polarization that does not change
Useful signal is only obtained ”sometimes”
Polarization-diversity is typically used
Does not solve problem, but allows a DSP solution
The solution to this problem is to use an adaptive equalizer
Will also compensate for PMD and ISI
For a properly designed system, the main degradation mechanisms are:
Optical amplifier noise
Nonlinear Kerr effects

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 Multichannel systems

Multichannel systems
Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM)
WDM components
Linear crosstalk
Nonlinear crosstalk
Spectral efficiency
Time division multiplexing (TDM)
Why Multichannel systems?
The bandwidth of optical fibers is huge
Potential bit rate is >1 Tbit/s
In practice, electronics, dispersion, etc. is a bottle neck
Limits the OOK bit rate to ~40 Gbit/s
Simultaneous transmission of many channels offers the simplest way to make better
use of the available bandwidth.

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 WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing)

What is Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)?

We know that light comes in many different “colors”.
What we perceive as “white” is actually just a mix of many wavelengths.
These different colors can be combined on the same fiber.
The goal is to put multiple signals on the same fiber without interference, thus
increasing capacity.

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 WDM

WDM system = a single fiber + N transmitters + N receivers + mux/demux

WDM systems are commercial since 1995
Spectral efficiency 𝜂𝑠 = 𝐵/Δ𝜐𝑐ℎ , today typically 𝜂𝑠 < 0.5 (bit/s)/Hz
Where Δ𝜐𝑐ℎ is channel spacing
System limitations include
Amplifier gain uniformity and laser wavelength stability
Fiber nonlinearities and other interchannel crosstalk
Residual dispersion

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 Types of WDM

There are several types of WDM

The most common terms are Dense and Coarse WDM.
Essentially they both do the same thing in the same way.
The only difference is the channel spacing.
And sometimes the range of the optical spectrum they cover.
Coarse Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (CWDM)
CWDM has 8 channels with 20 nm spacing
Centered on 1470 / 1490 / 1510 / 1530 / 1550 / 1570 / 1590 / 1610 nm
Dense Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (DWDM)
A much more tightly packed WDM system.
Defined by the ITU-T G.694.1 as a “grid” of specific channels.
Within C-band, these channel spacings are common:
200 GHz – 1.6 nm spacing, 20 channels
100 GHz – 0.8 nm spacing, 40 channels
50G Hz – 0.4 nm spacing, 80 channels
25G Hz – 0.2 nm spacing, 160 channels

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 WDM components

Implementing a WDM system requires several optical components:

Tunable optical filters
Used to filter out a specific channel
Multiplexers
Combine the individual WDM channels
Demultiplexers
Separate the WDM channels
Star couplers
Combine signals from multiple origins and sends to multiple destinations
Add-drop multiplexers/optical routers
Used in the transmission path to switch channels to correct destinations
Often the term reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) is seen.
Wavelength-tunable transmitters

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 Tunable optical filters

A tunable optical filter is used to select one WDM channel while blocking all other
channels
Is a band-pass filter, typically with transmission in multiple bands
Has adjustable center wavelength
Is based on diffraction or interference
Desirable properties include
A wide tuning range, allowing processing of many WDM channels
Negligible crosstalk, close to zero out-of-band transmission
Fast tuning speed, allowing quick system re-configuration
Small insertion loss, avoiding need for extra amplification
Polarization insensitivity, since the signal polarization varies
Robustness against disturbances like vibrations

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 Types of tunable optical filters

There are several types of filters:

A Fabry-Perot filter is a cavity between mirrors
Length is adjustable
Transmission at longitudinal modes

A Mach-Zehnder filter is an interferometer

Uses cascaded Mach-Zehnder interferometers
Phase shift is wavelength-dependent

A grating-based filter uses Bragg gratings

Reflection is wavelength-dependent
Often uses an optical circulator

An acousto-optic filter forms the grating from

acoustic waves
Photoelastic effect ⇒ refractive index is
changed

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 The Fabry-Perot filter

Typically, several wavelengths can pass an optical band-pass filter

The Fabry-Perot filter is a good example
Transmission of all longitudinal modes of the cavity
The frequency spacing is known as the free spectral range, given by
ΔvL = 𝑐/2𝑛𝑔 𝐿
L is cavity length, 𝑛𝑔 the group index
Signal bandwidth must be smaller than ΔvL
The finesse, F, is defined as 𝐹 = ΔvL /ΔvFP
The filter bandwidth is denoted by ΔvFP
The center wavelength is typically adjusted with a piezoelectric actuator.

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 Star-coupler

Aim to divide inputs among N outputs equally, regardless of wavelength.

Combines input signals and divides among the outputs
Are not wavelength-selective
Can be used for broadcasting
Example: Distribution of television to multiple areas
Wavelength router
Will redistribute the channels of multiple incoming WDM signals to multiple output fibers
Different wavelength ⇒ different receiver
A common design is the waveguide-grating router (WGR)

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 Optical cross-connects(OXC)

Allows for dynamic routing of wavelengths across a network

Often implemented using MEMS mirrors or MZ interferometers

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 Optical multiplexer and de-multiplexer

Works like a prism

Prism
White light Individually
Individually colored colored
wavelengths wavelengths
Single transmission fiber

Multiplex individual wavelengths onto a fiber

Each port is associated with a wavelength
At demux individual wavelengths are separated.

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 Add-drop multiplexers

During transmission it may be necessary to modify the data content

An add-drop multiplexer will in principle
Demultiplex the incoming signal
Modify individual channels by passing through, dropping, or adding
Multiplex individual channels and launch into transmission fiber

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 ROADM

ROADM stands for Reconfigurable Optical Add-drop Multiplexer.

It allows to change the wavelengths that get dropped and added to the network during
operation.

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 Crosstalk in WDM systems

WDM channels should not interfere with each other during transmission
The most important design issue is interchannel crosstalk
Loosely speaking this means power transfer between channels
Crosstalk occurs due to
Non-ideal demultiplexing/filtering/routing components (linear crosstalk)
Nonlinear effects in optical fibers or devices (nonlinear crosstalk)
Any crosstalk degrades the BER and causes crosstalk-induced penalty
Linear crosstalk is classified as either out-of-band or in-band crosstalk
Out-of-band crosstalk means that power ”leaks” from neighboring channels
In-band crosstalk means that the crosstalk is at the same wavelength
Occurs in routing/networks
Adds coherently to the signal

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 Spectral efficiency and the capacity

The throughput is the number of successfully transmitted bits/second

This is often called “capacity” in the fiber-optic world
Currently, throughput is increased by increasing the spectral efficiency
Remember: For a WDM system, the spectral efficiency is 𝜂𝑠 = 𝐵/Δ𝑣𝑐ℎ .
Done using multi-level modulation formats and polarization multiplexing
But how large can 𝜂𝑠 be? Larger than 1 (bit/s)/Hz?
The channel capacity is given by Shannon’s famous formula 𝐶 = ∆𝑓 log 2 (1 + 𝑆𝑁𝑅)
where ∆𝑓 is the bandwidth and C is the capacity.
Provided that the SNR is high, 𝜂𝑠 can be >> 1 (bit/s)/Hz
Example: SNR = 40 dB, Δf = 10 GHz ⇒ C = 133 Gbit/s with Δvch = 50 GHz, ηs =
2.7 (bit/s)/Hz
Wireless systems can have spectral efficiencies as high as 10 (bit/s)/Hz
In optical communication this is not easily achieved

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 Access networks

Access network is a telecommunication network physically reaching the end user.

There are several physical media competing in this network.
Twisted pair copper
Coaxial cable
Optical fiber
Radio waves
Satellite communications
Free-space optics

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 Fiber-To-The-X (FTTX)

Telecom operators prefer a successive approach of bringing fiber closer to the customer
premises:

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 FTTX Deployment scenarios

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 Passive Optical Network (PON)

PON is an optical network with a maximum fiber length of 20km between the Optical Line
Termination(OLT) and any Optical Network Unit(ONU). The minimal and the maximal
optical loss between the OLT and any ONU is defined as different PON classes:

Passive optical
splitter

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 Standards for PON

Both ITU-T and IEEE standards

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