Optics Communications 359 (2016) 102–108

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Optics Communications
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/optcom

Energy efficiency in WDM fiber-optical links considering OADM/OXC

nodes
Aleksejs Udalcovs n, Vjaceslavs Bobrovs
Riga Technical University, Institute of Telecommunications, Azenes str. 12, Room 324, LV-1048 Riga, Latvia

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this paper, authors discuss the energy consumption for 1 bit transmission as a function of spectral
Received 13 July 2015 efficiency (SE, bps/Hz), aggregated traffic amount (C, bps), and overall transmission distance (LP2P, km) in
Received in revised form wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems with optical add-drop multiplexer/ optical cross-
15 September 2015
connect (OADM/OXC) nodes. The choice of bitrate and modulation formats was limited to three options:
Accepted 18 September 2015
Available online 29 September 2015
10G non-return-to-zero on-off keying (NRZ-OOK), 40G NRZ differential phase-shift keying (NRZ-DPSK)
and 100 dual polarization quadrature phase-shift keying (DP-QPSK). The reasons for that is the legacy in
Keywords: transmission networks and high energy efficiency of 3R (re-amplification, re-timing, re-shaping) re-
3R regeneration generators and transponders, respectively. In addition, these formats are commonly used for 10-40-100G
Energy per bit
mixed-line rate solutions in core networks. It is found out that 100G DP-QPSK is the best solutions among
Modulation
two other considered in terms of both energy consumption per bit and spectral efficiency. Finally and
Optical add-drop multiplexer
Optical cross-connect foremost, it is estimated that for the WDM channels added at the OADM/OXC node, energy consumption
Power consumption per 1 transmitted bit could growth more than two times as compared to wavelengths transmitted over
Spectral efficiency point-to-point fiber-optical links and then dropped at the receiving node.
System reach & 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Wavelength division multiplexing

1. Introduction for the set of variables. Networks' specifications and systems'

For the last few years, motivation about research activities
concerning an energy consumption in optical networks remained
the same: (1) economical which includes the operational and ca-
pital expenditures (OPEX and CAPEX) for telecommunication op-
erators [1,2]; and (2) ecological which includes the carbon foot-
print produced by the entire Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) sector [3,4]. The topicality of these researches is
becoming even higher under the traffic growth rates, scales of the
networks that will be needed for its accumulation, increase of the
overall network's power consumption, and ecological implications
due to the growing emission of green-house gas (GHG). Details
about these numbers and discussions could be found in [5–7].
Hence, in this paper we will not focus on them. They are aston-
ishing, and optimization of networks' resources must be per-
formed for more efficient use of them [8–10].
Although a great number of papers has been published, some
aspects of the trade-off between energy efficiency, spectral effi-
ciency, aggregated traffic and overall transmission distance are still
missing or were explored roughly. Majority of the overviewed
papers published in the last 3–5 years explores energy efficiency
n
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: Aleksejs.Udalcovs@rtu.lv (A. Udalcovs).
parameters serve for this purpose. In overviewed papers, it was
(1) aggregated traffic amount; (2) modulation formats and their
transparent optical reach; (3) blocking probability and quality of
transmission; (4) use of coherent and non-coherent transmission
technologies; (5) spectral efficiency in the frequency band;
(6) mixed-line rate (MLR) design and different schemes used for
the allocation of wavelength channels in a transmission band, and
others.
Some aspects of this trade-off have been partially addressed in
our previous publications [10–15]. For example, existence of this
trade-off has been proved in [10] where authors showed how
power consumption per bit per second changes with the length of
point-to-point link for the WDM systems where spectral efficiency
is set to the highest value accepted by the linear crosstalk and the
signal quality requirements at the receiving node. Hence, in this
paper authors addressed the best-case scenario in terms of spec-
tral efficiency and the worst-case scenario in terms of energy ef-
ficiency. In [11,14,15], authors present a number of schemes that
could be used for the allocation of 10 Gbps, 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps
wavelengths in a transmission band. Show their impact on the
bandwidth required for this purpose and on the energy con-
sumption per 1 bit transmitted over a MLR system assuming that
wavelengths are located maximally close to each other. In [12],
comparison is given between the energy efficiency in different

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.optcom.2015.09.061
0030-4018/& 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 A. Udalcovs, V. Bobrovs / Optics Communications 359 (2016) 102–108
MLRs and single-line rate (SLR) solutions where spectral efficiency
in the band is set to the highest acceptable. However, none of
these papers explores energy efficiency when spectral efficiency is
used as a variable. This aspect is being addressed in [13] but this
paper is on the preparation stage and focuses on such configura-
tions specificities as the use/not use of forward error correction
(FEC) and SMF span lengths (40 km, 80 km or 120 km). Hence, in
this paper these aspects are omitted to focus on such trade-off for
the WDM fiber-link where optical add-drop multiplexer/optical
cross-connect (OADM/OXC) nodes are also considered as the
power consumers and sources of signal quality distortions. This
makes results to be more transparent in terms of distortions from
OADM/OXC nodes and allows comparing the energy consumption
per transmitted bit for the fiber-optical links with OADM/OXC
nodes when wavelengths are added or dropped.
This paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, the power
consumption model is introduced. It is used for the evaluation of
energy consumption required for the transmission of 1 bit. Section
3 explores the impact of spectral efficiency on a system reach for
modulation formats in WDM links with OADM/OXC nodes con-
sidering a signal quality in dropped and added channels. Section 4
presents and reveals the trade-off between the energy efficiency
(energy consumption per transmitted bit), spectral efficiency in
the frequency band, aggregated traffic amount and overall trans-
mission distance. Finally, Section 5 overviews the paper and
summarizes the main conclusions.
2. Short overview of the derived power consumption model
For the evaluation of energy efficiency (so-called, Epb – Energy
per bit), we used power consumption model described in [13]. It
consists of five units: (1) input parameters, (2) variables, (3) power
consumers, (4) output parameters, and (5) set of functions.
As input parameters we used aggregated traffic amount (C, bps)
and overall transmission distance (LP2P, km). LP2P values scale with
the span length of transmission fiber. We used 80 km long spans of
standard single-mode fiber. Fiber's parameters complies with ITU-
T Recommendation G.652.D and its length is the long distance
between two consecutive optical line amplifiers (OLA, [19]).
Modulation formats, data rates, BER (bit-error rate) thresholds
and spectral efficiency were used as variables. In this paper, we
consider three different combinations of bitrates and modulation
formats: (1) 10G non-return-to-zero on-off keying (NRZ-OOK);
(2) 40G NRZ differential phase-shift keying (NRZ-DPSK); and
(3) 100G dual polarization quadrature phase-shift keying (DP-
QPSK). The reason for choosing different modulation formats at
different data rates is as follows. Firstly, the 10G NRZ-OOK is
picked due to the legacy in core networks. It is considered as a
traditional modulation formats for the fiber-optical communica-
tions. Secondly, coherent 100G DP-QPSK transponders secure a
lower energy consumption per transmitted bit as compared with
DPSK and OOK formats at different data rates. Situation differs for
the energy efficiency of the 3R regenerators-40G NRZ-DPSK is one
of the best solutions in terms of energy per bit [10]. Finally, these
modulation formats are commonly used in design of 10-40-
100Gbps mixed-line rate networks [11]. Due to the forward error
correction (FEC), the nominal bitrate in the link is set to
10.709 Gbps [16], 43.018 Gbps [16] and 127.16 Gbps [17], respec-
tively. This sets the bit-error rate threshold to 2.10
3 [18]. Spectral
efficiency (SE) values are defined by the nominal bitrates and
frequency intervals used for collocating wavelengths in a band.
Their values are changed with 6.25 GHz granularity while Q-fac-
tors for the received signals are captured.
Power consumers unit contains transponders (TSP), 3R (re-
amplification, re-timing, and re-shaping), WDM terminals, optical
103
line amplifiers (OLA), optical add-drop multiplexers (OADM) and
optical cross-connects (OXC). TSPs' and 3Rs' power consumptions
have been explored in [10], while for other components is over-
viewed and summarized in [19,20].
Functions unit could be considered as the “brains” of this
model. It evaluates signal quality and estimates system reach for
the certain spectral efficiency. Both these parameters as well as
considered configuration of the WDM link is discussed in the next
section (Section 3). Required number of different WDM compo-
nents and their power consumption is also calculated in this unit.
Finally, the output unit contains the data array which shows
how energy per bit changes with the considered input parameters
and for each variables. To obtain such array, for each C, SE and LP2P
parameter, we calculated the overall power consumption of
(1) transponders (PTSP, n), (2) WDM terminals (PWDM, n), (3) OADM/
OXC nodes (POADM, n), (4) 3R regenerators (P3R, n), (5) optical line
amplifiers (POLA, n). These expressions are as follows:
PTSP, n = pTSP, 1{10, 40, 100G}⋅Nchannels{10, 40, 100G} (1)
where pTSP, 1 is the transponder's power consumption for selected
data rate and modulation format, Nchannels is the number of 10G,
40G and 100G wavelengths required to accumulate aggregated
traffic.
PWDM, n = NWDM, 80ch⋅pWDM, 80ch + NWDM, 40ch⋅pWDM, 40ch (2)
where NWDM, 40/80ch is the number of WDM terminals for 40 or 80
channels required to multiplex/demultiplex and pre-amplify the
required number of 10G, 40G, and 100G wavelengths; pWDM, 40/80ch
is the power consumption of 40/80-channels WDM terminals
(including MUX/DEMUX, booster- and pre-amplifier).
POADM, n = NOADM, nodes⋅(NWDM, 80ch⋅pOADM, 80ch + NWDM, 40ch
⋅pOADM, 40ch ) (3)
where NOADM, nodes is the number of OADM/OXC nodes in the
considered WDM link through whom optical signals are trans-
mitted; pOADM, 40/80ch is the power consumption of such nodes.
P3R, n = Nchannels{10, 40, 100G}⋅N3R, nodes⋅p3R, 1{10, 40, 100G} (4)
where p3R, 1 is the 3R regenerator's power consumption for se-
lected data rate and modulation format; N3R, nodes is the number of
nodes where optical signals are regenerated using OEO conver-
sion.
POLA, n = NOLA, n⋅pOLA, 1 (5)
where pOLA, 1 is the OLA's power consumption and NOLA, n is the
total number of OLA in a WDM link from source to destination
nodes. These power consumption values allow estimation of en-
ergy per bit (Epb) which is the main focus of this paper.
Ptotal = PTSP, n + PWDM, n + POADM, n + P3R, n + POLA, n (6)
Ptotal
Epb =
C (7)
In Section 4, these energy efficiency curves (depending on the
transmission scenario) is shown and discussed.
3. Signal quality, spectral efficiency and their impact on sys-
tem reach
In this section, we present a setup used for the evaluation of
signal distortions in OADM/OXC nodes for different data formats
and spectral efficiency values. For this purpose, firstly,
104 A. Udalcovs, V. Bobrovs / Optics Communications 359 (2016) 102–108
Fig. 1. Experimental setup in OptSim used for the evaluation of Q-factors for the dropped and added channels after transmission over the WDM link with a OADM/OXC node
as a function of channel spacing between collocated wavelengths.
Fig. 2. Q2-factor penalty between dropped and added channels as a function of
spectral efficiency after transmission over the 80 km span of standard single mode
fiber and dispersion compensation module.
configuration of WDM fiber-optical link is overviewed. It is used to
obtain Q-factor values detected for the wavelengths transmitted
through DROP and ADD ports of OADM and then trough OXC node.
Secondly, we reveal the system reach curves obtained using de-
rived transmission models. Later on, these curves are used to es-
timate the distance between two consecutive 3R nodes.
Experimental setup consists of two parallel WDM systems (see
Fig. 1). The number of channel in each system is 9. The reason for
that is found in [21,22]. In each WDM system, DROP channels are
transmitted through the fiber-optical link which consists of
(1) booster amplifiers with þ 14 dBm output; (2) 80 km of stan-
dard SMF, and (3) chromatic dispersion compensation module
(DCM) based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) which compensates the
accumulated dispersion (1280 ps/nm). This is a typical configura-
tion of fiber-optical link used for the evaluation of energy con-
sumption on the WDM optical layer. After transmission over one
80 km long SMF span, signal accumulates 1280 ps/nm (fiber's
dispersion coefficient is 16 ps/nm/km) and attenuates by 16 dB
(fiber's attenuation coefficient is 0.2 dB/km). These distortions are
compensated by OLAs (with at least 16 dB gain) and inline DCMs.
Inline DCMs are used only for the non-coherent modulation
formats. For the 100G DP-QPSK signals, accumulated chromatic
dispersion is electronically compensated at the receiver. Together
with such booster's output power it secures that quality of
transmission for the detected signals is not defined neither by fi-
ber's nonlinearities or noise at the receiver.
At the OADM/OXC node, the DROP wavelength is filtered out
using FBG filter and switched from the input port 1 to output port
2, while the same wavelength from the second WDM system is
passed from the input port 2 to output port 1. The used OADM
configuration is based on 180° optical hybrids and FBG (details see
in [23]). The crosstalk level to the leakage path between DROP and
ADD port is 60 dB. The crosstalk level in OXC is 55 dB [24]. The
ADD channel's wavelength is the same as for the DROP channel.
The added channel is connected to the OADM's ADD port, trans-
mitted through the optical amplifier, then through the 80 km of
SMF and DCM. Finally, it is filtered out and transmitted through
the OXC, where it is switched from the input port 1 to output port
2. This setup (see Fig. 1) is used to compare the Q-factor values for
the DROP and ADD channels at different spectral efficiency values.
Values for the DROP channels represents the case similar to the
point-to-point link while Q-factors for the ADD channels give an
insight of signal quality for a lightpath. The difference between
these two Q-factor values (or so-called Q2-factor penalty ¼Q2-factor
(DROP) – Q2-factor (ADD)) for the number of spectral efficiency
values is shown in Fig. 2. Note that we used the Q-factor in [dB]
and, therefore, the abbreviation “Q2-factor” is used.
For the 10G NRZ-OOK and 40G NRZ-DPSK, the maximum
penalty almost reaches 10 dB. Such huge difference is observed for
low spectral efficiencies. In case of the 10G NRZ-OOK, more than
8 dB penalty is observed when wavelengths are placed using
25 GHz frequency intervals or larger. For the 40G NRZ-DPSK, more
than 7 dB penalty is for the 100 GHz channel spacing and greater.
Not higher than 5 dB Q2-factor penalty is observed for the 100G
DP-QPSK if channels spacing is above 50 GHz. It should be high-
lighted that for the spectral efficiency values that are close to the
maximum tolerable the Q2-factor penalty become negative but
this improvement is not more than 2 dB and is explained by the
homodyne crosstalk in OADM. In further actions, these Q-factor
values are used for the evaluation of system reach (see Fig. 3).
The system reach is evaluated using the derived transmission
models. More details are presented in [13]. However, it must be
highlighted that this is done assuming that (1) there is no other
OADM/OXC nodes in the optical line, (2) the major source of signal
distortions is the noises from the OLAs placed after each 80 km
fiber span with gain equals to the losses in one section (80 km
 A. Udalcovs, V. Bobrovs / Optics Communications 359 (2016) 102–108
Fig. 3. Transmission reach for the considered WDM system with/without OADM/
OXC node.
SSMF þDCM) of fiber-optical link. Later on, data shown in Fig. 2 are
used to compute the number of 3R regenerator nodes needed to
fulfill a BER requirement. Fig. 3 shows that the maximum accep-
table transmission distance without 3R regeneration (i.e., system
reach) for the ADD channels is sufficiently lower than for the DROP
channels. Therefore, number of 3R regenerators that should be
used in a lightpath with OADM/OXC nodes is higher than it might
be needed for a point-to-point configuration. This means that an
extra optical-to-electrical-to-optical (OEO) equipment must be
used. This leads to extra power consumption, and hence, to higher
energy per bit (i.e., lower energy efficiency). In next section (Sec-
tion 4), we will explore the energy per bit as a function of spectral
efficiency, aggregated traffic amount, and overall transmission
distance.
4. Energy per bit versus spectral efficiency, aggregated traffic
and transmission length
To reveal the considered trade-off between these four para-
meters, we will use the figures shown below (see Figs. 4–6). In
Figs. 4 and 5, the aggregated traffic amount and spectral efficiency
in the band are used as variables that were changed, while the link
length was fixed to 2600 km. This is the maximum link length in
Fig. 4. Energy per bit as a function of spectral efficiency and aggregated traffic for the dropped (a) 10 Gbps NRZ-OOK, (b) 40 Gbps NRZ-DPSK, (c) 100 Gbps DP-QPSK
wavelengths after transmission over a 2600 km long WDM link without OADM/OXC.
105
US-Net topology [25]. In Fig. 5, the energy per bit values are color
coded (colors showed in a colorbar contain the information about
specific values of the energy efficiency parameter). Note that the
scale of Z-axis marked with colors (in colorbar) is the same for all
sub-figures. This makes difference between the considered sce-
narios to be more evident. In the same way, in Fig. 5, the spectral
efficiency is the variable assigned to the X-axis and the aggregated
traffic amount is assigned to the Y-axis while the Z-axis is the color
coded. It shows the ratio between these two energy per bit values.
The first one is for the DROP channel and the second is for the ADD
channel. In both cases, system reach and overall power con-
sumption are calculated assuming that there are no other OADM/
OXC nodes in the line and it consists only of 80 km SSMF spans,
DCMs and OLAs.
Having analyzed the energy efficiency that could be gained by
the considered modulation formats – 10G NRZ-OOK (Fig. 4(a)),
40G NRZ-DPSK (Fig. 4(b)), and 100G DP-QPSK (Fig. 4(c)) – some
important conclusions were made. In all three cases, energy con-
sumption per bit does not exceed 10 nJ/bit for the certain combi-
nation of spectral efficiency and aggregated traffic values. For the
10G NRZ-OOK, Epb is limited to 10 nJ/bit if C is above 200 Gbps and
SE is below 0.55 bps/Hz. For the 40 Gbps NRZ-DPSK, energy per bit
required for data transmission over 2600 km long link is below
10 nJ/bit if C4 400 Gbps while SEo0.65 bps/Hz. And, finally, for
the 100G DP-QPSK – C 4300 Gbps while SEo2.80 bps/Hz. In ad-
dition, it should be highlighted that the highest jump in energy
consumption growth is observed for the 10G NRZ-OOK when the
spectral efficiency value is approaching to the maximum tolerable
value. For example, this jump is from the 20 nJ/bit to more than
60 nJ/bit if SE is increased from 0.20 bps/Hz (corresponds to the
50 GHz channel spacing) to 0.80 bps/Hz (corresponds to the
12.5 GHz channel spacing) when aggregated traffic amount is
above 200 Gbps. For the 40G NRZ-DPSK, in this parameter range
Epb would change from 20 nJ/bit to 40 nJ/bit, while for the 100G
DP-QPSK it stays 20 nJ/bit. For the last case, increase of Epb is
observed only when SE is increased above 2.50 bps/Hz. Therefore,
it must be concluded that 100G DP-QPSK modulation format is the
best solution from both parameters – energy per bit and spectral
efficiency.
Energy efficiency changes significantly when we include
OADM/OXC node in considered scenario. The reason is transparent
optical reach which reduces sufficiently due to in-band and in-
coherent crosstalk at the OADM/OXC node. For the cascade of
OADM/OXC nodes, an extra signal distortions could occur due to
the bandwidth narrowing. Optical bandpass filters are used in
OADM structure. The effective bandwidth of cascaded filters could
significantly differ from the full width half maximum (FWHM)
bandwidth of one filter [26]. This reduction depends on the
106 A. Udalcovs, V. Bobrovs / Optics Communications 359 (2016) 102–108

Fig. 5. Ratio between the energy per bit required for the data transmission of added and dropped wavelengths (a) 10 Gbps NRZ-OOK, (b) 40 Gbps NRZ-DPSK, (c) 100 Gbps
DP-QPSK) over 2600 km long WDM link without OADM/OXC nodes as a function of spectral efficiency and aggregated traffic.

number of filters in cascade and their type defined by the shape of
an amplitude square transfer function. All these induce the signal
quality loss and as the result the reduction of transparent optical
reach of considered modulation formats.
This leads to extra 3Rs which must be used to fulfill the signal
quality requirements but the additional OEO equipment means a
higher energy consumption. However, the difference in energy
efficiency between these two scenarios (dropped and added wa-
velengths) disappears with the increase of spectral efficiency. For
the 10G NRZ-OOK and 40G NRZ-DPSK, these two scenarios be-
come equivalent in terms of energy efficiency when spectral effi-
ciency exceeds 0.60 bps/Hz and 0.70 bps/Hz, respectively (see
Fig. 5(a) and (b)). For the 100G DP-QPSK, energy consumption per
transmitted bit for the added and dropped channels becomes
equaled in case of the maximum spectral efficiency in the band
(see Fig. 5(c)). Maximum spectral efficiency forces to place 3R
regenerators almost after each 80 km long SMF span.
Previously, the overall transmission distance was fixed to the
maximum link length in the US-Net topology (i.e., 2600 km). To
evaluate how the energy consumption per bit changes with the
distance, we fixed the spectral efficiency and aggregated traffic
amount. Spectral efficiency was fixed by selecting two different
frequency intervals between co-located wavelengths: (1) 200 GHz
and (2) the minimum acceptable for each considered combination
of bitrate and modulation format. This allows exploring the sce-
narios where system reach is sufficiently higher than the SMF span
length and is equal to it. In last case, power consumption of 3R
regenerators will define mainly the overall energy efficiency
[10,13]. The selected transmission distances are equal to the
minimum, average and maximum link lengths in COST 239 and
US-Net topologies. Finally, the aggregated traffic amount was fixed
to C ¼1 Tbps. Results are plotted in Fig. 6 where the first sub-plot
(Fig. 6(a)) corresponds to scenario when WDM link is connected to
the ADD port of OADM and the second sub-plot (Fig. 6(b)) is for
the link connected to the DROP port.
Energy per bit curves for the added channels show that the
lowest energy consumption per bit could be ensured with the
100G DP-QPSK and 200 GHz channel spacing regardless to the
overall transmission distance. As mentioned in Section 3, in this
case system reach is much higher than the SMF span length. In
turn, the highest energy consumption per transmitted bit has the
40G NRZ-DPSK in case of the minimum channel spacing (50 GHz).
Having analyzed the energy per bit curves for the 200 GHz chan-
nel spacing, it must be highlighted that the 40G NRZ-DPSK is more
energy efficient than the 10G NRZ-OOK if the transmission dis-
tance is below 500 km. For the longer transmissions, the 10G NRZ-
OOK solution becomes more appealing. However, if the minimum
channel spacing values are used in both cases, there is no differ-
ence which non-coherent modulation format to use unless trans-
mission distance is below 190 km. In this case, the 40 G NRZ-DPSK
ensures lower energy consumption per bit.
Situation differs for the second scenario when the DROP port is
considered. Firstly, difference among these energy efficiency
curves are more significant. This could be concluded comparing
the energy per bit curves for the 10G NRZ-OOK and 40G NRZ-DPSK
when 200 GHz and the minimum acceptable frequency intervals
are used. For the ADD ports, these two curves almost overlap.
Secondly, for the 200 GHz channel spacing, 40G NRZ-DPSK secures

Fig. 6. Energy per bit required to transmit 1 Tbps of aggregated traffic over a WDM link which is connected to the (a) ADD and (b) DROP ports of the OADM/OXC node while
channel spacing is set either to 200 GHz or the minimum acceptable due to the linear crosstalk and the BER threshold of 2.10
3.
 A. Udalcovs, V. Bobrovs / Optics Communications 359 (2016) 102–108
the lower energy consumption per bit than the 10G NRZ-OOK
unless the overall transmission distance is above 2600 km. Hence,
Fig. 6 contains several crossing points. All of them are explained
with the contribution of different WDM components (such as
transponders, OLAs, WDM terminals) on the overall energy con-
sumption required. Their contribution changes with the trans-
mission distance due to the different performance in terms of
energy efficiency. For example, the 100G DP-QPSK transponders
have the lowest energy consumption if an aggregated traffic is
above 80 Gbps. However, 3Rs for the 40G NRZ-DPSK formats are
more energy efficient than for the 100G DP-QPSK. As it was re-
ported in [10], energy efficiency is mainly defined by the power
consumption of the 3R regenerators in WDM links with the
maximum spectral efficiency in the band. In this case, 3Rs con-
tribution to the overall energy consumption required for data
transmission is the highest as compared to the contribution of
other components (such as transponders, WDM terminals, and
OLAs). Even for the relatively short transmission distance as
200 km, the 3Rs contribution to overall energy consumption is
more than 70%.
Therefore, with the increase of transmission distance and/or
spectral efficiency another solution (bitrate and modulation for-
mat) could become more appealing in terms of power consump-
tion required for the transmission of 1 bps of aggregated traffic.
5. Concluding remarks
In this paper, the energy consumption per transmitted bit (so-
called, energy per bit) has been explored as a function of the
(1) bitrate and modulation format, (2) spectral efficiency in the
frequency band available for transmission, (3) overall transmission
distance after which a certain signal quality must be guaranteed,
and, finally, (4) aggregated traffic amount which must be trans-
mitted from a destination to a receiving node. For this purpose,
two different models were derived: (1) power consumption model
and (2) transmission model. Both these models are discussed in
details in another paper. Therefore, the object of this paper is not
the derived power consumption and transmission models. They
are just tools used for this research which focuses on the growth in
energy per bit due to OADM/OXC nodes in WDM fiber-optical links
where data are transmitted using 10G NRZ-OOK, 40G NRZ-DPSK
and 100G DP-QPSK modulation formats.
Having analyzed this trade-off, it is concluded that the 100G
DP-QPSK is the best solution in terms of both – energy con-
sumption per transmitted bit and spectral efficiency that could be
reached in the fiber frequency band where these data will be
transmitted. It is found out that energy consumption required for
1 bit transmission growths more than two times due to residual
crosstalk that experience added channel from the previously
dropped channel in OADM/OXC node. This crosstalk from dropped
channel sufficiently limits the system reach at low spectral effi-
ciencies in the band. Therefore, to reach the same distance more
often 3R regenerators must be placed. This leads to an extra power
consumption and lower energy efficiency. However, difference
between the energy per bit required for the data transmission
using the added and dropped wavelengths in WDM system dis-
appears with the increase of spectral efficiency. If 10G NRZ-OOK or
40G NRZ-DPSK are used, the spectral efficiencies in the band must
be above 0.60 bps/Hz and 0.70 bps/Hz, respectively. For the 100G
DP-QPSK formats, these two scenarios are equivalent if the max-
imum acceptable spectral efficiency (3.20 bps/Hz) is reached. This
is explained by the optical signal 3R regeneration after each 80 km
long SSMF spans. In addition, it should be highlighted that energy
per bit for the added 100G DP-QPSK wavelength is the lowest one
regardless to the transmission distance and the spectral efficiency
107
in the band if the aggregated traffic is large enough (e.g., 1 Tbps).
In contrast, for the dropped channels (corresponds to the point-to-
point configuration) the 40G NRZ-DPSK ensured the lowest energy
consumption per bit in WDM links where optical signals are 3R
regenerated in each intermediate node that are placed every
40 km (the medium span lengths between two consecutive OLAs),
details see in [10]. Therefore, for the further improvement of en-
ergy efficiency and better understanding of this trade-off, SSMF
span length and usage of FEC must be considered as additional
variables.
Acknowledgment
This work has been supported by the European Social Fund
within the project no. 2013/0012/1DP/1.1.1.2.0/13/APIA/VIAA/051.
References
[1] P. Chowdhury, M. Tornatore, B. Mukherjee, On the energy efficiency of mixed-
line-rate networks, in: Proceedings of the OFC/NFOEC, 2010. paper: OWY3.pdf.
[2] Y. Zhang, P. Chowdhury, M. Tornatore, B. Mukherjee, Energy efficiency in
telecom optical networks, IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor. 12 (4) (2010)
441–458.
[3] J.L. Vizcaino, Y. Ye, I.T. Monroy, Energy efficiency analysis for flexible-grid
OFDM-based optical networks, Int. J. Comput. Telecommun. Netw. 56 (10)
(2012) 2400–2419.
[4] J.L. Vizcaino, Y. Ye, I.T. Monroy, Energy efficiency in elastic-bandwidth optical
networks, in: Proceedings of NoF, 2011, pp. 107–111.
[5] Cisco Systems Inc., Cisco visual networking index: forecast and methodology
2014–2019, White paper, May 27, 2015, pp. 1–14.
[6] G. Rizzelli, A. Morea, M. Tornatore, A. Pattavina, Reach-related energy con-
sumption in IP-over-WDM 100G translucent networks, J. Lightwave Technol.
31 (11) (2013) 1828–1834.
[7] U.S. Energy Information Administration, International Energy Outlook 2014,
Report DOE/EIA-0484, 2014, 57 pp.
[8] R.S. Tucker, Green optical communications – Part I: energy limitations in
transport, IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 17 (2) (2011) 245–260.
[9] R.S. Tucker, Green optical communications – Part II: energy limitations in
network, IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 17 (2) (2011) 261–274.
[10] A. Udalcovs, P. Monti, V. Bobrovs, R. Schatz, L. Wosinska, Power efficiency of
WDM networks using various modulation formats with spectral efficiency
limited by linear crosstalk, Opt. Commun. 318 (2014) 31–36.
[11] A. Udalcovs, P. Monti, V. Bobrovs, R. Schatz, L. Wosinska, G. Ivanovs, Spectral
and energy efficiency consideration in mixed-line rate WDM networks with
signal quality guarantee, in: Proceedings of ICTON, 2013, pp. 1–7. paper: Tu.
D1.3.
[12] A. Udalcovs, V. Bobrovs, G. Ivanovs, Comparison between power efficiencies
of mixed-line rate over single-line rate in spectral efficient WDM
networks with signal quality guarantee, in: Proceedings of LATINCOM, 2013,
pp. 1–6.
[13] A. Udalcovs, P. Monti, R. Schatz, V. Bobrovs, L. Wosinska, Analysis of energy
and spectral efficiency trade-offs in fiber-optical links for single-line rate
WDM networks, unpublished.
[14] V. Bobrovs, P. Gavars, I. Trifonovs, G. Ivanovs, A. Udalcovs, Transponder impact
on power and spectral efficiencies in WDM links based on 10-40-100 Gbps
mixed-line rate, in: Proceedings of PIERS, 2014, pp. 1664–1668.
[15] A. Udalcovs, V. Bobrovs, Transponder and 3R regenerator impact on energy
per bit and optical bandwidth required for data transmission over
10-40-100 Gbps mixed-line rate WDM links, in: Proceeding of PIERS, 2015,
pp. 510-513.
[16] International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Recommendation G.709: In-
terface of the Optical Transport Network, 02/12, 2012.
[17] Civcom Devices&Systems Ltd., 100G DP-(D)QPSK Coherent Tunable Trans-
ponder, Datasheet DOC-11-901-00, 2014.
[18] M. Olmedo, X. Pang, A. Udalcovs, R. Schtaz, D. Zibar, G. Jacobsen, S. Popov I.
Monroy, Impact of carrier induced frequency noise from the transmitter laser
on 28 and 56 Gbaud DP-QPSK metro links, in: Proceedings of ACP, 2014, pp. 1–
3. paper: ATh1E.
[19] W.V. Heddeghem, F. Izdikowski, W. Vereecken, D. Colle, M. Pickavet,
P. Demester, Power consumption modeling in optical multilayer networks, J.
Photonic Netw. Commun. 24 (2012) 86–102.
[20] W.V. Heddeghem, F. Izdikowski, W. Vereecken, D. Colle, M. Pickavet,
P. Demester, Equipment power consumption in optical multilayer networks –
source data, J. Photonic Netw. Commun. 24 (2012) 1–28.
[21] L. Velasco, A. Jirattigalachote, M. Ruiz, P. Monti, L. Wosinska, G. Junyent, Sta-
tistical approach for fast impairment-aware provisioning in dynamic all-op-
tical networks, J. Opt. Commun. Netw. 4 (2) (2012) 130–141.
108 A. Udalcovs, V. Bobrovs / Optics Communications 359 (2016) 102–108
[22] S. Pachnicke, J. Reichert, S. Spälter, E. Voges, Fast analytical assessment of the
signal quality in transparent optical networks, J. Lightwave Techol. 24 (2)
(2006) 815–824.
[23] S.D. Dods, R.S. Tucker, A Comparison of the homodyne crosstalk characteristics
of optical add-drop multiplexers, J. Lightwave Technol. 19 (12) (2001)
1829–1838.
[24] A. Tzanakaki, I. Zacharopoulos, I. Tomkos, Broadband building blocks: node
architecture for wavelength-routed optical networks offer increased func-
tionality, capacity and reach, IEEE Circuits Devices Mag. 20 (2) (2004)
32–37.
[25] P. Batchelor, et al., Study on the implementation of optical transparent
transport networks in the European environment-results of the
research project COST 239, J. Photonic Netw. Commun. 2 (1) (2000)
15–32.
[26] O. Ozolins, Y. An, Z. Lali-Dastjerdi, Y. Ding, V. Bobrovs, G. Ivanovs, C. Peucheret,
Cascadability of silicon microring resonators for 40-Gbit/s OOK and DPSK
optical signals,in: Proceedings of the Asia Communications and Photonics
conference (ACP), 2012. paper AS1G1.pdf.