OPTICAL NETWORK ELEMENTS

DWDM technology
is more cost effective more flexible for up gradation of channel capacity, add/drop of channels, re-routing traffic distribution, supports all types of network topology
protection systems synchronization

The main Network Elements are:

TP (Transponder) MUX (Multiplexer) DEMUX (De-multiplexer) Optical Amplifiers OADM OXC

TRANSPONDER (TP):
is interface between STM-n wide pulse optical signal and MUX/DEMUX equipments. optical signal may be co-located or coming from different physical mediums, different protocols and traffic types. converts the wide pulse signal into a narrow wavelength (spot or colored frequency) of the order of nano-meter (nm) with spacing of 1.6 nm; sending to MUX.

 In the recieve direction, colored output from the DEMUX is converted to wide pulse optical signal. output power level is +1 to 3 dbm in both directions. The conversion is optical to Electrical and Electrical to optical (O to E & E to O) in 2R or 3R method. In 2R, regeneration and re-shaping are done while in 3R, regeneration, re-shaping and re-timing are performed. TP may be wavelength colour and bit rate dependent or tunable for both (costly and not used). in 2R, any bit rate, PDH, STM-4 or STM-16 may be the channel rate. The unit has limitation with receiver sensitivity and overload point.

 the intermediate electrical stage is inaccessible, overhead bytes of STM-n are utilized for supervisory purpose. unit also supports optical safety operation (ALS) as over ITU-T Recommendation G.957.

MULTIPLEXER (MUX) AND DEMULTIPLEXER (De-MUX)

DWDM systems send signals from several stations over a single fiber, they must include some means to combine the incoming signals.
This is done with a Multiplexer, which takes optical wavelengths from multiple fibers and converges them into a beam.

 At the receiving end the system must be able to separate out the transmitted wavelengths of the light beam so that they can be discretely detected. Demultiplexer separates the received beam into its wavelength components and couples them into individual fibers.

 Multiplexers and Demultiplexers can be either passive or active in design. Passive design uses Prism, diffraction gratings, or filters
while active design combine passive devices with tunable filters,.

 primary challenges in these devices are: to minimize cross talk and maximize channel separation (wavelength difference between two adjacent channels). Cross talk is a measure of how well the channels are separated, while channel separation refers to the ability to distinguish each wavelength.

OPTICAL AMPLIFIERS (OAs)

were used as repeaters in simplex mode. One fiber was used in send path and second fiber was used in return path. the latest optical amplifiers will operate in two directions at the same time. We can even use the same wavelength in two directions provided two different bit rates are employed. A single fiber can, therefore be used for duplex operation. The optical amplifiers must also have sufficient bandwidth to pass a range of signals operating at different wavelengths. For example, an SLA with a spectral bandwidth of say, 40 nm, can handle about different ten optical signals.

Classification of Amplifier:
1. On manufacturing procedure basis Semi-conductor Laser Amplifier (SLA) Fabry-Perot amplifier FPSLA Traveling Wave amplifier TWSLA

2. Rare Earth Doped Fibre Amplifier Erbium Doped Fibre Amplifier EDFA Praseodymium Doped Fibre Amplifier PDFA Neodymium doped Amplifier Telluride based EDFA Holmium and Thulium Doped Amplifier

3. Using fibre non-linearity Raman Amplifier Brillouin Amplifier 4. On channel basis Single channel (For Point to Point PDH/SDH systems) Multi-channel (for DWDM systems) 5. Types based on pumping: Co-directional pumping. Counter directional pumping. Dual pumping

Types based on configuration:

1. Booster Amplifier- Booster amplifiers are used immediately after the transmitter or multiplexer to increase the output power. 2. In-line Amplifier- In-line amplifiers are used to directly replace optical regenerators.

3. Pre-Amplifier- Pre-amplifiers are used before the receiver or demultiplexer to increase the received power and extend distance.

Types of Amplifier based on Fig.8. Passage from optical/electrical regenerators to optical amplifiers configuration
Booster

Tx
Preamplifier

Rx

Tx
In-line amplifier

Rx

Tx
Fig.9. Applications for optical amplifiers

Rx

 Use of each configuration must be considered by the systems designer. problems come when considering non-linear effects in the transmission fiber and also generated by the amplifiers. Some of the requirements for optical amplifiers for DWDM purpose are : - high gain - low noise - flat amplification profile

Semiconductor Amplifiers :
basic travelling wave semiconductor laser amplifier (TWSLA) consists of a Fabry-Perot laser structure with facet reflectivities of less than 10-3 to ensure optimal gain, bandwidth, insensitivity to variations in bias current and input polarization. TE and TM components refer to the output powers in the transverse electric and magnetic modes of the semiconductor wave-guide. possess a degree of sensitivity to input polarization for some 3 dB variation of the mean gain. careful device design or the use of an automatic gain control system can reduce this effect to be negligible in a system's context.

Semiconductor Optical Amplifier

Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs)

are essentially laser diodes, without end mirrors, which have fiber attached to both ends. They amplify any optical signal that comes from either fiber and transmit an amplified version of the signal out of the second fiber. SOAs are typically constructed in a small package, and they work for 1310 nm and 1550 nm systems. they transmit bidirectionally, making the reduced size of the device an advantage over regenerators of EDFAs. the drawbacks to SOAs include high-coupling loss, polarization dependence, and a higher noise figure.

Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers

Optical fibres can also achieve direct amplification of a light signal without converting into its electrical equivalent by doping with a special material called erbium. This amplifier depends on material gain defined by the erbium doping of a relatively short section (1-100 m) of silica fibre pumped with optical rather than an electrical energy. can amplify a weak light signal if pumped with a laser. Since these optical fibre amplifiers can amplify light signals without any complicated equipment, they are useful for non-repeated long distance communications such as transoceanic undersea optical cables and for the multicasting of general optical subscriber systems or optical CATV systems.

 optical fibre amplifiers have greater gain and can also amplify independently of polarized states of light compared to the semiconductor laser amplifiers, they are difficult to integrate on a single chip, the pumping light, is hard to separate. If the light having a wavelength in the neighbourhood of 980 nm or 1480 nm is pumped into erbium-doped fibre, electrons in the fibre get excited by absorbing the energy of the pumped light and gather around the energy level of the 1.52 to 1.56 nm wavelength. If input light at a 1.55 nm wavelength passes through the erbium doped fibre, then the excited electrons transfer their energy to the input light,

 It takes about 10 msec for the excited electrons to return to the ground state after emitting their energy into the 1.55 nm light, so it is possible to accumulate enough energy for light amplification. these optical amplifiers an essential fiber optic system building block for DWDM. EDFAs allow information to be transmitted over longer distances without the need for conventional repeaters. The fiber is doped with erbium, a rare earth element, that has the appropriate energy levels in their atomic structures for amplifying light. EDFAs are designed to amplify light at 1550 nm.

 The device utilizes a 980 nm or 1480nm pump laser to inject energy into the doped fiber. When a weak signal at 1310 nm or 1550 nm enters the fiber, the light stimulates the rare earth atoms to release their stored energy as additional 1550 nm or 1310 nm light. This process continues as the signal passes down the fiber, growing stronger and stronger as it goes.

Structure of Forward Pumping EDFA

 An EDFA consists of : a pumping light source, wavelength-selective coupler, isolators, erbium-doped fibre, The pumping light source provide energy for light amplification, and semiconductor lasers at the resonance wavelength of 0.98 or 1.48 nm are used as the pumping light source. The wavelength-selective coupler couples or decouples the pumping light and the input light, isolators isolates the reflected lights. is the forward-pumping EDFA in which the pumping light travels towards the same direction as the input light, but the backward-pumping EDFA is also available in which the pumping light travels in the reverse direction.

 EDFA amplifies the light signal by 10 dB or more, transmission distance increasess by 20 to 50 km. The EDFA can be installed in the transmitting end, in the receiving end, or in the repeater. The EDFA installed in the transmitter works as a power amplifier, whereas the EDFA in the receiver takes the role of a preamplifier, which increases the receiver sensitivity by amplifying the weak received signal. the receiver to be capable of suppressing the noise generated in the fibre amplifier to the minimum level. for the EDFA installed in the repeater, both power amplification and noise suppression are important.

 Transmitters equipped with the EDFA can be used for trunk transmission, subscriber loop distribution, and CATV distribution, repeaters equipped with EDFA can be used in submarine cables and other long distance cables. Two interesting features of these amplifiers are the precise definition of the operation wavelength via the erbium doping and their relative immunity to signal dependent effects owing to the long carrier recovery time. They can, therefore, be engineered to maintain wide bandwidths when cascaded.

 EDFA system consist of a pump laser, a coupler device to join signal and pump light and an erbium-doped piece of fibre of several meters of length A pump laser at between 980 nm and 1480 nm lifts electrons of the Erbium ions from energy E1 to a higher, excited energy level. In the next step the electrons fall down a little to the energy level E2. it is ensured that pump light and signal light don't influence each other. Finally, the phenomenon of "induced emission" is used.

 A photon of our signal light passes the electron; consequently that electron falls down to its former energy E1 at the same time emitting another photon identical to the one which has just passed. Thus, the signal is amplified. in the EDFA the pump light is converted to signal light, in that way amplifying the signal.

Advantages
- Simultaneous amplification of the whole 1550 nm area. - Total output power 1 to 1000 mw possible. - Large dynamic ranges. - Suitable for long-haul applications.

Raman Fibre Amplifier

Raman scattering was considered to be impairment to fiber performance. hybrid networks use Raman amplification to obtain greater distance performance. Characteristics include: Silicon fiber used as the gain mechanism Not as efficient as erbium; however, the lower efficiency is compensated for by the higher linear density of silicon in the fiber Amplifies over C-, L-, and S-bands

 utilize stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) to create optical gain. By applying SRS the noise background has increased, making the amplitudes of the six wavelengths different. The lower wavelengths have smaller amplitude than the upper wavelengths. The SRS effectively robbed energy from the lower wavelength and fed that energy to the upper wavelength.

Received Spectrum After SRS is on a Long Fiber

 The optical amplification occurs in the transmission fiber itself, distributed along the transmission path. Optical signals are amplified up to 10 dB in the network optical fiber. The Raman optical amplifiers have a wide gain bandwidth (up to 10 nm). They can use any installed transmission optical fiber. they reduce the effective span loss to improve noise performance by boosting the optical signal in transit. They can be combined with EDFAs to expand optical gain flattened bandwidth.

 Raman optical amplifier consists of: The pump laser and circulator
pump laser, has a wavelength of 1535 nm. The circulator provides a convenient means of injecting light backwards into the transmission path with minimal optical loss.

 The pump laser is injected at the transmit end rather than the receive end The pump laser has a wavelength of 1535 nm; the amplitude is much larger than the data signals.

OADM
An optical filter is used to isolate, or drop the desired wavelength from multiple wavelengths arriving on a fibre. Once a wavelength is dropped another channel employing the same wavelength can be added, or inserted on to the fiber as it leaves OADM. A simple ADM has only 4 inputs and outputs channels, each with 4 wavelengths. In OADM ,wavelengths might be amplified ,equalized or further processed. OADM arranges the wavelengths from input fiber to output fiber by using optical cross connect.

Optical Cross Connects

STS-N

DS-1 ATM

DS-3

DS-1 STS-1

DS-1

DS-3 DS-3 DS-3

Electrical Switch Matrix

STS-N

DS-1 DS-1 DS-1

ATM ATM ATM

STS-N

DS-3

ATM

STS-N

STS-1

STS-N ATM DS-1 DS-3

OXC (OOO)- photonic crossconnect (PXC)

2 4

1
Optical Switch Fabric

3 4 1 2