WAVELENGTH DIVISION MULTIPLEXING

(WDM) AND DENSE WAVELENGTH DIVISION

MULTIPLEXING (DWDM) SYSTEM

Presenting By: Instructor:

Subash Shrestha(41023) Asst. Prof. Om Nath Acharya
Electrical and Electronics Department of Electrical and
Engineering(Communication) Electronics Engineering
4th Year/1st Sem Kathmandu University
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 OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION
1. Multiplexing
2. Types of Multiplexing
3. WDM
4. Working principle of WDM
5. Advantages and disadvantages of WDM
6. Types of WDM
7. DWDM
8. Working principle of DWDM
9. Advantages and disadvantages of DWDM

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 MULTIPLEXING
• It is the set of technique that allow the simultaneous transmission of multiple
signal over a single data link.

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 TYPES OF MULTIPLEXING
There are three types of multiplexing. They are:
1) Frequency Division Multiplexing(FDM)
2) Time Division Multiplexing(TDM)
3) Wavelength Division Multiplexing(WDM)

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 FREQUENCY DIVISION MULTIPLEXING
(FDM)
Frequency division multiplexing involves simultaneously transmitting multiple
signals on different frequencies.

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 TIME DIVISION MULTIPLEXING (TDM)
In TDM, incoming signals are divided into equal fixed-length time slots. After
multiplexing, these signals are transmitted over a shared medium and
reassembled into their original format after de-multiplexing. Time slot selection is
directly proportional to overall system efficiency.

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 WAVELENGTH DIVISION MULTIPLEXING
(WDM)
• Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is a technique of multiplexing
multiple optical carrier signals through a single optical fiber channel by
varying the wavelengths of laser/LED lights.
• WDM allows communication in both the directions in the fiber cable.

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 BLOCK DIAGRAM OF WDM

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 WORKING PRINCIPLE OF WDM

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 WORKING PRINCIPLE OF WDM
• At the transmitting end, the optical signal output from the terminal device is first
converted into an optical signal with a stable specific wavelength by using an
Optical Transform Unit (OTU).
• The multi-path optical signal is synthesized by a multiplexer, and then the multi-
path optical signal is amplified and output through an Booster Amplifier (BA).
• Mostly Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers(EDFAs) as amplifier.
• At the receiving end, an optical pre-amplifier (PA) amplifies the main channel
optical signal that is attenuated through transmission, and uses a demultiplexer to
divide the optical channel of a specific wavelength from the main channel optical
signal.
• The receiver must not only meet the requirements of general receivers for optical
signal sensitivity, overload power and other parameters, but also be able to
withstand signals with certain optical noise and have sufficient electrical bandwidth
performance.
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 WORKING PRINCIPLE OF WDM

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 WDM
• WDM does not impact transmission speed, latency and bandwidth.
• WDM functions as multiplexing multiple optical signals on a single fiber by
using different wavelengths, or colors, of laser light to carry different signals.
• Most WDM systems operates on single mode fiber optical cables, which have a
core diameter of 9 micrometer. Certain forms of WDM can also be used in
multi mode fiber cables which have core, diameter of 50 or 62.5 micrometer.

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 WHY IS WDM USED?

With the exponential growth in communications, caused mainly by the wide

acceptance of the Internet, many carriers are finding that their estimates of fiber
needs have been highly underestimated.
Although most cables included many spare fibers when installed, this growth has
used many of them and new capacity is needed. So WDM is used.

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 ADVANTAGES OF WDM
•Easier to reconfigure
•Full duplex transmission is possible
•It provides higher bandwidth
•Optical component are similar and more reliable
•High security

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 DISADVANTAGES OF WDM
•Cost of the system increases with the addition of optical components
•Difficulty in wavelength tuning
•Inefficiency in BW utilization
•Difficulty in a cascaded topology

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 TYPES OF WDM
1) Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing(CWDM)
2) Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM)

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 CWDM
CWDM increases fiber capacity in either 4, 8, or 18 channel increments. By
increasing the channel spacing between wavelengths on the fiber, CWDM allows
for a simple and affordable method of carrying up to 18 channels on a single fiber.
CWDM channels each consume 20 nm of space and together use up most of the
single-mode operating range.

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 DWDM
• Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) combines multiple signals on
the same fiber, ranging up to 40 or 80 channels.
• DWDM can handle higher speed protocols, even 400Gbps per channel.
• Each channel is only 0.8nm apart instead of the 20nm you would find in a CWDM
system. DWDM channels are in the 1550nm region of the fiber, which is the area
in the fiber that has the lowest loss.
• The 1550 region is in a stable, low-loss valley surrounded by areas of high loss on
either side.
• On either side of the 1550 region, the loss of the fiber quickly increases and
becomes less suitable for optical networking applications.

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 BLOCK DIAGRAM OF DWDM

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 DWDM SYSTEM COMPONENTS
A DWDM system generally consists of five components:
• Optical Transmitters/Receivers
• DWDM Mux/DeMux Filters
• Optical Add/Drop Multiplexers (OADMs)
• Optical Amplifiers
• Transponders (Wavelength Converters).

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 OPTICAL TRANSMITTERS/RECEIVERS
• They provide the source signals which are then multiplexed.
• Multiple optical transmitters are used as the light sources in a DWDM system.
• Incoming electrical data bits (0 or 1) trigger the modulation of a light stream
• Lasers create pulses of light.
• Each light pulse has an exact wavelength (lambda) expressed in nanometers (nm).
• Pulses of light propagate across the optical fiber by way of total internal reflection.
• At the receiving end, another optical sensor (photodiode) detects light pulses and
converts the incoming optical signal back to electrical form

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 DWDM MUX/DEMUX FILTERS
• Multiple wavelengths (all within the 1550 nm band) created by multiple transmitters
and operating on different fibers are combined onto one fiber by way of an optical
filter (Mux filter).
• The output signal of an optical multiplexer is referred to as a composite signal.
• At the receiving end, an optical drop filter (DeMux filter) separates all of the
individual wavelengths of the composite signal out to individual fibers.
• The individual fibers pass the demultiplexed wavelengths to as many optical
receivers.

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 OPTICAL ADD/DROP MULTIPLEXERS
• It is designed to only add or drop optical signals with a particular wavelength.

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 OPTICAL ADD/DROP MULTIPLEXERS
• In figure from left to right, an incoming composite signal is broken into two components,
drop and pass-through.
• The dropped signal stream is passed to the receiver of a client device.
• The remaining optical signals that pass through the OADM are multiplexed with a new
add signal stream.
• The OADM adds a new red optical signal stream, which operates at the same wavelength
as the dropped signal.
• The new optical signal stream is combined with the pass-through signals to form a new
composite signal.

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 OPTICAL AMPLIFIERS
• Optical amplifiers boost the amplitude or add gain to optical signals passing on a fiber by
directly stimulating the photons of the signal with extra energy.
• Optical amplifiers amplify optical signals across a broad range of wavelengths.
•  Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFAs) are the most commonly used type of in-fiber
optical amplifiers.

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 TRANSPONDERS (WAVELENGTHS
CONVERTERS)/OEO
• Transponders are Optical-Electrical-Optical (O-E-O) wavelength converters.
• A transponder converts the client optical signal back to an electrical signal (O-E) and
then performs either 2R (Reamplify, Reshape) or 3R (Reamplify, Reshape, and
Retime) functions.

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 TRANSPONDERS (WAVELENGTHS
CONVERTERS)/OEO
• From left to right in figure , the transponder receives an optical bit stream operating at
one particular wavelength (1310 nm).
• The transponder converts the operating wavelength of the incoming bitstream. It
transmits its output into a DWDM system.
• On the receive side (right to left), the process is reversed. The transponder receives
bitstream and converts the signals back to the wavelength used by the client device.

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 HOW DWDM SYSTEM COMPONENTS
WORK TOGETHER WITH DWDM
TECHNOLOGY
1. The transponder accepts input in the form of a standard single-mode or
multimode laser pulse. The input can come from different physical media and
different protocols and traffic types.
2. The wavelength of the transponder input signal is mapped to a DWDM
wavelength.
3. DWDM wavelengths from the transponder are multiplexed with signals from
the direct interface to form a composite optical signal which is launched into the
fiber.
4. A post-amplifier (booster amplifier) boosts the strength of the optical signal as it
leaves the multiplexer.
5. An OADM is used at a remote location to drop and add bitstreams of a specific
wavelength.
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 HOW DWDM SYSTEM COMPONENTS WORK
TOGETHER WITH DWDM TECHNOLOGY

6. Additional optical amplifiers can be used along the fiber span (in-line amplifier)
as needed.
7. A pre-amplifier boosts the signal before it enters the demultiplexer.
8. The incoming signal is demultiplexed into individual DWDM wavelengths.
9. The individual DWDM lambdas are either mapped to the required output type
through the transponder or they are passed directly to client-side equipment.

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 ADVANTAGES OF DWDM
•Improve scalability
•Provide extra resilience
•Maximum capacity system available
•Can conserve switched bandwidth
•Permits multiple logical topological over single physical MAN
•DWDM system capable of longer span length
•Easier network expansion
•Ideal for use in long-haul and areas of greater customer density

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 DISADVANTAGES OF DWDM
•Not cost effective for low channel numbers
•Complex technology requires
•More space, more power
•Startup cost more than equivalent CWDM
•High accuracy laser and wave filter
•Active DWDM solutions require a lot of set-up and maintenance expense

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 APPLICATION OF DWDM
1.Be Used for amplified DWDM networks, Fiber Channel, fixed and reconfigurable
OADM ring network topologies, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet(10G), and other
optical transmission systems.
2. DWDM XFP modules, DWDM X2 modules, and DWDM XENPAK modules are
commonly used in applications such as 10G Ethernet, 10G FibChannel, SONET
(Synchronous Optical Network), and SDH (Optical Transmission Equipment).
3. In addition, these DWDM modules can also be used for switch-to-switch interfaces,
switch backplane applications, and router/server interfaces.

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 CONSIDERATIONS FOR DEPLOYING WDM
1.Before buying a mux or demux for use in an unconditioned cabinet or splice case,
verify that the operating temperature will fit the application. And ensure that the
CWDM or DWDM will be able to operate within the temperatures in which they will
be placed.
2.Take the insertion loss of WDM network into account. Using the maximum insertion
loss value in the link budget is a good idea. Calculate the loss for both the mux and
demux components.
3. Channel capacity,
4. Transmission distance= Power Margin/Attenuation.
5.Distance bit rate= channel capacity* fiber length.
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Optical bandwidth= (c/lamda^2)*del lamda; del lamda=spectral band ;
lamda=standard
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 SHOULD WE USE CWDM OR DWDM?

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 RELATED QUESTIONS
1. What is WDM? Describe its working principles.
2. What is DWDM? How does DWDM work?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of DWDM?
4. Differenciate between CWDM and DWDM.

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