Optical Burst Switching (OBS):

Issues in the Physical Layer

A. E. Willner
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

Time Scale in OBS

Control
Packet

O-E-O

Burst

Switch
Offset
Time

Generally, .
Offset time between control packet & burst is 1-5 microsecs
Burst ranges in time from 1 microsec to 100 millisecs
Control packet has a lower bit rate than the data payload

Outline
1. DegradationsDuetoPhysicalLayer
Impairments
2. FastMonitoringofaBurst
3. FiberLoopBuffersforOBSEfficiency

SignalDegradationduetoChromaticDispersion
Speed of Light in Vacuum
Photon Velocity (f) =
Index of Refraction(f)

InformationBandwidthofData
0 1 1 0 1 0

Fourier

Vi

Vj
Vk
fcarrier

time

freq.

TemporalSpreadingf(distance,(bitrate)2)(ps/nm)/km

time

Fiber

time

ChromaticDispersionEffectsonPayloadand
ControlPacket
ControlPacket(C.P.),notpayload,isregenerated
ateverynode
C.P.haslowerbitrate(CDeffect(bitrate)2)
Thereishigherchanceforpayloadtobedegraded
t

Payload C.P.

Node

Node
Node
Node

OffsetTimeAffectedbyWavelengthSkew:
UncompensatedSystems(2.5Gbit/sPayload?)
C.P.
t
Payload

30nm

400kmofFiber
(CD=17ps/(nm.km))

Offset
C.P.
t

Skew
Payload

t
Offset

Offsettimechange~1s

Eye closure Penalty (dB)

Value of Tunable Dispersion Compensation

(40 Gbit/s Payload)
No Compensation

Fixed 80 km Compensator

OC-768

4
3

Tunable
Compensator
(500-2100 ps/nm)

2
1
0

20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

Distance (km)
A tunable dispersion compensator allows for a wide
range of transmission distances at 40 Gbit/s.

Polarization-related Impairments in HighPerformance Systems

Degradation based on
non-catastrophic
events

Polarization state
generally unknown
and wanders

Polarization-mode-dispersion (PMD)
Polarization dependent loss (PDL)

Statistically
varies with time

Random polarization
coupling

Bit-rate and
wavelength
dependent

Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD)

crosssection

sideview

EllipticalFiberCore

1st-order PMD = DGD

The 2 polarization modes propagate at different speeds.

Probability of Exceeding a Specific DGD (%)
50

10

Maxwellian
distribution
tail

Distribution
Probability

10

0.1

20

30

40

Differential Group Delay (ps)

50

PMD induces
randomly changing
degradations.
Critical limitation at
10 Gbit/s payload
data rates.

Time Rate of PMD Change

2.5
2.0

48.8 km buried cable

1.5

Temp. (C)

(b) Fast Fluctuation

Occurrence

PMD (ps)

(a) Slow Fluctuation

Frequency of occurrence
induced by PMD
fluctuation

52 km fiber
>=2.8 ps

18
14
10
0

400
Time (min)

800

PMD variations due to temperature

changes: hours to days
J. Cameron, et al., OFC 1998

Time Span (ms)

Mechanical vibrations: milliseconds
to minutes
H. Bulow, et al., OFC 1999

PMD temporal changes more rapidly with the fiber length and average DGD

Fiber Nonlinearities
Refractive index depends on frequency and power
Isolation of nonlinear
effects is very difficult
It is also difficult to
monitor and compensate

n(,P)
Chromatic Dispersion Power
50ps Pulse (+)
50ps Pulse (0)
50ps Pulse (-)

Power Penalty (dB)

Chromatic 6dispersion changes the effects of nonlinearity

wdm

-28

410 Gb/s

5
-29

Link Dispersion
0.4 ps/nm/km

4
-30

0.08 ps/nm/km
-0.2 ps/nm/km

-31
3
-32
2
-33

50-ps RZ Pulses

-34

-35

00

500
500

1000
1000

1500
1500

Distance (km)

2000
2000

Dispersion
Variation
~ 4%

EDFA Gain
Deployed EDFA cross saturation causes gain transients
due to:
Time scale of
Channel turn-on
gain saturation
Channel re-routing
Network reconfiguration
and recovery is
Link failures
~ s to ms

EDFA
Input
Channels

Output
Channels
EDFA

Dropped
Channels

10 Gb/s
Simulation Results
Fiber
Nonlinearity
Penalties
15Chsdropped
15Chsadded
16chSystem
Power of the

surviving channel
Power Fluctuations
increases up to 14 dB

erExcursion(dB)

15Chs
Hayee,
15Chs
ThU2
LargeOFC99
penalties
in surviving
Single
Mode
Fiber
dropped
added

channel due to SPM

QFactor(dB)

TimeResponse
1dBpowerexcursionforsurvivingchannels
10

1.0

Time(s)

7.5

0.75

5.0

0.5

2.5

0.25

0.0

0.0

6
8
#ofEDFAs

10

12

ReciprocalTime(s1)

4channelsdropped
4channelssurvive

Zyskind,OFC96PD31

Outline
1. DegradationsDuetoPhysicalLayer
Impairments
2. FastMonitoringofaBurst
3. FiberLoopBuffersforOBSEfficiency

Window of Operability in OBS

Window of operability is shrinking as systems become more complex
Ensuring a long-term stable and healthy network is tricky

format
number of
channels

bit rate

power

nonlinearities
polarization
effects

dispersion

MonitoringinOBSSystems
Monitoring includes;
- Power
- Wavelength
- Optical signal-to-noise ratio
- Distortion: CD, PMD, nonlinearities

Monitoring time scale corresponds to that of OBS (s ~ ms)

Dynamic monitoring covers the wide range of both
multi-wavelength payloads and control packets

ImpactofMonitoringonOBSSystems
Need to find the non-catastrophic problems
in OBS systems
- Enable the functionality of error-free
assembly nodes combined with tunable
compensator
- Maintain the accurate offset time
- Locate and measure the distortion of payload
and control packets
- Support protocol-independent WDM transport
- Isolate different degrading effects

Impairment- & Security-Aware Routing

Present network : very few variables (i.e. # of hops)
are used to determine the routing table although there
are several variables on the physical state

Future networks:

Monitor the channel quality and link security

and update the routing look-up tables
continually
In the routing decisions ensure that:
Channels achieve acceptable BER
Network achieves sufficient transmission and
protection capacity
Highest priority data is transmitted on the strongest
and most secure links

Vestigial Sideband Optical Filtering

Optical Carrier

f
VSB-U

VSB-L

BW

fU f0

fL

Frequency

Filter BW = (0.8 ~ 1.2) bit-rate (Rb)

Filter detuning f = (0.4 ~ 0.8) Rb

Monitor Clock Phase

1.5

Isolate CD from PMD effects

Low cost
Filtered
spectrum

40-Gb/s
RZ Data

VSB-L

Entire
channel

0.5
0.0
0

Dispersion

1.0

O/E

VSB-U

50

100

Time (ps)

150

1.5
1.0

Filtered
spectrum

0.5
0.0
0

50

100

Time (ps)

150

Time delay ( t ) between two VSB signals is a function of CD

Bits can be recovered from either part of the spectrum
Q. Yu, JLT, Dec., 2002

PMD Monitoring Techniques

A.
Eye opening
measurement
Requires high- speed
devices (demonstrated
for 160 Gb/s RZ signal)
Affected by other
distortion sources
+ Can be integrated
with electronic
equalization

B.
RF spectrum
analysis
+ Simple
Affected by other
distortion sources
Sensitivity and
DGD range depends
on monitored
frequency

C.
Degree of
polarization (DOP)
measurement
+ No high speed electronics
+ Depends only on PMD
+ Bit-rate independent
+ Unaffected by other
distortion sources
Pulse-width dependent

Outline
1. DegradationsDuetoPhysicalLayer
Impairments
2. FastMonitoringofaBurst
3. FiberLoopBuffersforOBSEfficiency

Research Goals
(Generously Supported by Intel)
Control Line

Control Unit

Control Packet
Burst
Data Burst
Lines
N

Delay Lines
M

(N+M) x (N+M)

Switch
N+M=8
Optical Fiber
Delay Lines

Simulate an 8 X 8 switch with feedback buffering

Determine the optimal number of input/output ports and delay lines
Simulate delay lines having recirculation capability
Investigate the effect of random burst size

Optimal Number of Input Ports and

Delay Lines
Throughput Efficiency

Buffered
(5,3)
(4,0)

(N,M) (N input data lines

(4,4)

M delay lines)

(7,1)
(6,2)

(5,0)
(6,0)

(7,0)

Bufferless

Buffer Size
# of
input
ports

1st
Buffer
Kbytes

2nd
Buffer
Kbytes

3rd
Buffer
Kbytes

4th
Buffer
Kbytes

5.5

10

5.5

10

5.5

10

10

Load

(5,3) setup gives a higher throughput than a (4,4) and (6,2) setup
Is this scalable to a switch with more number to ports ?

Throughput Efficiency vs. Load for

Different Maximum Burst Sizes
Maximum = 2 Kbytes

Throughput Efficiency

burst size

Maximum = 10 Kbytes
burst size
Maximum = 14 Kbytes
burst size
Maximum = 20 Kbytes
burst size

Load

The throughput efficiency decreases with increase in burst size.

Buffer size = max. burst size, 3 buffers for 5,3 case.

Effect of Adding Buffers on

Throughput Efficiency
Increase in
Throughput Efficiency

(4, 4) Switch
4 Buffers
3 Buffers
2 Buffers
1 Buffer

Bufferless

Load

Throughput efficiency does not increases with the number

of delay lines
For an 8 x 8 switch, it is beneficial to have 2 or 3 delay lines

Throughput Efficiency

Throughput Efficiency for Recirculation

(5, 3) Switch
Bufferless
1 Round Trip
2 Recirculations
3 Recirculations
5 Recirculations
10 Recirculations

Load

With 3 recirculations the throughput efficiency of approximately

86% can be achieved.
5th recirculation increases the throughput by only ~1%.

Increase in Throughput
Efficiency

Increase in Throughput Efficiency

with Buffers and Recirculation
Bufferless
1 Buffer
2 Buffers
3 Buffers
3 Buffers with 2
recirculations
3 Buffers with 3
recirculations

Load

3 Buffers and 3 recirculations increase the throughput efficiency

by 27 %
Throughput efficiency does not increase linearly with number of
delay lines

Key Buffer Results for 8X8 Switch

(5,3) configuration provides higher throughput than
other configurations.
~25% increase in throughput efficiency is obtained with
3 buffers and recirculations.
Number of delay lines should be limited to 2 or 3, as the
throughput does not increase much with an increase in
number of delay lines.
BUT, , the fiber delay line has loss, , optical amplifiers
add noise, and, recirculations can degrade the payload.

Summary
DegradationeffectsincludingCD,PMD,
nonlinearitiesshouldbeaddressedinOBS.
Fastmonitoringcanhelpthelongtermstability
androbustnessofaOBSnetwork.
OpticalbuffersenableenhancedOBS
functionality.