WDM Fundamentals

• Randy Eisenach – Optical Networks Product Marketing

• Oct 2016

1 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

 Agenda –DWDM Fundamentals
- WDM Overview
- WDM impairments (Loss, CD, PMD)
- Fiber types
- OSNR – optical signal noise ratio
- WDM fiber best practices
- Coherent Modulation
- ROADM technologies
- Summary

2 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

WDM Basics
• WDM – Wavelength Division Multiplexing
- Transporting multiple wavelengths over a single fiber
• 10G, 100G, 200G wavelengths, or mix

• Issues
- Optical parameters / non-linearities limit overall performance
• Optical loss
• Chromatic dispersion (CD) Classic ROADM
• Polarization mode dispersion (PMD) WR8-88A WR8-88A
• Non-linear optical fiber effects due to 1x9 WSS
1xn
SPL
- Non-linear index of refraction 1xn
1x9 WSS
SPL
- Stimulated scattering

Mux/Demux Mux/Demux

O O O O
T T T T

Note: 2D ROADM shown in diagram

3 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

Optical Impairments
• Linear effects Can compensate for these
- Optical loss → Amplifiers (including ILAs)
- Chromatic dispersion → Dispersion compensation (DCM or DSP)
- PMD → Polarization Mode Dispersion compensation (DSP)

• Non-linear effects Can’t compensate for these

- Four wave mixing (FWM) • Operate below thresholds
- Self phase modulation (SPM) • Non-linear effects vary by
• Launch power
- Cross phase modulation (XPM)
• Channel spacing
- Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) • Fiber type
- Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS)

Why you can’t launch 1.21 jiggawatts into a fiber

4 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

Optical Loss
• Fiber Attenuation
- DWDM networks typically operate in the C-Band (1530nm – 1565 nm)
- Area of low attenuation on optical fibers
- ~ 0.22 dB/Km loss

0.30

0.28

S-band C-band L-band

Loss (dB/km)

0.26

0.24

1550nm
0.22

0.20

0.18
1450 1500 1550 1600
Wavelength (nm)
5 © Nokia 2016 Confidential
Chromatic Dispersion
• Chromatic Dispersion
- Wavelengths (colors) travel at different speeds in an optical fiber

• Why CD matters
- CD causes pulse spreading & distortion
- WDM systems must compensate for CD (DCM or DSP)

• CD varies with
- Fiber type (e.g., SMF, DSF, TrueWave)
- Operating wavelength
- Example - SMF @ 1550 nm has ~ 17 ps/nm/km

6 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

Chromatic Dispersion – 10G Example
1s are above threshold
• Chromatic Dispersion Decision Threshold

- Distorts received waveform (eye diagram), due to effects of CD 0s are below threshold

- If not compensated, dramatically reduces BER

Before CD compensation Post-CD compensation

10G signal 120K SMF-28 10G signal 120K SMF-28

7 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

CD Compensation with DCMs
• DCM (Dispersion Compensation Module)
- DCMs compensate for dispersion at each node
• DCMs are a box of coiled fiber (DCF) with opposite CD properties of the span fiber
• Matched to each span length
- Not a perfect match across all wavelengths
- Rcv have to accommodate “residual CD tolerance”

l1

l2

l3 DCM DCM DCM

Dispersion Receiver CD
(ps/nm) Tolerance

0
Km

8 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

CD Compensation – Coherent Optics
• Coherent Optics (100G & above)
- Dispersion compensated inside DSP (electronically)
- Eliminates need for DCMs on all coherent networks (reduces cost)
- Improved amplifier performance, improved network performance
- Benefits of moving to 100G coherent only network

l1
D5X500
l2

l3

Note: DCMs still required in mixed 10G / 100G networks

9 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

Fiber Types: Three Categories

SMF – Standard Single Mode Fiber NZ-DSF Non-Zero Dispersion Shifted Fiber
17 ps/nm/km 2-6 ps/nm/km

• Corning SMF-28 • TrueWave Classic

• OFC AllWave • TrueWave Plus
• TrueWave RS
• Corning LS
• Corning LEAF
• TeraLight
DSF – Dispersion Shifted Fiber
~0 ps/nm/km

• Corning SMF-DS
• Corning LS

10 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

Commonly Available Fiber Types

20
Type Dispersion @1550
Dispersion (ps/nm ・ km)

15 TeraLight
SMF28 SMF 17 ps/nm/km
TW-RS LEAF
10 TW-classic LEAF 4 ps/nm/km
TrueWave RS 4.5 ps/nm/km
5
DSF TrueWave Classic 2 ps/nm/km
0 DSF 0 ps/nm/km
SMF-LS
-5 SMF-LS -1 ps/nm/km
1300 1350 1450 1500 1550 1600 1650
Wavelength (nm)

• Dispersion has some benefits for WDM

• A little dispersion reduces non-linear effects (four wave mixing)
• SMF-28 is good for DWDM
• DSF & LS are terrible

11 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

PMD – Polarization Mode Dispersion Fiber Cross-section

cladding
Ideal High PMD
• Light in a fiber travels in two polarization fields core
- Horizontal
- Vertical

• If the fiber core is not round, H/V polarizations travel at

different speeds
- Caused by some 1980s era fiber manufacturing process Differential
Group Delay (DGD)
- Also caused by mechanical stress on fiber cable Fast
- Different speeds cause dispersion 


• Coherent Networks (100G & above)
- PMD compensated by DSP algorithms Slow

PMD = ~1/3 x DGD

12 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

Non-Linear Effects
• Non-linear effects
- Four wave mixing (FWM) Fiber Type,
Launch Power,
- Self phase modulation (SPM) Channel Spacing
- Cross phase modulation (XPM)
- Raman (SRS)
- Brillouin (SBS) Primarily - Launch Power

• WDM Network Design

- Non-linear effects limit launch power
- Minimum OSNR threshold acts as “floor”
- Must operate between these two limits Ps

• OSNR is the key metric

OSNR
- Additional OSNR margin for penalties Min OSNR
• Non-linear effects, temperature, component aging Threshold
- Amplifiers / ILAs boost power, but… Pn
• Add optical noise, cumulative effect across network

13 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

OSNR – Key Metric in WDM Network Design
• WDM Network Design
- WDM network design is based on OSNR budget
• OSNR – Optical Signal to Noise Ratio Ps

- Optical reach is limited by the OSNR(min) at OSNR

Transponder receiver Min OSNR
Threshold
• Once this value is reached – a regen is required
Pn
- What affects minimum OSNR?
• Line rate (100G vs 200G)
• Modulation (DP-QPSK vs DP-16QAM)
• Fiber type
• Fiber Loss / span spacing

14 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

Calculating OSNR
• Two Methods of OSNR calculation
- Method 1) All spans identical
OSNR = 58 + Po – L – NF – 10LogN
Po Power out
L Fiber loss per span
NF noise figure
N number of spans

- Method 2) stage by stage OSNR analysis

stage 1 stage 2 stage 3 stage 4 stage 5
Po
L
NF

OSNRstage = Po – L – NF + 58
note: before adding, OSNR values must be
converted from Logarithmic (ie dB) to
nominal

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WDM Best Practice – Keep the spans distances reasonable
• Impacts of long spans on OSNR
- Keep the span distances reasonable (if possible)

- Span distance has exponential impact (bad) on OSNR & SMF-28 Example
Span Dist (Km) # Spans OSNR limit (Km)
optical reach 80 43 3440
90 26 2340
- Ideal spans 60 – 80 Km 100 15 1500
110 9 990
120 5 600
- Spans >90 Km will shorten overall optical reach

NZ-DSF Example
Span Dist (Km) # Spans OSNR limit (Km)
80 27 2160
90 16 1440
100 10 1000
110 6 660
120 3 360

16 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

WDM Best Practice – Best WDM Fiber Types

Good SMF-28 higher chromatic dispersion spec

SMF-28 (17 ps/nm) helps minimize non-linear effects
WDM Fiber Types

Acceptable
LEAF
TW-RS SMF28 +2 dB higher launch Pwr

Ps NZ-DSF
Poor Choice -2 dB
DS
LS

Pn

Modern WDM networks have good CD compensation techniques (DSP)

17 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

WDM Best Practice - Before you Design & Deploy
• WDM networks are designed based on fiber & route specs
- Good, accurate fiber data is critical
- Information needed upfront in order to provide optimized, lowest cost, WDM network design

• Prior to any WDM design / deployment:

- Measured fiber characteristics for each span
• Loss
• Chromatic Dispersion
• Optical Return Loss (ie reflectance)
• PMD – only required on poor (or suspect) PMD routes

Value Typical Range Notes

Loss 0.25 dB/Km 0.20 – 0.30 dB/Km
CD 17 ps/nm/Km 4 – 19 ps/nm/Km Varies by fiber type
Indicates bad splice or connector due to
ORL > 27 dB > 27 dB
reflectance
PMD < 0.2 ps/km < 0.2 ps/km <0.1 is ideal

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Coherent Modulation

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Modulation Primer
• Non-return to zero (NRZ)
- On-off keying (OOK) 1 1 0 1 0
• 1 is a light pulse for full bit period
Tx
• 0 is no light drive

- Used at 10 Gbps or less

Modulator
- Simple
LASER

• DP-QPSK Modulation Im
- Digital signal encoded into phase & polarization
• 4 Phases
Re
• Dual polarization
- 1 symbol = 4 bits (10 Gbaud = 40 Gbps)
- Improved OSNR, PMD tolerance, & passband narrowing
- More complex transmitter PM

Tx PM
LD PBC
DSP PM
PM

20 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

Modulation Primer
• Existing "Direct Detection" receivers
- Incoming signal hits Photodetecter (PD) Direct Detection
• Photons converted to electrical current
Photodetector
• Clock recovered
• Data recovery circuit determines "1" or "0"
- Very simple – limited by receiver sensitivity (ie noise)

• Coherent detection
- Local laser (LD) mixed with incoming optical signal
• Creates Intermediate Frequency (IF) which is converted to
an electrical signal 90o O/E ADC
• Hybrid O/E ADC
ADCs convert IF signals to digital
Rcv
• DSP processes, corrects, & recovers data signal PBS PBS LD
DSP
- Much more complex 90o O/E ADC
Hybrid O/E ADC
• Improved OSNR
• Many electronic compensation benefits

21 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

100G Coherent Transceiver

100G Tx 100G Rcv

90o O/E ADC

PM Hybrid O/E ADC
Tx PM Rcv
LD PBC PBS PBS LD
DSP PM DSP
PM 90o O/E ADC
Hybrid O/E ADC

Integrated Coherent Tx ICR - Integrated Coherent

Rcv
Nokia PSE-2s

note: Int. Tx & ICR components shown simply as

representative industry technology

22 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

100G Coherent Transceiver

Nokia PSE-2 DSP

DAC
Digital

FEC Encoding
X-pol Filter
Int.
Data I/O
DAC
Modulation
Encoding
Coherent
Tx
DAC
Digital
Filter
Y-pol DAC

ADC
Carrier Recovery
Clock Recovery
FEC Encoding

Pol Recovery

X-pol
Int.
Data I/O

ADC
Modulation Digital
Encoding Filtering
Coherent
Rcv
ADC

Y-pol
ADC

23 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

Pulse Shaping
• Pulse Shaping Filters
- Maximize data rate / bandwidth
- Minimize pulse interference and avoid inter-symbol
interference (ISI)
- Parameter  sets bandwidth occupied by pulses
- Raised-cosine filter

24 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

Scaling Transport Capacity
Only so many dials to adjust – physics of light

Baud rate 32  44 

Polarization Dual Polarization

Modulation QPSK  8QAM  16QAM  64QAM

PSE- 2 Supe r Cohe re nt Te chnology

10011010101
10100011101
10100111101
00101011010
10010100111
01001011001
Variable Multiple Baud Fle x Advanced
Mo dulation Rates Spe ctrum Co ding

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Multi-Modulation Units
• Multi-Modulation Capable Units
- Provisioned modulation, per port
- Single unit supports over metro, regional, LH, Submarine application
- Allows carriers to trade-off Capacity vs Optical Reach

Metro D5X500 Muxponder

16QAM Approximate Relative Reach

Regional
Modulation Rate Reach
BPSK 50G 200%
8QAM QPSK 100G 100%
Long Haul
8QAM 200G ~ 42%
16QAM 200G ~ 21 %
QPSK 64QAM 400G ~ 4%

Flexibility Multi-modulation – Maximize Capacity & Reach

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 Modulation vs Optical Reach

Solid Lines SMF-28

Dashed Lines NZDSF

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Capacity Limits
• Are there limits to data rates on wavelengths?
- Shannon’s Theorem defines maximum upper limit – 1948
- Won Nobel Prize

• It’s all about OSNR

- Modern WDM systems operate very close to Shannon limits
- Higher modulations are possible (64QAM), but the optical reach
would be very, very short (< 100 Km)

Shannon Law
C=B*log2(1 + SNR)

28 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

Flexible Grid
Modulation Rate Spectrum C-Band (Tb)
• Flexible Grid vs Std 50GHz Grid
- Existing WDM networks based on standard, ITU 50 GHz Grid BPSK 50G 50 GHz 4.8

- All channels the same QPSK 100G 37.5 GHz 12.8

- Flexible Grid enables flexible channel sizes & center frequency QPSK 100G 50 GHz 9.6
• Better match between channel size & data rate / modulation SP-QPSK 100G 62.5 GHz 7.6
• Enables up to 30% additional capacity on smaller (metro) networks 8QAM 200G 62.5 GHz 15.2
- 120 channels in C-Band 16QAM 200G 50 GHz 19..2
- Using 37.5 GHz spacing for 100G QPSK signals
16QAM 250G 62.5 GHz 19
• Enables “Super Channels” of nx100G or nx200G carriers
64QAM 400G 62.5GHz 30.4

250G 16QAM

50 GHz 50 GHz 50 GHz 50 GHz 50 GHz 37.5 37.5 50 GHz 62.5 GHz 50 GHz

Fixed 50 GHz Grid Flexible Grid

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Super Channels - Improving Spectral Efficiency
• Super Channels
- Super channel is a grouping of two or more carrier wavelengths
• Super channels are transported as a single group, allows spacing subcarriers a bit closer
• Results in more channels, more overall capacity, improved spectral efficiency
• Examples
- 400G 4x100G DP-QPSK
- 1 Tb 5 x 200G DP-16QAM

4x100G transported as independent channels

50 GHz 50 GHz 50 GHz 50 GHz

Fixed 50 GHz Grid

spectrum

400G transported as Super Channel

savings

~175 GHz

Super Channels using Flexible Grid

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ROADM Technologies

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 ROADM Technologies
Classic ROADM
WR8-88A WR8-88A
1xn
1x9 WSS SPL
1xn
SPL
1x9 WSS

Mux/Demux Mux/Demux

O O O O
T T T T

Inside WSS Module

• WSS was a key enabling technology in WDM systems

- Flexibility to add / drop any wavelength at any site
- Electronically controlled / provisioned
- Per wavelength power balancing
1x9 WSS Module

32 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

WSS – Wavelength Selective Switch

1:9
WSS

• WSS – Wavelength Selective Switch

- Key component in ROADM (ie Wavelength Router)
- Switching of any wavelength to any fiber input / output
- Classic ROADM uses WSS on “Add Side”
• 9 input ports with wavelength selection / switching to common output fiber
- WSS technologies
• MEMS – micro electromechanical mirrors
• LCOS – liquid crystal on silicon

33 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

MEMS based WSS
• MEMS WSS
- Based on MEMS mirror array
- Micro electromechanical mirrors
• Movable mirrors fabricated in silicon using
standard semiconductor processes
• Silicon “hinges” are very stable / robust
• Applying a voltage to mirror electrode causes the
mirror to tilt
• Enables wavelength switching from any fiber ports
• Separate, individual “mirror” for every 50GHz
channel
• Separate mirror arrays for each WSS input / output
fiber

34 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

LCoS based WSS
• LCoS WSS
- Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS)
• Array of LCoS pixels
• No moving parts
• FlexGrid capable

- Beam steering:
• Index of refraction causes light to bend / deflect
• By applying a voltage we can change the LCoS index
of refraction for each pixel, allowing us to steer the
beam
• Technical Details: based on phased array principle,
where applying a phase delay to each pixel (by
controlling index of refraction) allows control of
deflection angle
• Same concept to phased array radar

35 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

LCOS WSS
• Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCOS)
Mirrors / electrodes
- Based on LCoS display technology
Liquid Crystal
- 2D array of pixels (~1000 x 1000) – individually
Cover Glass addressable
- Drive circuits incorporated into CMOS substrate
Silicon Substrate
- Provision / assign the # pixels per wavelength
• Enables variable channel widths (FlexGrid)

36 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

Comparison – MEMs vs LCOS
MEMS LCOS
1 n 1 2D Array n

MEMS LCOS
Mirrors per channel Single Multiple

Channel Size Fixed (Std 50, 100 GHz) FlexGrid or

Std 50, 100 GHz
Actuator MEMS – movable mirror LCOS array

Wide, flat BW Yes Yes

# ports 1x2 1x9, Twin 1x9

1x5 Twin 1x20
1x9 Twin 1x32

Attenuation accuracy Good Better

37 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

WSS – Auto Power Balancing

Fiber core / cladding

No Attenuation
Beam steered to center of fiber core

Attenuation
Beam steered off-center to attenuate

• WSS – Per Wavelength Attenuation

- Per wavelength beam steering allows us to direct where
each wavelength lands on fiber core
- Control attenuation by adjusting how much of the signal
enters the fiber core

38 © Nokia 2016 Confidential

ROADM Technologies – EDFA Amplifiers
• Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier – provides the photon amplification
• Why Erbium? Because it works well!
- Very efficient—a few parts of Erbium per billion does the trick
- Compatible with 980/1480 pump lasers for C-band amplifications

Energized State

Two stage EDFA

Erbium doped
Fiber

WDM In Out Ground State

Gain Flat
15xx nm
Isolator
Pump Pump
980 nm 1480 nm

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ROADM Technologies – Mux/Demux
• Optical multiplexing is done by filters
- Physical device combines/splits each wavelength

• Arrayed Waveguide Gratings (AWG)

Mux/
- Single stage mux/demux Demux
- Relatively inexpensive
- Operates like a prism

Mux/Demux – Arrayed Wave Guide

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Introduction WDM Summary

WDM Design Impacts of optical loss, CD, PMD – compensation (DSP)

OSNR budget defines optical reach limits

Fiber
SMF-28 or NZ-DSF fiber types are preferred for WDM
DSF fiber is problematic – avoid if possible

Best Practices Keep span distances reasonable

Accurate fiber / span data is critical

41 © Nokia 2016 Confidential