WDM OPTICAL NETWORKS

(EC-18312)

Lecture 2
Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)

13 Feb. 2025
 Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)
• WDM allows multiple data signals to be transmitted
simultaneously over a single optical fiber by assigning
different wavelengths (channels) to each signal.
• Benefits of WDM: Increased capacity, better use of fiber,
etc.
• Types of WDM: CWDM and DWDM
• Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM)
– Wavelength spacing: 20 nm
– Lower-cost applications
• Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM)
– Wavelength spacing: less than 1 nm
– High-capacity, long-haul applications
 WDM System Architecture
• WDM systems consist of:
– Multiplexers that combine multiple optical signals into
one fiber.
– Demultiplexers that separate combined signals into
individual channels at the receiver.
– Optical Amplifiers to boost signals.
 WDM

WDM Multiplexers
• These can be either passive or active devices
• Active WDM devices, such as tunable optical filters, can
extract or insert one or more wavelengths.
 Basic Passive WDM Devices
• Passive devices operate completely in the
optical domain to split and combine light
signals.
• They include N X N couplers, power splitters,
power taps, and star couplers.
• These components can be fabricated either
from optical fibers or by means of planar
optical waveguides using material such as
lithium niobate.
 Basic Star-Coupler Concept

• Star couplers combine the light streams from two or more

input fibers and divide them among several output fibers.
– The splitting is done uniformly for all wavelengths, so that each
of the N outputs receives 1/N of the power entering the device.
• A common fabrication method for an N X N splitter is to
fuse together the cores of N single-mode fibers over a
length of a few millimeters.
– The optical power inserted through one of the N fiber entrance
ports is divided uniformly into the cores of the N output fibers.
 Active WDM Devices:
Tunable Optical Filters
• Optical filters that are dynamically tunable over a
certain optical frequency band can be used to
increase the flexibility of a WDM network.
• The main difference with the passive WDM
devices is that in active devices, at least one
branch of the coupler can have its length or
refractive index slightly altered by means of a
control mechanism such as a voltage or
temperature change.
• This allows the network operator to select specific
optical frequencies to pass through the filter
 Tunable Optical Filters

The filter operates over a frequency range f and

is electrically/thermally tuned to allow only one
optical frequency band to pass through it.
 WDM System Parameters
• Tuning Range 𝚫𝒇 : The range of frequencies
(wavelengths) allowed to pass by the filter.
– In networks using fiber-based optical amplifiers, a
maximum range of Δλ= 35 nm centered at 1550 nm is
adequate.
• Channel spacing Ꟙf: The minimum frequency
separation between channels that is required to
guarantee a minimum crosstalk degradation.
– The crosstalk signal level from an adjacent channel
should generally be about 30 dB below the desired
signal in order to have adequate system performance.
 WDM System Parameters
• The maximum number of channels N: The maximum
number of equally spaced channels that can be packed
into the tuning range while maintaining an adequately
low level of crosstalk between adjacent channels.
Δ𝑓
N=
𝛿𝑓

• The tuning speed: It indicates how quickly the filter can

be reset from one frequency to another.
– For applications where information switch requires long time
i.e., minutes to hours , a millisecond tuning speed is
sufficient.
– For applications where information switch requires very
short time, then sub-microsecond tuning times are required.
– For example, at a 2.5 Gbps channel rate, the time to transmit
a 500-bit packet is only 0.2 ms.
 Tunable Sources
• Basic method to generate the spectrum of
wavelengths needed for WDM:
– Wavelength tunable (or Frequency-tunable) Lasers
• Wavelength tuning is achieved
– by changing the temperature of the device
– by altering the injection current into the active section
• A change in the effective refractive index, which causes a shift in
the peak output wavelength.
• Tuning range can be estimated by
Δ𝜆𝑡𝑢𝑛𝑒 Δ𝜂𝑒𝑓𝑓
=
𝜆 𝜂𝑒𝑓𝑓
Where Δ𝜂𝑒𝑓𝑓 is the change in the effective refractive index
 Tunable Sources

• Figure shows the relationships between tuning

range (Δ𝜆𝑡𝑢𝑛𝑒 ), channel spacing (Δ𝜆𝑐𝑕𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑙 ), and
source spectral width (Δ𝜆𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑙 )
• To avoid crosstalk between adjacent channels:
Δ𝜆𝑐𝑕𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑙 ≈ 10 Δ𝜆𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑙
 Tunable Sources
• The maximum number of channels, N, that can be
placed in the tuning range
Δ𝜆𝑡𝑢𝑛𝑒
𝑁≈
Δ𝜆𝑐𝑕𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑙
Example Problem:
Suppose that the maximum index change of a particular laser
operating at 1550 nm is 0.65%. And if the source spectral width is
0.2 nm for a laser signal. Then find the tuning range and the
number of channels that can operated?
Δ𝜂𝑒𝑓𝑓
Solution: Δ𝜆𝑡𝑢𝑛𝑒 = 𝜆 = 10.075 nm
𝜂𝑒𝑓𝑓
Δ𝜆𝑡𝑢𝑛𝑒 100
𝑁≈ = ≈ 50
Δ𝜆𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑙 10.075 ∗ 0.2
 WDM
Channel
Spacing

• The wavelengths of interest to optical fiber communication

are centered around 1300 nm, and 1550 nm.
• Relation between frequency and wavelength: 𝑓 = 𝑐/𝜆
• The relationship between the frequency spacing Δ𝑓 and
the wavelength spacing Δ𝜆 with a center wavelength 𝜆0 is:
𝑐
Δ𝑓 = − 2 Δ𝜆
𝜆0
 The standard Wavelengths and Frequencies
• WDM systems today primarily use the 1550 nm wavelength
region for two reasons:
– The inherent loss in optical fiber is the lowest in that region
– Excellent optical amplifiers are available in that region.
• The wavelengths and frequencies used in WDM systems have
been standardized on a frequency grid by the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU).

It is an infinite grid centered

at 193.1 THz, a segment of
which is shown in the figure.
The ITU decided to
standardize the grid in the
frequency domain based on
equal channel spacing of 50
GHz or 100 GHz.
 WDM SYSTEM OPERATING
CHARACTERISTICS
• Link Bandwidth
• Optical Power Requirements for a Specific BER
• Interchannel Crosstalk
• Performance Limitations due to Nonlinear
Effects.
 Link Bandwidth
• If the N transmitters operate at bit rates of 𝐵1
through 𝐵𝑁 respectively, then the total
bandwidth is the 𝑖 𝐵𝑖 .
• When all the bit rates are equal, then the system
capacity is enhanced by a factor N compared to a
single-channel link.
• The total capacity of a WDM link depends on
how closely the channels can be spaced in the
available transmission window.
• The standard frequency (wavelength) spacing of
100 GHz (0.8 nm) is recommended by the ITU
 Optical Power Requirements for a Specific BER
• The bit error rate (BER) of a WDM channel is determined
by the optical SNR delivered to the photo detector.
• For an acceptably low BER in an ideal link, it is
approximately 14 dB measured in an 0.01 nm optical
bandwidth.
• For commercial systems, it needs SNRs of 18 to 20 dB.
• These values determine the amount of optical power
needed
– For each wavelength channel
– The number of amplifiers needed over the desired link length
– The fiber attenuation that can be tolerated in the spans
between optical amplifiers.
 Crosstalk
• The narrow channel spacings in dense WDM links
give rise to crosstalk, which is defined as the
feedthrough of one channel’s signal into another
channel.
• Crosstalk is due to the following components:
– Optical filters
– Wavelength multiplexers and demultiplexers
– Optical switches
– Optical amplifiers
– Optical fiber
• Types of Crosstalk in WDM systems
– Interchannel crosstalk
– Intrachannel crosstalk
 Interchannel Crosstalk

Example of the origin of interchannel crosstalk

 Intrachannel crosstalk

Example of the origin of intrachannel crosstalk

 Power Penalties
• Both types of crosstalks cause power penalties
in the system performance.
• If the average received intrachannel crosstalk
power is a fraction 𝜖 of the average received
signal power 𝑃, the intrachannel power penalty
is:
𝑃𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑡𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑎 = −5 log (1 − 2 𝜖)
• If there are N interfering channels, each
contributing an average crosstalk power 𝜖𝑖 𝑃,
then the factor 𝜖 is : 𝜖 = 𝑖 𝜖𝑖
 Power Penalties
• Similarly power penalty for interchannel
crosstalk power is:
𝑃𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑡𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟 = −5 log (1 − 𝜖)
• And the factor 𝜖 for N interfering channels is:
𝜖 = 𝑖 𝜖𝑖
 Power
Penalties

Power penalties from intrachannel and

interchannel crosstalk for 10 WDM channels
as a function of the individual crosstalk level.
 Conclusion
• This Lecture:
– Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)
• Next Lecture:
– Optical Amplifiers
– Optical Filters
Thank you