Category Archives: WDM System

To Introduce Optical Communication and Internet Technology

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Technology of terabit optic circuit packet integrated switching system
New exchange system and integrated optic circuit packet layers will be provided to meet the large capacity, high quality, low cost and effective demand so as to adapt to the cable wireless traffic spikes in the service in the future.
A connection-oriented packet transport technology is considered to be an effective way to improve the performance of packet data transmission. It is necessary, can put a layer of transport network in the direction of capital spending and minimizing operating costs to overcome the network provider’s storage and traffic increase of income. And unified control mechanism is applied to the network resource allocation, flexible wavelength circuit and packet layer according to the service characteristics. The key technologies of the system are as followings.
Technology of Terabit Optic-Circuit-Packet Integrated Switching System
  * Connection-oriented Packet Transport
  * Optic-Circuit-Packet Integrated Switch
  * Optic-Circuit-Packet Layer Integrated Control/Management
Technology of beyond-100G Optical Transmission
  * Long-reach OTN Transceiver

  * Short-reach Ethernet Transceiver

Technology of terabit optic circuit packet integrated switching system
Smart IDC Network Control Technology for Cloud Service
Along with the rapid spreads and changes of cloud services and the technologic growth of the components in the IDC, the IDC networks are demanding following changes.
Cloud optimized: The virtualization rate of the server is rising up to 10:1-100:1 and storage virtualization is also possible recently. So IDC is requiring the cloud-optimized virtualization to the network side which are connecting the virtualized cloud resources.
Flattened: There are network control needs to reduce the delay latency of virtualized server-to-server communications which is occuping up to 70%, to rise the utilization rate the link resources of L2 IDC networks of Tree-shape multi-layer hierarchical architecture with STP.
Auto-Managed: There are demands of integrated management of network and cloud resources between IDC and create/delete/VM migration to ensure seamless services in the cloud.

Therefore, our research target to develop the Smart IDC optical network solution to solve the current problems of IDC network with the 3 IDC network control technologies of the Cloud-Optimized Virtual Network Control technology, the Flattened IDC Network Control Technology and Auto-managed IDC network control technology.

High speed optical transmission technology

The rapid progress in optical transmission technology has been supporting the ever increasing transmission traffic. In particular, the WDM technology, it is by the end of last century, played a main role. However, the new technology needs to use data traffic exponentially. A solution is 100Gb/s transmission. IEEE announced 40G/100G Ethernet standard and ITU-T has completed ONT standard to accommodate 100G signals in DWDM backbone network. Recently, the 100Gb/s transmission technology has become the commercial deployment, in addition to the existing 10Gb/s and 40Gb/s. Already technologies beyond 100G or 400G are started being discussed. With a long-term perspective, it is a disruptive

technology, SDM (space division multiplexing) technology is seriously explored to harness the traffic in economic and energy efficient way.

Next Generation WDM-PON Technology
The WDM-PON is promising technology to provide broadband access offering optic-wireless converged next generation multi-application service with the highest quality.
There are many advantages of the WDM-PON:
* Using multiple wavelength on a single fiber, each of which carries a transmission bandwidth up to 10Gb/s at maximum; Therefore, the WDM-PON can reduce the optical access infrastructure;
* Suitable for long-reach application and possible to achieve OPEX reduction;
* Provide co-existence with legacy TDM-PON (EPON system, and GPON) systems and pay as you grow upgradability;
* Unique advantages of so-called protocol transparency, which means that it requires no specific transmission protocol, and the physical layer security, in addition to scalability in the increase of the bandwidth and guarantee of the quality of service based on bandwidth abundance.

Application of Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer

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What’s the Optical Add-drop Multiplexer?

An optical add-drop multiplexer (OADM) is a device used in wavelength-division multiplexing systems for multiplexing and routing different channels of light into or out of a single mode fiber (SMF). This is a type of optical node, which is generally used for the construction of optical telecommunications networks. An OADM may be considered to be a specific type of optical cross-connect.

A traditional OADM consists of three stages: an optical demultiplexer, and optical fiber multiplexer, and between them a method of reconfiguring the paths between the optical demultiplexer, the optical multiplexer and a set of ports for adding and dropping signals. The optical demultiplexer separates wavelengths in an input fiber onto ports. The reconfiguration can be achieved by a fiber patch panel or by optical switches which direct the wavelengths to the optical multiplexer or to drop ports. The optical multiplexer multiplexes the wavelength channels that are to continue on from demultiplexer ports with those from the add ports, onto a single output fiber.

Principles of OADM technology

General OADM node can use four port model (Figure 1) to represent, includes three basic functions: Drop required wavelength signal, Add rumored signal to other wavelengths pass through unaffected. OADM specific network process is as follows: WDM signal coming from the line contains mangy wavelength signals into OADM’s “MainInput” side, according to business required, from many wavelength signals to selectively retrieved from the end (Drop) output desired wavelength signal, relative to the end from the Add the wavelength of the input signal to be transmitted. While the other has nothing to do with the local wavelength channels directly through the OADM, and rumored signals multiplexed together, the line output from the OADM (Main Output) Output.


Figure 1 OADM basic model

OADM node technical classification

Optical drop multiplexer network technologies can be divided into two types, fixed optical drop multiplexer (Fixed OADM, FOADM) and reconfigurable optical drop multiplexer (Reconfigurable OADM, ROADM).

Fixed Optical Drop Multiplexer (FOADM)

FOADM to filter as the main component, and its function is fixed to join or retrieve certain light wavelengths. General common FOADM can be divided into three types, namely Thin Film Filter type (TFF type), Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG type) and integrated planar Arrayed Waveguide Gratings (AWG type).

Thin Film Filter (TFF FOADM)

* TFF FOADM using thin film between the filtering effect of the different refractive index.

Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG FOADM)

* FBG FOADM use of fiber Bragg grating filtering effect, with two circulator can become FOADM.

Arrayed Waveguide Gratings (AWG FOADM)

* AWG FOADM gererally used in semiconductor fabrication processes, the integration of different refractive index material is formed on a flat substrate in a planar waveguide, when different wavelength light source is incident through the couping after the import side, due to take a different path length, while the different phase delay caused by different wavelengths and thus produce certain wavelengths in the export side to form a constructive or destructive interference, making waves in the export side, the different wavelengths will follow the design on a different channel to reach, and thus achieve FOADM function.

Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (ROADM)

ROADM can always be adjusted with the distribution network to add and drop wavelength, which reconstruct the network resource allocation, the flexibility to meet the requires of modern urban network, so a flexible ROADM features, plus optical switch substantial advantage, making the current fastest growing ROADM based voa attenuator based ROADM (switch based OADM). ROADM mainly be the optical switch, multiplexer and demultiplexer composed, Switch-based OADM, mainly divided into Wavelength independent switch array and wavelength selection switch.


Type 1 Wavelength independent switch array

Type 2 Wavelength selective switch

All kinds of optical drop multiplexer performance comparison

OADM network applications

WDM ROADM optical fiber suitable for different network environments

OADM in the metropolitan network development tendency

1. Arbitrary choice must be retrieved, adding wavelength, the wavelength can take advantage of the limited resources, the node can be retrieved with the need to do to join the adjustment of the signal wavelength, and has a remote control functions. This can provide dynamic reconfiguration of optical communications network capable ROADM will be connected to the backbone network critical devices. And FOADM is used for wavelength demand network access will be smaller parts to reduce costs. Furthermore, ROADM use to all kinds of Tunable Laser, unable Filter, or wavelength selective optical switches and other components.

2. Must be able to convert incompatible wavelength suitable for the backbone network will be transmitted wavelengths. Therefore, OADM be combined with wavelength conversioin Transponder or other functional components.

3. Must be able to compensate for the node to make acquisistion, adding such action energy loss. Therefore, OADM optical amplifiers must be combined with functional components.

4. Wavelength signals related specifications, such as: the signal to noise ratio (S/N), the energy balance between the signal wavelength, etc., are required to meet network requirements. Therefore must be combined OADM Variable Optical Attenuator (VOA), dispersion compensation module (DCM) and other components.

How Much Do You Know About OADM

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The OADM, or optical add drop multiplexers, is a gateway into and out of a single mode fiber. In practice, most signals pass through the device, but some would be “dropped” by splitting them from the line. Signals originating at that point can be “added” into the line and directed to another destination. An OADM may be considered to be a specific type of optical cross-connect, widely used in wavelength division multiplexing systems for multiplexing and routing fiber optic signals. They selectively add and drop individual or sets of wavelength channels from a dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) multi-channel stream. OADMs are used to cost effectively access part of the bandwidth in the optical domain being passed through the in-line amplifiers with the minimum amount of electronics.

OADMs have passive and active modes depending on the wavelength. In passive OADM, the add and drop wavelengths are fixed beforehand while in dynamic mode, OADM can be set to any wavelength after installation. Passive OADM uses fiber optic filters, fiber gratings, and planar waveguides in networks with WDM systems. Dynamic OADM can select any wavelength by provisioning on demand without changing its physical configuration. It is also less expensive and more flexible than passive OADM. Dynamic OADM is separated into two generations.

A typical OADM consists of three stages: an optical demultiplexer, an optical multiplexer, and between them a method of reconfiguring the paths between the optical demultiplexer, the optical multiplexer and a set of ports for adding and dropping signals. The optical demultiplexer separates wavelengths in an input fiber onto ports. The reconfiguration can be achieved by a cross connect patch panel or by optical switches which direct the wavelengths to the optical multiplexer or to drop ports. The optical multiplexer multiplexes the wavelength channels that are to continue on from demultipexer ports with those from the add ports, onto a single output fiber.

Physically, there are several ways to realize an OADM. There are a variety of demultiplexer and multiplexer technologies including thin film filters, fiber Bragg gratings with optical circulators, free space grating devices and integrated planar arrayed waveguide gratings. The switching or reconfiguration functions range from the manual fiber patch panel to a variety of switching technologies including microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), liquid crystal and thermo-optic switches in planar waveguide circuits.

CWDM and DWDM OADM provide data access for intermediate network devices along a shared optical media network path. Regardless of the network topology, OADM access points allow design flexibility to communicate to locations along the fiber path. CWDM OADM provides the ability to add or drop a single wavelength or multi-wavelengths from a fully multiplexed optical signal. This permits intermediate locations between remote sites to access the common, point-to-point fiber message linking them. Wavelengths not dropped, pass-through the OADM and keep on in the direction of the remote site. Additional selected wavelengths can be added or dropped by successive OADMS as needed.

FiberStore provides a wide selection of specialized OADMs for WDM system. Custom WDM solutions are also available for applications beyond the current product designs including mixed combinations of CWDM and DWDM.

Technology Of Fiber Optic Amplifiers

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In fiber optic communication, the visible-light or infrared (IR) beams carried by a fiber are attenuated as they travel through the material. Then there comes to the fiber optic amplifier which is used to compensate for the wakening of information during the transmission.

Amplifiers are inserted at specific places to boost optical signals in a system where the signals are weak. This boost allows the signals to be successfully transmitted through the remaining cable length. In large networks, a long series of optical fiber amplifiers are placed in a sequence along the entire network link.

Common fiber optical amplifiers include Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier (or EDFA Amplifier), Raman fiber amplifier, and silicon optical amplifier (SOA). Erbium doped fiber amplifier is the major type of the fiber amplifier used to boost the signal in the WDM fiber optic system, as we know it is WDM that increase the capacity of the fiber communications system and it is the erbium-doped fiber amplifier that makes WDM transmission possible. Fiber amplifiers are developed to support Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) which is called DWDM EDFA amplifier and to expand to the other wavelength bands supported by fiber optics.

There are several different physical mechanisms that can be used to amplify a light signal, which correspond to the major types of optical amplifiers. In doped fibre amplifiers and bulk lasers, stimulated emission in the amplifier’s gain medium causes amplification of incoming light. In semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), electron-hole recombination occurs. In Raman amplifiers, Raman scattering of incoming light with phonons in the lattice of the gain medium produces photons coherent with the incoming photons. Parametric amplifiers use parametric amplification.

When light is transmitted through matter, part of the light is scattered in random directions. A small part of the scattered light has frequencies removed from the frequency of the incident beam by quantities equal to the vibration frequencies of the material scattering system. Raman fiber optic amplifiers function within this small scattering range. If the initial beam is sufficiently intense and monochromatic, a threshold can be reached beyond which light at the Raman frequencies is amplified, builds up strongly, and generally exhibits the characteristics of stimulated emission. This is called the stimulated or coherent Raman effect.

EFDA fiber optic amplifier functions by adding erbium, rare earth ions, to the fiber core material as a dopant; typically in levels of a few hundred parts per million. The fiber is highly transparent at the erbium lasing wavelength of two to nine microns. When pumped by a laser diode, optical gain is created, and amplification occurs.

Silicon or semiconductor optical amplifier functions in a similar way to a basic laser. The structure is much the same, with two specially designed slabs of semiconductor material on top of each other, with another material in between them forming the “active layer”. An electrical current is set running through the device in order to excite electrons which can then fall back to the non-excited ground state and give out photons. Incoming optical signal stimulates emission of light at its own wavelength.

Fiber optic repeater also can re-amplify an attenuated signal but it can only function on a specific wavelength and is not suitable for WDM systems. That is the reason why optical fiber amplifier plays a much more important role in communication systems.

The Chanllenges of Technology And Cost 100G Faced

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More and more high bandwidth services such as high definition(HD) video, online games and video conference challenging the traditional network, 100G as a ease network bandwidth technology, becomes the new hope of the operator.

100G industry chain has matured, with all components and subsystems have commercial capacity of multiple manufacturers, the market also needs the support of 100G system, the backbone network will be fully transferred to the 100G-leading era. From the early 2013, the focus point of 100G is from the laboratory into 100G network deployment and the commercial 100G has started.

Four Technical Challenges Of 100G

Although the 100G has been carried out, but the 100G transmission technology meets four technical challenges.

First, high power consumption. The achievement mechanism of 100G technology is complex, the optical receiver requires the use of coherent reception and processing of the DSP, the key chip has no ASIC, resulting in high power consumption of the whole 100G system. When large-scale commercial 100G technology, the average power consumption of each wavelength is still a problem waiting to be solved. Currently the power consumption of per wavelength is above 200W, the average power consumption of per frame is 7000W, so there will need three frames. Obviously, the 28nm process can help to reduce energy consumption, but there is no 100G solution of 28-nanometer. In addition, although the light energy consumption is not large, but due to the use of next-generation optical transceiver will increase greatly, reducing the power consumption is very necessary.

The second is integrated, especially in the field of optical circuit and photoelectric integration. How to add mass active and passive optical devices such as laser, optical amplifier, wavelength division multiplexing(WDM) and transmitter/receiver to the network to achieve highly integrated? Using semiconductor technology to the integration of CWDM and laser?

The third is test. The challenges of 100G testing include the quality evaluation of the deployed 100G system signal and the system maintenance after deployed. 100G using polarization multiplexing, and the signal spectrum is wide, the common OSDR and test instruments can not real-time test it, only by shutting off the laser method. How to achieve real-time test is industry’s future research topic, many of today’s online testing system are worth studying.

The Fourth is few prospective studies. How to make the current transmission system gradually shift to user-oriented management from the traditional network management? Quickly and efficiently allocate the physical resources?

The key is the problem of cost

The key reason why 100G failed to be applied large-scale currently is the opportunity cost is relatively too high. In the era of 100G, the cost of optical module is very high. The mainstream CFP module, the actual sales price is more than $10,000. From the point of optical module cost, 100G module is several times higher than 10G optical module. It also requires manufacturers continue to make efforts in chip integration, integrated optical module miniaturization and system design, to achieve the overall cost of products are reduced.

Especially the regard of optical module technology, the cost of this part is the key of the whole 100G system cost, the optical module itself has to face the challenges of control power consumption and improve board integration.

Multiplex Your Fiber By Using CWDM Or DWDM

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Using a WDM(Wavelength Division Multiplexing) for expanding the capacity of the fiber to carry multiple client interfaces is a highly advisable way as the physical fiber optic cabling is not cheap. As WDM widely used you must not unfamiliar with it, it is a technology that combines several streams of data/storage/video or voice protocols on the same physical fiber-optic cable, by using several wavelengths (frequencies) of light with each frequency carrying a different type of data.

Two types of WDM architecture available: Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM) and Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM). CWDM/DWDM multiplexer and demultiplexerand OADM (Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer) are common fit in with Passive. With the use of optical amplifiers and the development of the OTN (Optical Transport Network) layer equipped with FEC (Forward Error Correction), the distance of the fiber optical communication can reach thousands of Kilometers without the need for regeneration sites.

CWDM
CWDM, each CWDM wavelength typically supports up to 2.5Gbps and can be expanded to 10Gbps support. The CWDM is limited to 16 wavelengths and is typically deployed at networks up to 80Km since optical amplifiers cannot be used due to the large spacing between channels. CWDM uses a wide spectrum and accommodates eight channels. This wide spacing of channels allows for the use of moderately priced optics, but limits capacity. CWDM is typically used for lower-cost, lower-capacity, shorter-distance applications where cost is the paramount decision criteria.

The CWDM Mux/Demux (or CWDM multiplexer/demultiplexer) is often a flexible plug-and-play network solution, which helps insurers and enterprise companies to affordably implement denote point or ring based WDM optical networks. CWDM Mux/demux is perfectly created for transport PDH, SDH / SONET, ETHERNET services over WDM, CWDM and DWDM in optical metro edge and access networks. CWDM Multiplexer Modules can be found in 4, 8 and 16 channel configurations. These modules passively multiplex the optical signal outputs from 4 too much electronic products, send on them someone optical fiber and after that de-multiplex the signals into separate, distinct signals for input into gadgets across the opposite end for your fiber optic link.

Typically CWDM solutions provide 8 wavelengths capability enabling the transport of 8 client interfaces over the same fiber. However, the relatively large separation between the CWDM wavelengths allows expansion of the CWDM network with an additional 44 wavelengths with 100GHz spacing utilizing DWDM technology, thus expanding the existing infrastructure capability and utilizing the same equipment as part of the integrated solution.

DWDM
DWDM is a technology allowing high throughput capacity over longer distances commonly ranging between 44-88 channels/wavelengths and transferring data rates from 100Mbps up to 100Gbps per wavelength.

DWDM systems pack 16 or more channels into a narrow spectrum window very near the 1550nm local attenuation minimum. Decreasing channel spacing requires the use of more precise and costly optics, but allows for significantly more scalability. Typical DWDM systems provide 1-44 channels of capacity, with some new systems, offering up to 80-160 channels. DWDM is typically used where high capacity is needed over a limited fiber resource or where it is cost prohibitive to deploy more fiber.

The DWDM multiplexer/demultiplexer Modules are made to multiplex multiple DWDM channels into one or two fibers. Based on type CWDM Mux/Demux unit, with optional expansion, can transmit and receive as much as 4, 8, 16 or 32 connections of various standards, data rates or protocols over one single fiber optic link without disturbing one another.

Ultimately, the choice to use CWDM or DWDM is a difficult decision, first we should understand the difference between them clearly.

CWDM vs DWDM
CWDM scales to 18 distinct channels. While, DWDM scales up to 80 channels (or more), allows vastly more expansion. The main advantage of CWDM is the cost of the optics which is typically 1/3rd of the cost of the equivalent DWDM optic. CWDM products are popular in less precision optics and lower cost, less power consumption, un-cooled lasers with lower maintenance requirements. This difference in economic scale, the limited budget that many customers face, and typical initial requirements not to exceed 8 wavelengths, means that CWDM is a more popular entry point for many customers.

Buying CWDM or DWDM is driven by the number of wavelengths needed and the future growth projections. If you only need a handful of waves and use 1Gbps optics, CWDM is the way to go. If you need dozens of waves, 10Gbps speeds, DWDM is the only option.

Overview Optical Fiber Amplifier From Fiberstore

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The Optical Amplifiers are devices that direct the amplified light signal, without the need to first convert it into an electrical signal. Prior to this, the transmission signal amplification to achieve the photoelectric conversion and electro-optical conversion, i.e., O / E / O converting. With the optical amplifier can achieve optical signal amplification. The successful development of the optical amplifier and its industrialization is a very important achievement in the optical fiber communication technology, it has greatly contributed to the development of optical multiplexing, optical soliton communication and all-optical network.

Fiber amplifier will not only directly amplifying optical signals, and also offers real-time, high gain, broadband, online, low noise, low loss optical zoom function is the key components of a new generation of optical fiber communication systems essential. The Fiber Amplifier Usually by the gain medium, the pumping light input-output coupling structure and composition. Fiber amplifier mainly erbium-doped fiber amplifier, semiconductor optical amplifiers and three optical fiber Raman amplifier according to the position and the role of the fiber amplifier in the optical fiber line relay amplification, generally divided into three pre-amplification and power amplification.

Optical Fiber Amplifier(OFA) is used in optical fiber communication lines, to achieve a new all-optical signal amplification amplifier. Erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and optical fiber Raman amplifier (FRA), erbium-doped fiber amplifier with its superior performance in practical fiber amplifier is now widely used in long distance, high-capacity, high-speed optical fiber communication systems, access networks, optical fiber CATV networks, military systems (radar multi-channel data multiplexing, data transmission, guidance, etc.) in areas such as power amplifiers, repeaters amplifier and preamplifier .

Coexistence of CATV network for hybrid fiber / coax structure of a variety of systems, the erbium-doped fiber amplifier is increasingly able to get attention, especially the front-end centralized system, point-to-multipoint light wave structure and long-distance trunk transmission system especially. For CATV designers most commonly tree distribution network, the efficiency of the system is determined by the cost per user. CATV amplifier is a electronic device that accept a varying input signal and produce an output signal that varies in the same way as the input, but has larger amplitude.Therefore, the use of erbium-doped fiber amplifier to increase the optical power on the basis of the original transmitting equipment, services for more users, thereby reducing the cost of the transmitter units of milliwatts. In addition, in recent years, including erbium-doped fiber amplifier 1550nm light emitting device can be the cheapest fiber to the curb and fiber to the building. All in all, CATV fiber trunk transmission and power distribution system as well as the progressive realization of the “triple play” of voice, video, data path transmission for the ultimate realization of broadband integrated services digital network, erbium-doped fiber amplifier will play an invaluable role.

For more Optical Amplifiers information,please visit fs.com or via Sales@fs.com to contact us.Fiberstore is profession supplier and manufacturer of optical amplifiers.You can save cost to buy fiber optic products by fiberstore.