Practical introduction to optical WDM components and systems in student teaching laboratories

We experimentally and theoretically investigate GeSi-based photonics for future on-chip optical interconnect on bulk Silicon substrates with dense wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system. We experimentally show that Ge-rich Si_1-xGe_x can be used as both a passive low loss waveguide and a substrate to facilitate low-temperature epitaxial growth of Ge-based active devices working at low optical loss wavelength of Ge-rich Si_1-xGe_x waveguides. We also theoretically discussed the possibilities to realize a compact passive component based on Ge-rich Si_1-xGe_x material system on bulk Si wafer. From simulation the system based on Ge-rich Si_1-xGe_x waveguide and the Si_1-yGe_y (y < x) lower cladding layer is good enough to ensure compactness of important on-chip photonic components including passive waveguide and GeSi-based array waveguide grating (AWG). The small refractive index contrast between Ge-rich Si_1-xGe_x waveguide and the Si_1-yGe_y lower cladding layer potentially avoid the polarization dependent loss and detrimental fabrication tolerance of WDM system. Our studies show that GeSi-based photonics could uniquely provide both passive and active functionalities for dense WDM system.

Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems are widely deployed in high-capacity long-haul transmission systems. They can provide cost-effective additional capacity on fibers overloaded by the increase in data traffic. Current WDM systems are used mainly for point-to-point transmission links. Next generation WDM technologies are expected to provide full functionality at both the system and network levels. Next generation WDM system will require many optical components, including optical filters, add/drop multiplexers, circuit switches and wavelength converters. Optical components using planar lightwave circuits (PLCs) are now widely used in WDM systems. Arrayed waveguide gratings (AWGs), in particular, play an important role in current WDM systems. In the next generation system, optical components using PLCs are expected to provide many functions that counterparts cannot. In this paper, we will describe the current and future WDM components using PLCs, focusing on AWGs and switchable add/drop filters.

Tunable optical filters are important components for controlling light in dense wavelength division multiplex (DWDM) systems. They can be used in many optical components, and their tunability can be realized using mechanical equipment, or/and changing the refractive index in transmission media. In DWDM systems several types of tunable filters are used. They are produced with different technologies, and they have different technical parameters, but the most important one is still their price

The positioning of Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFAs) plays a crucial role in optimizing the performance of Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) systems, particularly in addressing signal attenuation challenges in long-distance optical transmission. This study investigates the impact of EDFA placement configurations (booster, in-line, and pre-amplifier) on signal quality using OptiSystem software simulations. The research examines systems with 4 to 16 DWDM channels, operating at 10 Gbit/s per channel with 50 GHz spacing, varying total input power between -10 dBm to 5 dBm. Results demonstrate that the booster amplifier configuration performs best, while the pre-amplifier setup exhibits more pronounced degradation. The in-line amplifier configuration shows a balanced performance, effectively restoring signal strength while requiring less pump power than the booster configuration, making it a viable option for optimizing energy efficiency in DWDM systems. A critical performance threshold was identified between 10-12 channels, where all configurations experience significant changes in error performance.

In wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems, such as the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service (e.g., wavelength 1.31/1.55/1.49 mm in the EPON and wavelength 1.31/1.545/1.5x mm in the APON), coarse and dense WDM are two key technologies. In general, it takes two steps to accomplish this mixing (coarse/dense) WDM functions. In order to make the WDM device compact and low loss, it is necessary to integrate these two WDM functions into one step. In this paper, we propose two typical designs of the coarse/dense multiplexers, which multiplex the coarse/dense-WDM (C/D-WDM) signals simultaneously. We believe that, although their operation principle is simple, the proposed structures simplify the design of integrated photonic devices and will be needed in future WDM systems, specially for the WDM filter in the FTTH service. The proposed devices consist of a grating-assisted symmetrical or asymmetrical Mach-Zehnder interferometer with the wideband coupler (WBC) and/or the 3dB coupler. Depending on different operation principles, the WBC coupler operates as a 3dB coupler in two wavelength bands or operates as a 3dB coupler in one wavelength band and a cross-state coupler in another one. In this paper, firstly, the operation principles of the proposed C/D-WDM Multiplexers are demonstrated though an example of multiplexing three signals (l1/l2/l3) in two wavelength bands, where l1 (e. g., 1.31mm) belongs to the first band and l2/l3 (e. g., 1.55/1.5x mm) belong to the second band. Then, the design procedure and simulation results of those C/D-WDM multiplexers and related components such as the WBC coupler and planar gratings, which are based on the silica material, are given. Finally, some related issues such as polarizatin dependence and material dispersion are discussed.

Semianalytic models are developed to deterministically calculate the variances of degenerate and nondegenerate four-wave mixing (FWM) noises for dispersion-managed dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) systems with 8-Ary modulations [i.e., 8-level amplitude- and differential phase-shift keying (8APSK) and constant-amplitude optical differential 8-level phase-shift keying (D8PSK)]. The semianalytic models include various important propagation effects for exact numerical results. A 5.28-Tb/s (40-Gs/s/ch) 100-GHz-spaced 33-channel DWDM system with a dispersion map is then numerically analyzed by using the newly derived semianalytic models. It is numerically validated that FWM impacts coming from 8APSK pump channels are more severe than those coming from D8PSK ones, where pump channels denote the channels whose energies are transferred to a probe channel through the FWM process. The numerical results show that although FWM tolerance of a central channel with 8APSK is worse than that with D8PSK, a central channel with 8APSK is still superior to that with D8PSK when some linear noises and FWM noise are simultaneously taken into account for our given system conditions, which is mainly attributed to a relatively larger minimum Euclidean distance for the 8APSK constellation than the D8PSK one.

Along with the emergence and maturity of 100Gbit/s technologies, numbers of trial and commercial 100Gbit/s Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) systems have been established worldwide. The research-oriented lab tests of 100Gbit/s WDM systems were done by China Unicom in 2012. The 100Gbit/s technologies of polarization multiplex-quadrature phase shift keying with coherent detection from multiple vendors have been studied. There are some further issues to be specified before the commercial application of 100Gbit/s WDM system is implemented in large scale in backbone network, including optical performance parameters, optical performance monitoring of 100Gbit/s system, protection mechanism, selection of client interface and comprehensive Operation, Administration and Maintenance (OAM).

The authors have studied the possibilities to obtain the maximum spectral efficiency for a combined wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system by minimizing the channel spacing. The fiber optic transmission systems under study can be considered in the context of next generation optical networks and is offered as a model for designing the future backbone networks. In the case of different telecom operators' optical networks merging, in the nearest future the necessity may arise to transmit variously modulated optical signals over a single optical fiber (even with different per channel bitrates). In this paper the authors show an optimal combined WDM system configuration that provides the least bit-error-rate values for the signals detected in system's channels. It is found that the minimal channel spacing for differently modulated optical signals in the investigated mixed data rates WDM system is 75 GHz if these signals are transmitted with 10 Gbit/s and 40 Gbit/s per channel bitrates. It is revealed that such a system's average spectral efficiency depends also on a combined system's configuration in the case of channel separation with equal frequency intervals.

Chirped fibre Bragg gratings (CFBGs) are required to be concatenated to compensate the fibre dispersion in the dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) systems. When the channel spacing is small, the performance of CFBGs is degraded, which restricts the usage of fibre gratings. The origin of the interactions between the gratings is analysed and methods of suppressing the interactions are also proposed.

Based on comprehensive computer modeling and numerical simulation of dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) systems, it is demonstrated that by judicious use of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) and distributed Raman amplifiers (DRAs), theQ factor and op- tical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) are improved compared with EDFA alone. This hybrid combination yields a 13.5-dB improvement in OSNR and a peak Q factor of 12.1 for the hybrid versus a peak of 8.1 when

With rapidly increasing demand for communication channels, wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system are being deployed to expand the capacity. WDM systems require devices for the manipulation of multi-wavelength channels. Among these devices, the integrated acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) is rapidly gaining importance in the field of WDM communication systems because it has the combined features of rapid switching time, broad tuning range and parallel processing capability. The technology of hybrid unidirectional and focused transducer was adopted for the design of the AOTF. The AOTF consisted of a single-mode optical waveguide placed along the SAW propagation direction. Extensive researches areas, which were in optical add-drop multiplexers (OADM), gain equalization and optical switches, have been done.

Development of an OADM to reduce the incoherent crosstalk in WDM system

Performance of Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) System is analyzed using Dispersion Compensating Fiber. In this work, Optimized link of 8-channel WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) system using OptiSystem is designed. Comparison of the link performance is investigated at different wavelength i.e. 980nm, 1300nm and 1550nm. The better Performance of the WDM link can be achieved at wavelength of 1550nm as compared to 1300 and 980nm using dispersion compensating fiber along with single mode fiber for link length of 105 km operating at data rate of 3Gb\s with 8-channel of WDM System. The BER, Q-factor and eye diagram have been used for evaluating the performance of the system.

We propose a theoretical model of reflective modulators for a seeded dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) system based on amplified spontaneous emission light. A travelling-wave amplifier model is modified to take into account the finite front-facet reflectivity. The net gain and phase shift are updated at every round trip of the cavity to have complex gain for the injected field. With the proposed model, we calculate side-mode suppression ratio, gain, relative intensity noise suppression as a function of injection power, and wavelength detuning for antireflection-coated Fabry-Perot laser diodes. We also investigate the performance of the seeded DWDM system by using the model. The simulation results match well with the experimental results.

We begin reasons why high system availability is important. Furthermore, the basic terms are introduced pertaining to the availability with particular review of the parallel structure. Then the availability of different wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems is analysed: point to point, chain and ring with 1+1 protection of the wavelength channel, plus the influence of availability of nodes and links on the total system availability. The data on failure intensity and mean time to repair of certain components were taken from various literature sources. We assumed in the analysis a WDM system with 16 wavelengths and 2.5 Gbit/s capacity per wavelength channel. Finally, results of calculation and comparisons of availability of different WDM systems and proposals for improvement of their availability are presented.