1

Optical Networking Overview

Outline 2

 This module covers:

• Physical/Electrical/Optical Precautions
• Fiber Management
• Fiber Cleaning
• Optical Power Measurement
• Network Maintenance
• Optical Networking – WDM
• Fiber Impairment
• Fiber Communication System
• Photonic Layer
• Signal Management and Conditioning
• Optical Amplifiers
• Troubleshooting Optical Alarms
Physical Precautions 3

 Do not lift an object alone that could be too heavy

for one individual

 Keep your work area tidy and free of obstructing

objects at all times

 Do not wear loose clothing, jewelry, or other items

that could be caught in the components during
installation or use

 Do not work alone if hazardous conditions may exist

in your workplace
Electrical Precautions 4

 Use the equipment only in accordance with

the electrical power rating
 Properly ground the equipment shelf
 Connect only a DC power source that complies
with the Safety Extra-Low Voltage requirements
 Install DC power supplies used in restricted access
areas in accordance with the National Electrical Code
 Ensure safety cover is installed over the power terminal connectors
 Use a ESD wrist strap whenever you service the BTI equipment,
especially when handling modules
Optical Precautions 5

 Laser Safety
• Invisible laser radiation
― No blink reflex
― No perceivable sensation
• Laser classification
― CLASS 1: Laser is safe under all
conditions of normal use
― All modules in normal operation

 Avoid direct viewing of exposed fiber end

 Use equipment in a controlled access area
 Exclude any unauthorized personnel from the immediate laser radiation
area during service and installation
 Handle glass fiber with care
 Protect skin from exposed glass fiber
Fiber Management 6

 BTI 7000 system designed for optical

fibers routed to the right hand side
 Start cabling from lower right
 Avoid exceeding minimum fiber bend
radius
Fiber and Cable management 7

Cover in open position

 Fibers routed to the right.
 Electrical cables routed to the left.
Fiber cleaning 8

 Dirty fiber can result in:

• High attenuation
• Decreased performance
• Excessive back reflection
 Inspect fiber using optical fiber scope as required
 Always clean fiber just before connecting fiber
 Always cover fiber with protective dust cover when
not in use
 Also applies to XFPs, SFPs, and other port connections
Fiber Connectors 9

Key performance values in connectors include Insertion Loss,

Reflectance, Core Alignment (Apex Offset), and End Face
Polishing.
Insertion Loss is the measure of reduction in signal caused by
inserting a component, such as a connector, into the optical ST
pathway.

Types of Connectors:
• ST: bayonet connector that uses radial track for locking
purposes FC
• FC: key aligned notch that is tightened using a thread locking
coupling nut
• SC: square connector that uses a push to snap-on and push to
snap off
SC
• LC: a smaller version of the SC connector type

Types of Contacts:
LC
• APC – Angled Physical Contact
• UPC - Ultra Physical Contact
Fiber Characterization 10

 Perform fiber characterization on the fibers:

• Connector Types
• Fiber Mode
• OTDR measurements
― Uses Optical Return Loss (ORL)
― Fiber lengths
― Losses per span/connectors
― Fiber breaks/bends
• Optical Power Loss
• Chromatic Dispersion measurements (CD)
• Polarization Mode Dispersion measurements (PMD)
Network Maintenance 11

 Optical Networks and equipment are

generally very robust and do not
require maintenance, but…

 Network/Link characteristics will

change with time
• Physical stresses on fiber
― Right of way characteristics
• Externally influence factors
― Electrical feed power
― Grounding
• Channel count
• Etc…

 Network characteristics monitoring

and maintenance helps to avoid
developing issues
• Power level trends
• Error trends
Optical Power Measurement 12

 Modules report composite power:

• Optical power received
• Optical power transmitted
• Optical back reflection
• First stage optical power transmitted
• Second stage optical power received
 Composite power includes signal
power and noise power for the entire
band
 Reported power should match power
measured with a hand-held power
meter
 Per-channel power should be
measured using an OSA (optical
spectrum analyzer)
 13

Optical Networking — WDM Overview

Outline 14

 This module covers:

• Fiber impairment
• Attenuation & Dispersion
• Optical fiber communication
system
• CWDM & DWDM
• Enabling Technologies
• MUX/DEMUX
• Optical supervisory channel
(OSC), OADM, DC Modules
• Channel Power Monitoring
• Wavelength Conversion
• Amplifiers
Optical Fiber Physical Dimension 15

 Single mode Cladding n2

• Core diameter ~ 8-10 mm
• Cladding diameter ~ 125 mm n1
core
 Multimode Fiber
n2
• Core diameter ~ 50 mm or 60 mm
• Cladding diameter ~ 125 mm
n: Refractive index n1>n2
 Refractive index
 Base Material is SiO2 (sand). =c/n(w)
• Other dopants (Ge, P, Er, Yb, …) are added
n1 ~
to change physical characteristics 1.45
n2
n1

n2
Optical Fiber Impairments 16
Attenuation & Dispersion
 Attenuation (Loss):
• Due to impurities in the fiber that cause absorption, scattering and
reflection
― ~ 0.2 dB/Km @ 1550 nm (min attenuation wavelength , SM)
― ~ 0.3 dB/Km @ 1310 nm (zero dispersion wavelength, SM, MM)
― ~ 1.0 dB/Km @ 850 nm (1st laser wavelength, MM)
tD
 Dispersion
• Modal Dispersion (MMF) t
― each mode travel different distance in the fiber (spatial dispersion)
• Chromatic Dispersion (CD) (SMF)
― frequency (or wavelength) dependency of the fiber material‟s refractive index
• Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD) (Both, irrelevant in MMF)
― “modal birefringence”
― departure of the fiber core geometry (perfectly cylindrical form)
― material anisotropy
― Stress and strain during fiber cabling
― Environment variation
Attenuation (Loss) 17

 Inherent Fiber Attenuation

• Molecules in fiber absorb and scatter
light
• „Windows‟ of minimum attenuation
• Typical fiber attenuation 0.25dB/km
• Attenuation is directly related to
wavelength
 Other sources
• Connector loss (0.2-
0.5dB/connector)
• Dirt and contaminations in
connectors
• Fiber break
• Fiber stress/bend
• Mechanical Splice Typical
deployment band
for DWDM metro
systems
Optical Fiber Impairments 18
Reflection

 Open Connector
• Fiber-to-air transition causes
reflection of incident light
• Reflection equivalent to
approximately 4% (-14dB)
• Avoided by properly terminating
connections
― Unused channels on Mux/Demux
devices
• Dirt in connection may also cause
sufficient air gap for reflection
Optical Fiber Impairments 19
Dispersion

 Chromatic Dispersion
• Speed of light propagation is
proportional to wavelength
• Optical pulse width will spread
as it travels down the fiber
Optical Fiber Impairments 20
Dispersion (Cont…)

 Spreading of light pulses causes inter-symbol interference and limits

propagation distance
 Proportional to (bit rate)2
Optical Fiber Communication Links - WDM 21

 CWDM/DWDM – Wavelength Division Multiplexing

Booster Pre
Tx Amplifier Rx
Mod Amplifier

Mod

Line
Optical Amplifier
Tx Mux Fiber Rx
Mod
DEMUX

 CWDM
• 18 channels spaced at 20-nm intervals from 1270 nm to 1610 nm.
• 8 channels are used in industry from 1470 nm to 1610 nm.
 DWDM
• S, C, L bandwidths.
• C band (1528 nm to 1565 nm) is mostly used in industry.
Optical Fiber Communication Links
CWDM vs. DWDM 22

 CWDM - Course Wavelength Division Multiplexing

― λ: 1271nm to 1611nm (16ch @ 20nm spacing)
― No amplification possible
― Reduced Cost
― Low channel + short distance applications

 DWDM - Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing

― λ: 1530.33nm to 1559.79nm (32ch @ 0.8nm spacing)
― Full spectrum amplification available
― Increased Cost
― Higher channel + extended distance applications
DWDM Wavelength Plan 23
BTI 7000 Network Applications 24

Long Span Reach Extension: SDH, SONET, 10GE, DWDM

Fiber Relief: CWDM, DWDM, Hybrid
Access Network Backhaul: GE, SDH, SONET, FC
Ethernet Overlay on Legacy: Thin WDM + MSPP Architecture
Private Line Demarcation: GE, 10GE, OC-n, STM-n
Photonic layer building blocks 25

Pre-Amp (OPA); Booster-Amp (OBA)

DWDM amplification Line-Amp (OLA);
Amplification Line-Amp with Mid-stage (OLAM)

Single channel/Sub-band Sub-band Pre-Amp (SPA), Sub-band

amplification Booster (SBA)

DWDM mux/demux 32l mux/demux (4x8l=32l), 1l, 2l, 4l OADM

DWDM active mux/demux 8l mux/demux

Photonic
add/drop CWDM mux/demux 8l mux/demux, 4l mux/demux (2x4l=8l), 1l OADM

Splitter/combiners CWDM/DWDM S/C, 1310 S/C, 1510 S/C

DWDM DCF
C-band DCM-5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 60, 80 (NDSF)
dispersion management

Signal DWDM channelized

C-band DCM-40, 60, 80
dispersion management
conditioning
Single channel dispersion
DCM-40, 60, 80
management

ASE Noise Filter

Photonic layer building blocks – Wavelength Conversion 26

Translator (2R) SFP: 0.1-2.7 Gbps

Regenerator (3R) SFP: 0.1-2.7 Gbps

Regenerator with SFP: 0.1-2.7 Gbps

protection (3R)

Regenerator (4R) XFP: 10 Gbps

Regenerator with XFP: 10 Gbps

protection (4R)
Wavelength
conversion
GbE Muxponder (2 port) SONET, SDH

Multiprotocol SONET, SDH, SDH CCAT

Muxponder (8 port)

Multiprotocol SONET, SDH, SDH CCAT

Muxponder (10 port)

packetVX (12/2) 12 GbE & 2 10-GbE

packetVX (24/2) 24 GbE & 2 10-GbE

packetVX (24/4) 24 GbE & 4 10-GbE

BTI 7000 Offering 27

SONET/SDH
OC-3 to OC-192

Optical Link Extension

Data Networking
GbE Amplification
10GbE

DWDM Signal Conditioning

Transponders Optical Multiplexing
Mux/Demux & OADM

ITU-T wavelengths (DWDM and/or CWDM)

TX Characterization - SFP/XFP 28

SONET/SDH
OC-3 to OC-192

SFP: small form factor

Data Networking
GbE
10GbE
mm
in

DWDM
Transponders

ITU-T wavelengths (DWDM and/or CWDM)

Optical Amplifiers - EFDA 29

 Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier

(EDFA)
• Uses doped optical fiber as gain
medium
• 2nd Laser used as “Pump”
• Input light interacts with excited
doped ions creating new light
• Spontaneous decay emissions
also possible
― ASE Noise

(point to point)
Tx Booster
Rx
Amplifier Pre
Optical
Fiber Amplifier

Line
Tx Mux Amplifier Rx
DEMUX
Optical Amplifier Modes 30

Power Power
Constant
Output Output
Gain GAIN

Input Input

Wavelength Wavelength

Power Power 3 dB loss in per-channel power

Constant Output
Power Output

Input Input

Wavelength Wavelength

For multi-channel applications  use Constant Gain

For single-channel applications  use Constant Gain or Constant Power
Optical Amplifiers – Gain Saturation 31

 Gain Saturation
• Pump laser can only produce a
certain level of gain
• As input signal power increases,
amp saturates and cannot
produce any additional output
power
Optical Amplifiers – Spectral Tilt 32

 Spectral Tilt
• Amplifiers, fiber, and optical
component have wavelength
dependent loss
• Gain Flattening Filters (GFF) used to
compensate for spectral tilt

 Tilt Compensation - at and

beyond Saturation
• At saturation tilt compensation is lost
• Feature on OLA and OLAM Amplifier output spectrum is tilted if
• Uses VOA to introduce operated in saturation
positive/negative tilt
• Recommend that tilt is corrected
incrementally over several amplifiers,
e.g. 1 dB of tilt compensation per
amplifier x 3 amplifiers to compensate
for 3 dB of tilt
Impairment Issues – Noise 33

 OSNR
• Ratio of signal power to
noise power
― Signal power measured at
peak of channel
― Noise power is measured at
+/- 0.4nm from peak and
averaged
• Noise is unavoidable
― Regeneration required with
OSNR below ~18-21dB
 34

Signal Management and Conditioning

Passive Mux/Demux - Variants 35

 The 32-Channel DWDM Mux/Demux

modules 1 to 4: Double-width slot
 All other modules: Single slot
 All connectors are LC.
 The 40-Channel DWDM Mux/Demux is
a 2RU, low-loss, standalone passive
optical module that provides access
to all 40 DWDM channels.

40-Channel DWDM
Multiplexing shelf
Passive Mux/Demux - Specifications 36

 May be installed in:

• 7200 main/expansion shelf
• 7060 main/expansion shelf
• 7020 shelf (CWDM and DWDM
Mux/Demux modules only)
 Terminate all channels not in use
 Connecting Expansion packs
• Expansion Port Tx -> Line Rx
• Line Tx -> Expansion Port Rx
 Adding additional channels
• Add one at a time
• Ensure all other channels are
optimized
• Continue with subsequent channels
OADM 37

 Module variants
• DWDM
― Single Channel OADM
― Two Channel OADM
― Four Channel OADM
• CWDM
― Single Channel OADM
― Two Channel OADM
― Single Channel Double OADM

Chan x Drop Chan x Drop Passthru Out Line In

Chan x Add Chan x Add Passthru In Line Out

Faceplate
Dispersion Compensation Modules 38

 Dispersion Compensating Fiber Module

• Supports any wideband signal
• Supports any wavelength in C-band
• 20, 40, 60, and 80km distances available

 Channelized Fiber Bragg Gratings

• Cost optimized with reduce insertion loss
• Covers all C-Band DWDM channels
• 40, 60, and 80km distances available
Dispersion Compensation - Rules of Thumb 39

 Dispersion compensation
• Some compensation strategies

(i) Pre-compensation at Tx (ii) Post-compensation at Rx

(iii) Mid-stage compensation at line site (iii) In span compensation at line

site
Mux/Demux & DCM - provisioning 40

 Informational settings
• ID1 & ID2
• Fiber type, Grid, Wavelength
• Custom fields
 No performance monitoring or facility
alarms
 41

System Overview — Optical Amplifier

Component Specifications - Amplifiers 42

 Different variants of amplifier available:

• S-Series
• Designed for low channel count (1-8 wavelengths)
• No gain flattening filter
• Generally lowest cost alternative
― SBA, SPA

• O-Series
• Designed for full C-band operation (up to 40 wavelengths)
• Higher output power achievable, variable gain provisioning
• Tilt control
― OBA, OPA, OLA, OLAM
Amplifiers – Rules of Thumb 43

 S-series amplifiers for low channel count (1-8) in bands 1 and/or 2

 O-Series amplifiers for higher channel count up to 40 wavelengths
• Higher power per channel to maintain OSNR (OLA/OLAM)
• Requirement for dispersion compensation at line sites (OLAM)
• Multiple spans – higher channel count (up to 40)
 In general for 10G DWDM systems ensure launch power per channel is <
6dBm to avoid non linear impairments (SPM, XFP FWM, SBS etc)
 For 2.5G DWDM systems ensure launch power per channel <9dBm
Reach Extension 44

Booster Line Pre-Amp

Amp Amp

The Optical Booster Amplifier (OBA), Optical Line Amplifier (OLA), and Optical Pre-
Amplifier (OPA) can be used to extend the length of DWDM links of any wavelength in the
band 1528nm to 1563nm
 Pre-amplifier: amplifies the incoming composite DWDM signal to allow a sufficient
optical power level to optical receivers on dropped wavelengths and to overcome
the insertion losses of optical filters in the node
 Booster amplifier: amplifies the outgoing composite DWDM signal to overcome the
attenuation of the fiber network
 Line amplifier: amplifies the composite DWDM signal at a mid-span location; can
provide ―mid-stage‖ access to enable passive DCM between amplification stages
Optical Amplifiers 45

 Amplifier module variants:

• C-band Booter Amplifier (OBA)
Amplifier
• C-band Pre-Amplifier (OPA)
• Optical Line Amplifier (OLA)
• Optical Line Amplifier with Mid-Stage Access
(OLAM)
• Single-channel/Sub-band Pre-Amplifier (SPA)
• Single-channel/Sub-band Booster Amplifier
(SBA)
 Universal connector supports SC/ST/FC

 OLAM mid-stage input/output

• Amplifier mid-stage output goes to DCM
input.
• DCM output goes to amplifier mid-stage
input.
Optical Amplifier - Provisioning 46

 Provisioned Mode
• Constant Gain
• Constant Power
― Single channel only
 Target Signal Gain/Output Power
 Tilt Compensation
• Compensate for tilt introduced by
external devices or fiber
 Tilt Compensation Room
• Usable range for tilt
compensation
• Depends on VOA setting
Amplifier provisioning – Optical Back Reflection 47

 Safeguards against ‗uncontrolled‘

output of >10dBm
 Amplifier goes into ‗Eye Safe‘ mode
when OBR > -4.0dBm
 Requires OBR < -24dBm to disable
Eye Safe laser mode
 Avoided by:
• No open connections
― Line terminators
• Ensuring clean fiber connections
• Low output powers
― Initial power levels
― Single channel power < 13dBm
 48

Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting – Loss of Signal 49

LOS: Loss of Signal

LOS is reported when no optical signal is received, usually due to bad connections,
dirty or broken fiber, or possibly excessive attenuation.
1. Check all fiber connections and signal going into the transceiver.
2. Re-seat module and then replace SFP/XFP.
3. If alarm persists, replace circuit pack.

In some rare cases, this persistent alarm has been linked to faulty hardware
Troubleshooting – Loss of Frame 50

LOF: Loss of Frame

Usually due to a severely degraded signal or mismatched protocol
1. Check to ensure the protocol provisioning of the transceiver matches the received
signal
2. Check the optical levels
3. Clean fibers and change fiber patches
4. Re-seat module and then replace SFP/XFP.
5. Verify that cross-connects are properly configured.
6. If alarm persists, replace circuit pack.
7. If alarm still persists, some further troubleshooting of the optical characterization
with an OTDR may be required.
Troubleshooting – Loss of Lock 51

LOL: Loss of Lock

Loss of Lock is reported when the circuit pack cannot lock in to the incoming bit stream.
This could be because the protocol is mismatched, the optical signal is degraded or the SFP
is receiving an idle pattern.
1. Check to ensure the protocol provisioning of the transceiver matches the received signal.
2. Check the optical levels
3. Clean fibers and change fiber patches
4. Re-seat module and then replace SFP/XFP.
5. Verify that cross-connects are properly configured.
6. If alarm persists, replace circuit pack.
7. If alarm still persists, some further troubleshooting of the optical characterization with
an OTDR may be required.
52