Chapter 5

WDM SYSTEMS
Fiber-Optic Communications Systems, Third Edition.
Govind P. Agrawal

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Chapter Contents
 WDM Lightwave Systems: High-Capacity Point-to-Point Links,
Wide-Area and Metro-Area Networks, Multiple-Access WDM
Networks
 System Performance Issues: Four-Wave Mixing
 Basic Concepts of optical amplifiers: Gain Spectrum and
Bandwidth, Gain Saturation, Amplifier Noise, Amplifier
Applications, Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers, Amplifier
Design

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  Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers: Pumping Requirements,
Gain Spectrum, Multichannel Amplification
 Raman Amplifiers: Raman Gain and Bandwidth, Amplifier
Characteristics, Amplifier Performance
 System Applications: Optical Preamplification, Noise
Accumulation in Long-Haul Systems

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 The Arrival of Optical Revolution

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 WDM N Channels

STM-646 STM-64
16 x STM-4 STM-64 3R 3R 3R STM-646 16 x STM-4
terminal 3R 3R 3R terminal
16 x STM-4 STM-64 STM-64 16 x STM-4
terminal terminal
16 x STM-4 STM-64 3R 3R 3R STM-64 16 x STM-4
terminal 3R 3R 3R terminal
16 x STM-4 STM-64 STM-64 16 x STM-4
terminal terminal
16 x STM-4 STM-64 3R 3R 3R STM-64 16 x STM-4
terminal 3R 3R 3R terminal
16 x STM-4 STM-64 STM-64 16 x STM-4
terminal terminal
16 x STM-4 STM-64 3R 3R 3R STM-64 16 x STM-4
terminal 3R 3R 3R terminal
16 x STM-4 STM-64 STM-64 16 x STM-4
terminal 3R 3R 3R terminal
16 x STM-4 STM-64 STM-64 16 x STM-4
terminal 3R 3R 3R terminal
16 x STM-4 STM-64 STM-64 16 x STM-4
terminal terminal
16 x STM-4 STM-64 3R 3R 3R STM-64 16 x STM-4
terminal 3R 3R 3R terminal
16 x STM-4 STM-64 STM-64 16 x STM-4
terminal 3R 3R 3R terminal
16 x STM-4 STM-64 STM-64 16 x STM-4
terminal 3R 3R 3R terminal
16 x STM-4 16 x STM-4
N 16 x STM-4
STM-64
terminal
STM-64
terminal
3R 3R 3R
STM-64
terminal
STM-64
terminal 16 x STM-4
16 x STM-4 3R 3R 3R 16 x STM-4
terminal terminal
Channels

STM : Synchronous Transfer Mode

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 WDM N Channels
WDM channels
Total Capacity =
N x channel bit-rate

STM : Synchronous
Transfer Mode
Mux : Multiplexer
Demux : Demultiplexer

STM-64 STM-64
16 x STM-4 16 x STM-4
terminal D terminal
M E
N channels U
X
M 16 channels
U
STM-64 X STM-64
16 x STM-4 16 x STM-4
terminal terminal

> WDM = economical solution to reach multiterabit/s capacity

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 The Revolution

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 WDM Optical components

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 More DWDM Components

Optical Amplifier Optical Attenuator

(EDFA) Variable Optical Attenuator

Dispersion Compensator (DCM / DCU)

15
 WDM Optical System

Frequency-registered Receivers
transmitters Optical Fiber
1 R

2 R
WDM WDM
3 Mux
Amp Amp
DeMux R

40 - 120 km

N
Up to 10,000 km R
 = 25 - 100 GHz
(0.4 or 0.8 nm @ 1500 nm)

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 Need for amplifiers
 Gain needed for:
– Compensation of link fiber loss
– Increasing distance between electrical regenerators
– Increasing signal power before receiver

Tx Rx Tx G G Rx
Signal Power

Receiver
sensitivity Fiber length

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 Base characterictics in FOCS

Input Optical Transmitter Comm. Channel Optical Receiver Output

• Format • Modulation • Loss • Bandwidth

• Bandwidth Characteristics • Dispersion • Responsivity
• Protocol • Power • 4-Wave • Sensitivity
• Wavelength Mixing • Noise
• Noise • Wavelength
• Crosstalks
• Distortion
• Amplification

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 Dense WDM Transmission Properties

Cause Effect

Loss Attenuation

Gain Amplification &

Noise

Dispersion Distortion

Nonlinearity New Frequencies

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 Optical Amplifier

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The Need for Optical Amplification
 Repeaters can convert an optical signal into an electrical signal, amplify
it and reconvert the signal back to an optical signal.
 This procedure has several disadvantages:
– Costly
– Require a large number over long distances
– Noise is introduced after each conversion in analog signals (which
cannot be reconstructed)
– Restriction on bandwidth, wavelengths and type of optical signals
being used, due to the electronics
 By amplifying signal in the optical domain many of these disadvantages
would disappear!

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 Optical Amplifiers - Types

There are mainly two types:

 Semiconductor Laser Amplifier (SLA)

or Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA)

 Active-Fibre or Doped-Fibre

– Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA)

– Fiber Raman Amplifier (FRA)

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 SLA - Principle Operation
 Remember diode lasers?
Suppose that the diode laser has no mirrors:
- Setting the diode a population inversion condition
- Injecting photons at one end of the diode
 By stimulated emission, the incident signal will be amplified!
– By stimulated emission, one photon gives rise to another
photon: the total is two photons. Each of these two photons
can give rise to another photon: the total is then four
photons. And it goes on and on...
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 SLA - Principle Operation
Excited state

Metastable state

Pump signal ASE Photons

@ 980 nm 1550 nm

Ground state

Excited state

Metastable state

Pump signal Stimulated

@ 980 nm emission
Signal photon
1550 nm 1550 nm
Ground state
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 SLA - Disadvantages

Problems:

 Poor noise performance: they add a lot of noise to the

signal!

 Matching with the fibre is also a problem!

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Bandwidth of different Optical Amplifiers

Pout
[dBm]

 [nm]

YDFA (doped Ytterbium), PDFA (doped Praseodymium),

TDFA (doped Thulium) và EDFA (doped Erbium).
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 USABLE SPECTRUM OF SILICA FIBER

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Bandwidth of different Optical Amplifiers
Optical Amplifiers Bandwidth Bandwidth name

1060-1140
YDFA

PDFA 1260 -1340 O

TDFA 1460 -1530 S

C+L
EDFA (1525 -1565) +(1565 -1625)
L: near future

Raman 1460-1675 S+C + L+U

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2/23/2024 30
 Energy Diagram of Ion Er3+
GSA ESA

2
H11/ 2 520 nm 790 nm

4 550 nm 850 nm
S3/ 2
Excited State Absorption
4
F9 / 2 650 nm 1140 nm

4
I9/2 800 nm 1689 nm

4
I 11 / 2 980 nm 2700 nm

 = 0.001 ms
4
I 13 / 2 1530 nm

 = 10 ms

4
I 15 / 2

Hình 3.21 Giản đồ năng lượng của Ion Er3+.

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(GSA: Ground State Absorption, ESA: Excited State Absorption) 31
 Erbium Doped Fibre Amplifier (EDFA)
 EDFA is an optical fibre doped with
erbium.
– Erbium is a rare-earth element which
has some interesting properties for fibre
optics communications. 540
– Photons at 1480 or 980 nm activate 670
electrons into a metastable state 820
– Electrons falling back emit light at 1550 980
nm. Metastable
– By one of the most extraordinary state 1480
coincidences, 1550 nm is a low-loss 1550 nm
wavelength region for silica optical Ground state
fibres.
– This means that we could amplify a
signal by using stimulated emission.

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 Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier

Isolator Coupler Coupler Isolator

Erbium-Doped
Fiber (10–50m)

Pump Pump
Laser Laser

“Simple” device consisting of four parts:

 Erbium-doped fiber
 A coupler
 An isolator to cut off backpropagating noise
 An optical pump (to invert the population).
+ p = 1480 nm pump efficiency: 6dB/mW
+ p = 980 nm pump efficiency: 10dB/mW  more efficient
  = 980 nm used more popular
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 Bandwidth of EDFA

Pout
C: (1525 -1565)nmn

 (nm)

EDFA Gain vs Wavelength

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 Optical Amplifier - Optical Gain (G)

 G = P Output / P Input
 EDFA Gain strongly depends on power and wavelength of
incoming signal

Gain (dB)
EDFA
• Gain ↓ as the input power ↑ 40
Pin Gain Pout P Input: -30 dBm

-20 dBm 30 dB +10 dBm 30 -20 dBm

-10 dBm 25 dB +15 dBm -10 dBm
Note, Pin changes by a factor of ten 20 -5 dBm
then Pout changes only by a factor of
five in this power range. 10
1520 1540 1560 1580

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 Gain of EDFA: Saturation

Gain (dB)

Signal Power: Pout (dBm)

EDFA Gain is function of Pout corresponding to pump

power

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 Optical Amplification
 Amplification gain: Up to a factor of 10,000 (+40 dB)
 In WDM: Signals within the amplifier’s gain (G) bandwidth are
amplified, but not to the same Gain
 It generates its own noise source known as Amplified
Spontaneous Emission (ASE) noise.

Weak signal Amplified signal

Pin Optical Pout
Amplifier
ASE ASE
(G)

Pump Source

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 Optical Amplification - Noise Figure
 Required figure of merit to compare amplifier noise performance

 Defined when the input signal is coherent

Input signal  to noise ratio ( SNRi )

Noise Figure (NF) 
Output signal  to noise ratio ( SNRo )

 NF is a positive number, nearly always > 2 (I.e. 3 dB)

 Good performance: when NF ~ 3 dB

 NF is one of a number of factors that determine the overall BER of a

network.

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 Noise in EDFA
Output Power (dBm)

0 Signal
Pump
-10

-20

-30

-40
1,48 1,50 1,52 1,54 1,56 1,58

Wavelength (m)
Power spectrum of pump; signal power and noise power

( S / N ) in 1  2nsp (G  1)
NF  F    2nsp
( S / N ) out G
n2
nsp 
n2  n1
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 Optical Amplification - Spectral Characteristics

(unamplified signal)

(amplified signal)
Single channel

Power
Power

ASE

Wavelength Wavelength
WDM channels
(unamplified signal)

(amplified signal)
Power

Power
ASE

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 EDFA – Gain Profile
+10 dBm

ASE spectrum when no

input signal is present

Amplified signal spectrum

(input signal saturates the
optical amplifier) + ASE
-40 dBm
1575 nm
1525 nm

PASE(f) = mthnsp[G(f)  1]B0

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Optical Amplification - Spectral Characteristics
(amplified signal)

(amplified signal)
B0 B0
Power

Power
ASE ASE

Wavelength Wavelength

How can to reduce PASE?

PASE(f) = mthfnsp[G(f)  1]B0

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 ASE Power at the output of EDFA

Pout ( f )  G ( f )  Pin ( f )

PASE ( f )  mt nSP hf (G ( f )  1) B0

mt : number of polarization modes

nSP : Spontaneous Emission factor
G(f): gain of EDFA at frequency f
B o: optical filter bandwidth
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 Example

=1550 nm; G(f)=1000; mt =2; nSP=1.5; Bo=10GHz;

Pin(f)=-20dBm
1) Calculate signal power Pout(f) in W and in dBm
2) Calculate PASE(f)
3) Calculate SNR(f)

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 Solution

Pin(f)=-20dBm↔10-5w

Pout ( f )  G( f )  Pin ( f )  103 105  102 w  10dBm

PASE ( f )  mt nSP (hc /  )(G ( f )  1) B0
 3.84 103 mW  24.16dBm
SNR  10dBm-(-24dBm)  34dB
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 The end of Chapter 5 (part 1)

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