Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) Technology

V Srinath, Instructor(Telecom), IRISET

November 18, 2019

Abstract Band Description Wavelength

O band Original 1260 to 1360nm
DWDM system and the need of this system are dis- E band Extended 1360 to 1460nm
cussed along with the operation of each component. S band Small Wavelengths 1460 to 1530nm
The increasing demands of bandwidth lead to the en- C band Conventional (“er- 1530 to 1565nm
hancement in DWDM. The components of DWDM bium window”)
system are individually discussed. Various advan- L band Long wavelengths 1565 to 1625 nm
tages and disadvantages of DWDM technology are U band Ultra wavelengths 1625 to 1675 nm
discussed. The maintenance of optical signal quality
and the factors that is important while the design Table 1:
and operation of DWDM are seen. The advantages
of DWDM make this technology ideal for communi- 3 Channel Spacing
cation and other applications.
The minimum frequency separation between two dif-
ferent multiplexed signals is known as the Channel
1 Introduction spacing. Since the wavelength of operation is in-
versely proportional to the frequency a correspond-
ing difference is introduced in the wavelength of each
Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM)
signal.
is an optical technology used to increase bandwidth
over existing fiber optic back bones.
Channel spacing in GHz 200 100 50 25 12.5
A key advantage to DWDM is that it’s protocol and Channel Spacing in nm 1.6 0.8 0.4 0.2 0.1
bit-rate independent. DWDM-based networks can No. of channels (C-band) 22 45 90 180 360
transmit data in IP, ATM, SONET/SDH and Ether-
No. of channels (L-band) 35 70 140 280 560
net, and handle bit rates between 100 Mb/s and 2.5
Gb/s. Therefore, DWDM-based networks can carry Table 2:
different types of traffic at different speeds over an
optical channel.
Why we need DWDM? Earlier we use SDH trans-
mission technology where optical signals transmitted 4 DWDM Components
through a optical fiber utilizing only single dedica-
tion band width like STM – 1,4,16 and 64. By imple- A DWDM system generally consists of five com-
menting SDH technology we have wasted maximum ponents: Optical Transmitters/Receivers, DWDM
amount of band width Mux/DeMux Filters, Optical Add/Drop Multiplexers
(OADMs), Optical Amplifiers, Transponders (Wave-
length Converters).

2 ITU –T BAND 4.1 Optical Transmitters/Receivers

The middle windows (S and C) around 1500 nm are DWDM systems require very precise wavelengths of
the most widely used. This region has the lowest light to operate without inter channel distortion or
attenuation losses and achieves the longest range. It crosstalk. Several individual lasers are typically used
does have some dispersion, so dispersion compensator to create the individual channels of a DWDM system.
devices are used to remove this. Each laser operates at a slightly different wavelength.

1
 Figure 1:

Modern systems operate with 200, 100, and 50-GHz the electrical signal. These amplifiers add gain or
spacing. Newer systems support 25-GHz spacing and boost the amplitude of optical signals by simulating
12.5-GHz spacing is being investigated. Generally, the photons of signal with extra energy. EDFA are
DWDM transceivers (DWDM SFP, DWDM SFP+, the optical repeaters that amplify the optical signal.
DWDM XFP, etc.) operating at 100 and 50 GHz can The silica based optical fibers are doped with erbium
be found on the market nowadays. to improve the power of wavelength.[4]

4.2 DWDM Mux/DeMux Filters 4.5 Transponders (Wavelengths Con-

Multiple wavelengths are combined to be transmit- verters)
ted on one fiber and these form a composite sig-
nal. At the receiver end this composite signal is Transponder is a device that is used to send and re-
again separated into individual wavelengths using de- ceive signals from fiber and these are used to convert
multiplexer. Optical multiplexer and de-multiplexer full duplex electrical signal to full duplex optical sig-
are passive components. Since the process of this nal. These convert optical signal of one wavelength
multiplexing and demultiplexing is optical thus there to optical signal of another wavelength suitable for
is no need of external power source. DWDM applications. These are also known as opti-
cal –electrical-optical (OE-O) wavelength converters.
Thus these are useful for optical communication but
4.3 Optical Add/Drop Multiplexers these are bulky and consume more power.
Optical add/drop multiplexers (i.e. OADMs) have Transponders are generally used in WDM systems
a different function of ”Add/Drop”, compared with (2.5 to 40 Gbps), including not only DWDM systems,
Mux/DeMux filters. Here is a figure that shows the but aslo CWDM systems. Fiberstore provides various
operation of a 1-channel OADM. This OADM is de- WDM transponders (OEO converters) with different
signed to only add or drop optical signals with a par- module ports (SFP to SFP, SFP+ to SFP+, XFP to
ticular wavelength. From left to right, an incoming XFP, etc.).
composite signal is broken ito two components, drop
and pass-through. The OADM drops only the red
optical signal stream. The dropped signal stream 5 Working of DWDM System
is passed to the receiver of a client device. The re-
maining optical signals that pass through the OADM 1. The transponder accepts input in the form of a
are multiplexed with a new add signal stream. The standard single-mode or multimode laser pulse.
OADM adds a new red optical signal stream, which The input can come from different physical me-
operates at the same wavelength as the dropped sig- dia and different protocols and traffic types.
nal. The new optical signal stream is combined with
the pass-through signals to form a new composite sig- 2. The wavelength of the transponder input signal
nal. is mapped to a DWDM wavelength.

3. DWDM wavelengths from the transponder are

4.4 Optical Amplifiers
multiplexed with signals from the direct inter-
The optical signal (light) can be amplified directly face to form a composite optical signal which is
using optical amplifiers without first converting it to launched into the fiber.

2
 Figure 2:

Figure 3:

Figure 4:

Figure 5:

4. A post-amplifier (booster amplifier) boosts the 6. Additional optical amplifiers can be used along
strength of the optical signal as it leaves the mul- the fiber span (in-line amplifier) as needed.
tiplexer.
7. A pre-amplifier boosts the signal before it enters
the de muliplexer.
5. An OADM is used at a remote location to drop
and add bit streams of a specific wavelength. 8. The incoming signal is demultiplexed into indi-

3
 Figure 6:

vidual DWDM wavelengths. 2. Attenuation loss due to impurities in core or

cladding of fiber.
9. The individual DWDM lambdas are either
mapped to the required output type through the 3. Since multiple optical signals are multiplexed to-
transponder or they are passed directly to client- gether thus insertion loss occurs.
side equipment.
4. Splicing and connector losses are also observed
Using DWDM technology, DWDM systems provide which affect the system performance.
the bandwidth for large amounts of data. In fact, the
capacity of DWDM systems is growing as technolo- 5. Loss due to chromatic dispersion and polariza-
gies advance that allow closer spacing, and therefore tion dispersion also affect the system.
higher numbers, of wavelengths. But DWDM is also
moving beyond transport to become the basis of all-
optical networking with wavelength provisioning and
8 Applications of DWDM sys-
mesh-based protection. Switching at the photonic tem
layer will enable this evolution, as will the routing
protocols that allow light paths to traverse the net- 1. DWDM has capability to expand capacity and
work in much the same way as virtual circuits do to- can serve as backup bandwidth without a need
day. With the development of technologies, DWDM to install new fibers thus it is ready made for
systems may need more advanced components to ex- long distance telecommunication services.
ert greater advantage
2. DWDM can also be used in various networks
like sensor networks, remote radar networks, tele
6 Advantages of DWDM spectroscopic process control network and many
more networks.
1. 1. It has unlimited transmission capacity due to
3. By the use of only two fibers 100% protected ring
multi data transmission network.
with 16 separate communication signals, can be
2. It is flexible as it is protocol and bit rate inde- constructed deploying DWDM terminals as these
pendent. are self healing rings.
3. It is expanded at any node very smoothly. 4. In order to meet the demand in fast growing in-
dustrial base DWDM system can be used for ex-
4. Data transparency and high reliability.
isting thin fiber plants as these plants cannot
5. It is suitable for long haul transmission. support high bit rates.

6. Continuous data regeneration is not required.

7 Disadvantages of DWDM
1. Amplifiers are used to improve power and gain
thus system becomes expensive.

4
 9 Conclusion
DWDM works by combining and transmit-
ting multiple signals simultaneously at different
wavelengths on the same fiber. In effect, one
fiber is transformed into multiple virtual fibers.
So, if you were to multiplex eight STM16 sig-
nals into one fiber, you would increase the car-
rying capacity of that fiber from 2.5 Gb/s to
20 Gb/s. Currently, because of DWDM, single
fibers have been able to transmit data at speeds
up to 400Gb/s.

References
1. https://eujournal.org
2. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org

The information / views expressed in this pa-

per is of the authors and are based on their
experience. Comments / observations may be
sent to the author at [email protected]

Shri V.Srinath has done

Post graduation in Physics
(Electronics Specialization)
from University of Bom-
bay.He joined S.C. Rlys
in 1991 as JE (Tele). He
worked in MW mainte-
nance and MW lab. He
is Involved in repairs of
MW/UHF/VHF /MUX modules and also signal
modules. At present he is working as Instructor/
Transmission Lab /IRISET.