ISSN: 2319-5967

ISO 9001:2008 Certified

International Journal of Engineering Science and Innovative Technology (IJESIT)
Volume 3, Issue 6, November 2014

Dispersion Compensation Using FBG and DCF

in 120 Gbps WDM System
Gagandeep Singh, Jyoti Saxena andGagandeep Kaur

Abstract—Dispersion Compensating Fiber (DCF) and Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) are widely used dispersion
compensation techniques for optical communication systems. An 8 channel optical network is modelled, simulated and
analysed for 120 km distance using two chromatic dispersion compensators, i.e., Dispersion Compensating Fiber (DCF)
and Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG). Three compensation techniques (pre, post and mix) are modelled for DCF and two
compensation techniques (pre and post) are modelled for FBG. Non Return to Zero (NRZ) modulation format is used in
transmitter. The input laser power is varied from 0 to 9 dBmto see its effect on Q-factor. The simulation results such as
Q-factor and Bit Error Rate (BER) indicate that FBG when used in post compensation is better than all other
compensating schemes.

Index Terms—wavelength division multiplexing, dispersion compensation, dispersion compensating fiber, fiber
bragg grating, Q-factor, BER.

I. INTRODUCTION
In the modern era, the information and communication networks are one of the emerging technologies in the
world. As there is rapid growth in the number of internet users, the systems with more capacity are required. The
key features that make a system effective are its availability and utilization of bandwidth. Fiber optics networks
are such networks that can meet the growing needs of the communication field having huge bandwidth and good
transmission performance. It has revolutionized the communication industry and the design and application of
optical fiber which is necessary to understand for its good performance [1]. So, it is quite necessary to investigate
the transmission characteristics of optical fiber. The main aim of these networks is to make them more effective
which results in minimum loss in signal and good quality transmission with minimum error [2], [6].

The introduction of WDM systems has extended the application of optical fiber to fulfil the needs of high speed,
high bandwidth and high capacity networks. WDM networks have ability to transmit multiple signals having
different wavelengths simultaneously. In these networks different signals from different users having different
wavelengths are multiplexed [2], [3]. Optical Communication system uses the light signal to transmit the
information from one place to another. The data or information which is in the form of electrical signal is
converted into light signal before launching into optical fiber. The main components of optical systems are
transmitter, optical fiber and receiver. Optical fiber used may be multimode fiber or Single Mode Fiber (SMF)
depending upon its use. In this paper, we will use mainly Single Mode Fiber (SMF).

The light signals degrade in intensity when they travel inside the fiber. Many fiber losses occur in optical
communication like material absorption losses, scattering losses and bending losses. One of the fiber losses is
dispersion which is a prominent problem in optical systems. In this paper we will give emphasis on the study of
dispersion. When a light signal is transmitted over a long span of optical fiber, the power of signal disperses with
respect to time which results in the widening of the shape of the pulses with time. This phenomenon is called
Dispersion of signal. There are mainly three types of dispersion namely Intermodal dispersion, Intramodal or
Chromatic dispersion and Polarization mode dispersion [7].

Dispersion compensation is the technique used in fiber optic communication system designed to cope with the
dispersion introduced by the optical fiber. Due to the dispersion, light wave travelling inside the fiber gets
broadened. Due to the broadening of pulse, two consecutive pulses overlap with each other, causing Inter Symbol
Interference (ISI). Due to ISI, the receiver is unable to distinguish between two symbols. This leads to error in
symbol detection. It is the reason for the necessity of dispersion compensation. There are various methods for
dispersion compensation namely, Dispersion Compensating Fiber (DCF), Optical filter, Fiber Bragg Grating
(FBG), Optical Phase Conjugation, Electrical Dispersion Compensation, etc. In this paper we will discuss mainly
about DCF and FBG as these are widely used techniques [5], [7].

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The rest of the paper is organized as followed. In section II, DCF technology is discussed and in section III, a brief
description of FBG is given. Section IV presents the simulation of communication system using DCF in which
various schemes are designed. Section V analyses and compares various techniques and section VI concludes the
paper.

II. DISPERSION COMPENSATING FIBER (DCF)

Dispersion compensating fiber is an easy and efficient way to upgrade installed links made of single mode fiber.
Dispersion compensating fibers have negative dispersion of -70 to -90 ps/nm.km and can be used to compensate
the positive dispersion of transmission fiber. Performance degradation in optical WDM system is because of
group velocity dispersion, Kerr nonlinearity, and accumulation of amplified spontaneous emission noise due to
periodic amplification. Because of the nonlinear nature of propagation, system performance depends on the power
levels at the input of different types of fibers, on the position of the DCF and on the amount of dispersion. There
are basically three types namely- pre, post and symmetrical compensation schemes where the DCF is placed
before, after the SMF or symmetrically across the SMF. A DCF should have low insertion loss, low polarization
mode dispersion and low optical nonlinearity and also it should have large chromatic dispersion coefficient to
minimize the size of a DCF. Smaller size of the DCF is preferable [2], [8]. By placing one DCF with negative
dispersion after a SMF with positive dispersion, the net dispersion should be zero.
DSMF × LSMF = - DDCF × LDCF
Where D is the dispersion and L is length of each fiber respectively.
Compensation is done by three different methods depending on the position of the DCF:
i. Pre-Compensation
ii. Post Compensation
iii. Mix Compensation
Pre-Compensation: In this Compensation scheme, the dispersion compensating fiber of negative dispersion is
placed before the standard fiber to compensate positive dispersion of the standard fiber.

Post-Compensation: In this Compensation scheme, the dispersion compensating fiber of negative dispersion is
placed after the standard fiber to compensate positive dispersion of the standard fiber.

Mix-Compensation: In this Compensation scheme, the dispersion compensating fiber of negative dispersion is
placed before and after the standard fiber to compensate positive dispersion of the standard fiber [7].

III. FIBER BRAGG GRATING (FBG)

FBG is a dynamic dispersion compensator. The FBG device is able to compensate chromatic dispersion at
multiple variations of the wavelength. Therefore, it is the preferred solution for chromatic dispersion
compensation. The chirped FBG is based on the principle of diffraction gratings. Bragg gratings actually have a
periodic variation of refractive index within the propagating medium. This chirped FBG enables the grating to
reflect the various wavelengths at different points along its grating length. Therefore it sets off different delays for
all the different frequencies or wavelengths. The shorter wavelength (blue light region) which travels faster will
arrive at the FBG and get reflected further up the FBG where its Bragg condition is met. Hence, a longer delay is
introduced for the shorter wavelength. The longer wavelength (red light region) which travels slower, will
encounter a shorter delay. Thus, at the circulator the pulse will be un-dispersed [2], [3].

The optical period Λ in a chirped grating is not constant but changes over its length, where is the average mode
index and Λ is the grating period. The Bragg wavelength; ) also varies along the grating length, thus
different frequency component of an incident optical pulse are reflected at different points depending on where the
Bragg condition is satisfied locally. The grating dispersion, Dg, is expressed as,

Where is the average mode index, ∆λ is the grating bandwidth and c the velocity of light.FBG is used in two
configurations mainly: pre-compensation and post-compensation.

Pre-compensation: In this configuration FBG is placed at the beginning of the fiber networks and before the

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amplifier.

Post-compensation: In this configuration FBG is placed at the end of the fiber span and before the last amplifier
[4].
IV. SYSTEM DESIGN AND SIMULATION SETUP
The simulation tool used for comparing the different dispersion compensation techniques under study is
OPTISYSTEM 7.0. It is an innovative optical communication system simulation package that designs, tasks and
optimizes virtually any type of optical link in the physical layer of broad spectrum of optical networks.

WDM System consisting of 8 channels, each channel having 15 Gbps bit rate is designed making the total system
120 (15×8) Gbps. In transmitter module, each single channel consists of Pseudo Random Bit Sequence (PRBS)
generator having 15 Gbps bit rate followed by NRZ pulse generator. CW laser having power 0 dBm is used. Each
channel uses laser at different frequencies ranging from 193.1 to 193.8 THz followed by Mach Zender modulator.
8×1 MUX is used to multiplex different wavelengths. The transmission link is made using 120 km SMF in which
dispersion is compensated using DCF or FBG. DCF of length 24 km is used for 120 km SMF. Dispersion
coefficient of FBG used is -1900 ps/nm. EDFAs (Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier) of gain 10 dB are used after
span of 60 km SMF and 12 km DCF. EDFA with gain 14 dB is used before DEMUX. Fig. 1 shows mix
compensation technique using DCF and post compensation using FBG. In pre compensation technique, DCF is
used before SMF and in post scheme DCF is used after SMF and in mix scheme DCF is used at both start and end
of fiber. In pre, FBG is used at start of fiber and in post FBG is used at the end of fiber.

In receiver module, DEMUX (1×8) is used followed by PIN photodiode with 1A/W responsivity. Bessel filter at
particular frequency is used and then analyser is used to get results of the Q-factor, BER and to get eye diagrams.
The readings are taken only for one channel at frequency 193.1 THz for each technique for comparison and
plotting graphs.

(a)

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(b)
Fig.1 Mix compensation using DCF, (b) post compensation using FBG.

V. SIMULATION RESULTS
In WDM systems, Q-factor is one of the most important features to measure the performance of the system. The
readings are taken only for 193.1 THz frequency channel of the WDM system. The graph between Q-factor and
input power of laser is plotted by increasing the power and measuring the Q-factor at each value. Input power is
varied from 0-9 dBm and readings of Q-factor and BER are observed.

The graph in fig. 2 shows that FBG post compensation is better than all other techniques using NRZ format. It is
followed by FBG pre, DCF mix, DCF post and DCF pre compensation techniques. FBG post has a highest
Q-factor of 16.4 at 0 dBm and DCF pre has least Q-factor of 12.8. Another observation can be made that as the
input power increases for NRZ format, the Q-factor also decreases. This means the performance of system
degrades as input power increases.

Fig.2 Q-factor vs. Input power for NRZ format using different compensation schemes

The Table I shows the readings of Q-factor and BER at 0 dBm input power for each compensation of 193.1 THz

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frequency channel.

Table I. Q-factor and BER for each compensation technique (at 0 dBm input power).

COMPENSATION Q-FACTOR Bit Error Rate (BER)

TECHNIQUE USED
PRE USING DCF 12.8 2.077 e-38

POST USING DCF 15.5 6.192 e-055

MIX USING DCF 15.9 1.263 e-057

PRE USING FBG 16.0 2.328 e-058

POST USING FBG 16.3 2.478 e-060

The fig. 3 shows eye diagrams for all the five compensation techniques. Maximum is the opening of eye diagram,
better is the performance of the communication system. The results show that for NRZ format FBG is better than
DCF for dispersion compensation. Though, the results are very much comparable and there is slight difference
between Q-factor for FBG and DCF, these can be used as per the requirement.

(a) (b) (c)

(d) (e)
Fig. 3 Eye diagrams for (a) DCF pre (b) DCF post (c) DCF mix (d) FBG pre (e) FBG post compensation techniques.

VI. CONCLUSIONS
It is found that both type of compensators, DCF as well as FBG works well. However, the FBG compensator
outperforms the DCF module in this high speed WDM network with 8 channels for NRZ modulation format.
Although, the results using DCF and FBG are comparable and a slight difference between them occurs in this
study. Another conclusion made is that as the input power of laser increases the performance of the network
degrades. So, we conclude that for long distance communication dispersion compensation is necessary.

REFERENCES
[1] G.P. Agrawal, Fiber-Optic Communication Systems, 3rd Ed. New York, USA: John Wiley and sons, 2002.

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[2] D.K. Mynbaev and L.L. Scheiner, Fiber-Optic Communications Technology, Pearson Education, 2001.
[3] G.Gnanagurunathan and F.A.Rahman, “Comparing FBG and DCF as dispersion compensators in the long
haulnarrowband WDM systems” 1-4244-03040-5/06/$20.00 ©2006 IEEE.
[4] K.Khairi, Z.Lambak, Norhakimah Md Samsuri, Z.Hamzah and Fong Kok Hann, “Investigation on the Performance of
Pre- and Post-Compensation Using Multi-Channel CFBG Dispersion Compensators,” IEEE International RF and
Microwave Conference (RFM), 12- 14 December 2011, Seremban, Malaysia.
[5] Devendra Kr. Tripathi, Pallavi Singh, N.K. Shukla and H.K. Dixit, “Performance study in dispersion compensation
techniques with Duobinary format at different bit rates,” 2nd International Conference on Power, Control and Embedded
Systems, 2012.
[6] J.N.Dike and D.A.Dogbe, “Optimizing the Efficiency of Fiber-Optics Technology in Telecommunications Systems,”
IEEE International Conference on Emerging & Sustainable Technologies for Power & ICT in developing society, 2013.
[7] G.H.Patel, R.B.Patel and S.J. Patel,“Dispersion Compensation in 40 Gbps WDM Network using Dispersion
Compensating Fiber,” Journal of Information, knowledge and Research in Electronics and Communication Engineering,
vol. 2, issue 2, pp. 662-665.
[8] Bo-ning HU, Wang Jing, Wang Wei and Rui-mei Zhao, “Analysis on Dispersion Compensation with DCF based on
Optisystem,” 2nd International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems, 2010.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Gagandeep Singh did B.Tech (Electronics and Communication Engineering) from Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College (GNDEC),
Ludhiana in 2012. He is pursuing his M.Tech (Electronics and Communication Engineering) from Giani Zail Singh Punjab Technical
University Campus, Bathinda (Punjab). His research interests include Optical Communication Systems and Image Processing.

Jyoti Saxena did B.Sc Engineering (Electronics and Communication Engineering) with Honours in 1983, M. Tech (Electronics and
Communication Engineering) with distinction in 1988 from Regional Engineering College, Kurukshetra (Now National Institute of
Technology, Kurukshetra) and PhD from University School of Information Technology, GGS Indraprastha University, Delhi. Presently, she is
working as Professor and Head in the department of Electronics and Communication Engineering at Giani Zail Singh Punjab Technical
University Campus, Bathinda (Punjab). Prior to this, she worked at Regional Engineering College, Hamirpur (Now NIT, Hamirpur) and
Regional Engineering College, Kurukshetra (Now NIT, Kurukshetra). Her teaching and research interests include soft computing, Signal
Processing and Communication systems. She is a life member of Indian Society for Technical Education and Institution of Engineers. She has
guided many M.Tech. Projects and Thesis and has more than 40 publications in national/international journals and conferences.

Gagandeep Kaur did B.Tech (Electronics and Communication Engineering) from Malout Institute of Management and Information
Technology (MIMIT), Malout in 2011 and M.Tech (Electronics and Communication Engineering) from Lovely Professional University
(LPU), Jalandhar in 2013. Presently, she is working as Assistant Professor in Giani Zail Singh Punjab Technical University Campus, Bathinda
(Punjab) from 2013. Her research interests include Antennae and Wave Propagation and Communication systems.

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