Lecture notes

Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Telecommunication Network Design

Design of Optical Fiber Systems
Jorma Kekalainen

Telecommunication Network Design

Optical Fiber Systems

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Operating Wavelength Bands

503

Advantages of Fiber
Advantages of the fiber transmission media
Low transmission loss (typically 0.2-0.5 dB/km)
Allows longer distances between repeaters or amplifiers
By comparison, Cat. 5 UTP (copper pairs) have loss of 7
dB/km to 220 dB/km in 64 kHz-100 MHz range

504

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Advantages of Fiber

505

Advantages of Fiber
Larger information carrying capacity

506

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Note
The Infrared Data Association (IrDA) defines physical specifications
communications protocol standards for the short-range exchange of
data over infrared light, for uses such as personal area networks
(PANs).
IrDA is a very short-range example of free space optical
communication.
Ultra-Wideband (UWB) is a technology for transmitting information
spread over a large bandwidth (>500 MHz)
UWB can be used at very low energy levels for short-range highbandwidth communications
802.20 is a proposed IEEE specification for boosting IP-based datatransmission rates for mobile users in wireless metropolitan area
networks (WMANs).
Formally known as "The Standard Air Interface for Mobile Broadband
Wireless Access Systems Supporting Vehicular Mobility - Physical and
Media Access Control Layer Specification," 802.20 would support
transmission speeds of up to 1M bit/sec in the 3-GHz spectrum band.
The goal is to have a ubiquitous data wireless network that can support
real-time traffic with extremely low latency at 20 milliseconds or less.
507

Advantages of Fiber
Immunity to electromagnetic interference
Can be placed alongside powerlines or close to radiative equipment

More secure to eavesdropping

Smaller size and weight
Example: 700 km of copper cabling weights 20 tonnes, while same
cable run with fiber weighs 7 kg

508

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Basics of Fiber Propagation

An optical fiber is composed of:
Cylindrical core: refractive index n11.5
Cladding: refractive index n2 < n1
Buffer (or primary coating): protects fiber from
damage

509

Fiber Refractive Index Profile

Core Refractive Index (n1)
Cladding Refractive Index (n2)
Step Index Profile
Graded (Quadratic) Index Profile

510

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Light Transmission in Fiber

A simple explanation via Ray Optics

511

Modes of a Fiber
What makes a fiber single mode or
multimode?

512

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Fiber Attenuation
As light travels along a fiber, its power
decreases exponentially with distance L

513

Fiber Attenuation
Attenuation coefficient preferably
expressed in units of dB/km
dB is logarithmic unit for representing gain
or loss
dBm is logarithmic unit for absolute signal
power in mW

514

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Fiber Attenuation
What causes fiber loss?
Absorption

Scattering

Bending

515

Fiber Dispersion
Dispersion = different
components of the
signal travel at
different velocities
Pulses spread in time
Causes intersymbol
interference (ISI)
more errors
Limits possible distance
and bit rate
516

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Fiber Limitations
Link performance is limited by:

517

Wavelength-Division Multiplexing
Wavelength-division multiplexing or WDM
Frequency-division multiplexing in the optical
domain
Multiple information-bearing optical signals
transported on a single strand of fiber

518

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Wavelength-Division Multiplexing

519

Wavelength-Division Multiplexing
Current WDM systems
Dense WDM (DWDM)
ITU-T G.694.1 grid with
channel spacing 200
GHz
C- and L-band (1530-1625
nm) operation

Coarse WDM (CWDM)

ITU-T G.694.2 grid with
2500 GHz channel spacing
0-, E-, S-, C- and L-band
(1260-1625 nm) operation
520

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Intercontinental Optical Networks

About 70% of earths surface covered
by water
For intercontinental (global)
connectivity communication links must
traverse water
Overhead in the sky via LEO, MEO or
GEO satellites
Underwater using submarine cables
521

Intercontinental Optical Networks

Majority (~90%) of intercontinental traffic now
carried on fiber rather than satellite

522

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Backbone Optical Networks

Continental backbone network providing connectivity
between different countries

523

Backbone Optical Networks

National backbone network interconnecting cities and
main towns of a country

Corenet (VR Group)

fiber backbone

Optical Metro Networks

Provide connectivity within a city/metro or region
524

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Access Networks
Access network are last leg of
telecommunications network
Between service provider distribution facility and
users home or business

Other names:
last mile
local loop
first mile

Fiber is increasingly deployed now in access

networks
525

Access Networks

DSL = Digit Subscriber Line, DSLAM = Digit Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer, MxU
526 and
= a generic term for Multiple Tenant Unit and Multiple Dwelling Unit, SME = Small
Medium Enterprise

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Telecommunication Network Design

Fiber Optic System Design

Design Approach
The first step in designing a fiber-optic
communication system is to establish the basic
system parameters.
Among these we would wish to know at the outset:
Type, bit rate and format of signal to be transmitted
(e.g., analog, PCM, SONET, SDH or digital TV).

System length, fiber portion, end-to-end.

Growth requirements (additional circuits, increased bit
rates).
This could mean total number of fibers, use of WDM or both.

Tolerable signal impairment level stated as signal-to-noise

ratio or BER at the electrical output of the terminal-end
detector.
528

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

BER for link budgets

The link BER should be established based on end-toend requirements.
It is recommended using one of the standards
accepted worldwide
E.g. 10-12 or 10-10 as a link BER requirement.

Here well set the BER for practice link budgets at

10-10.
Throughout the design procedure the system
engineer is working in the power-limited domain or
dispersion-limited domain.
At the lower bit rates (<622 Mbit/s) one can expect
to work in the power-limited domain under all
circumstances.
529

ISI
System design can eliminate a number of
major causes of dispersion.
Lets simply look at dispersion as a delay.
We have a stream of bits.
The first bit in the stream does its job, but there
is some power from that bit that is delayed which
slips into the time slot of bit two.
If there is sufficient power from bit one in time
slot for bit two, the receiver is confused and may
make an incorrect decision.
As the link bit rate is increased, pulse widths get
shorter and the problem of dispersion becomes
more acute.
530

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Eliminate dispersion
One example of eliminating the cause of dispersion
deals with the type of fiber we select.
To eliminate multimode dispersion, use single mode
fiber.
We then can turn to using the zero dispersion
wavelength which is at approximately 1310 nm for
production silicon fiber.
By doing this we remove the opportunity to use the
low loss hand at about 1550 nm.
To overcome this shortcoming, we spend more on
fiber and buy dispersion-shifted fiber.
That moves the zero dispersion wavelength to the
1550 band by changing the fiber geometry.
531

Chromatic dispersion
The designer is now left with chromatic
dispersion.
This is the phenomenon where even with
the narrow line width of a laser diode
different frequencies appearing in that
spectral line travel at different
velocities.

532

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Important factors
The designer must select the most economic alternatives among
the following:
Fiber parameters: single mode or multimode: if multimode, step
index or graded index: number of fibers.
Transmission wavelength: 820 nm, 1 330 nm or 1 550 nm.
Source type: LED or semiconductor laser: there are subsets to
each source type.
Detector type: PIN or APD.
Use of EDFA (amplifiers).
Repeaters, if required and how they will be powered.
Modulation will probably be intensity modulation (IM), but the
electrical waveform entering the source is important (coding).

533

EDFA
In the Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier
(EDFA) the core of a silica fiber is
doped with Erbium ions and can be
efficiently pumped with a laser at a
wavelength of 980 nm or 1,480 nm.
EDFA exhibits gain in the 1,550 nm
region.

534

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Splices and connectors

There is the splice and connector trade-off
as well as the type of splice and type of
connector.
Permanently installed systems would opt for
splices because of lower insertion losses.
Temporarily installed systems such as used by
the military in the tactical environment may
prefer connectors because of ease and speed
of mating and demating.
535

Loss Design
As a first step, assume that the system is power-limited.
Probably a majority of systems being installed today can stay in
the power-limited regime if single mode fiber is used with
semiconductor lasers.
With systems operating at such high data rates such that
chromatic dispersion may be a problem, the selection of the
laser and the design of the transmitter itself become important.
It is highly desirable to minimize the line width, and we can
achieve very narrow widths by using a distributed feedback
(DFB) laser and an external modulator.
It also may be wise to select dispersion-shifted fiber, where
the zero dispersion line is shifted to the low-loss 1550-nm hand.
We now get the best of both worlds for extra cost.

536

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Link budget
The next step is to develop a link budget, which in format is very
similar to the link budgets in LOS microwave and satellite
communications.
It is a tabular format where the first entry is the transmitter
output.
If the transmitter initially selected is a laser diode, a 0-dBm
output is a good starting point.
For shorter links with lower bit rates, the LED transmitter
should be a candidate because of cost, lower complexity and
longer life.
Then all the losses/gains of the link are entered, enumerating
and identifying each.
Among these losses we would expect to find the following items:

537

1. Connector Loss
There are two connectors, one at the
output of the transmitter pigtail and
one at the input of the receiver pigtail.
A pigtail is a short length of factoryinstalled fiber

Budget 0.5 dB for each.

Enter minus signs for losses, plus signs
for gains.
538

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

2. Fiber Loss
The fiber selected for the link will have
a loss specified by the manufacturer
given in dB/km for a particular
wavelength of interest.
Multiply that value by the length of the
link plus 5% for slack.

539

3. Splice Loss
Assuming the link is more than 1 or 2 km
long, there will be a splice to connect
the fiber from one reel to the fiber of
the next reel.
Good fusion splices have a very low
insertion loss.
Budget 0.1 dB each.
Multiply this value by the number of
splices in the link.
540

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4. Amplifier Gain
Links longer than 30 to 100 km (depending on
design) will use an amplifier.
Budget +30 dB for each in-line amplifier.
There is a trade-off where the amplifier is
installed.
Another candidate location is at the input to the
receiver to extend the receiver threshold
Another is at the output of the transmitter to
increase output value.

541

5. Dispersion Compensation Loss

Budget 1.0 dB for this value.

542

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

6. Link Margin Reserve

This dB loss value is set aside for the
following contingencies:
Cable reel loss variability.
Future added splices due to cable repair and their
insertion loss.
Component degradation over the life of the
system.
This is particularly pronounced for LED output.

Many designers reduce the margin value as

much as possible.
ITU-T recommends 3.0 dB.
543

Major differences
One major difference between a link
budget for LOS radio and for fiber
optics is that there is no fading on a
fiber-optic link.
Another consideration is the use of an
optical power attenuator on very short
links so as not to overload the receiver.

544

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Link budget calculation

The next step is to sum the losses and gains
with the output value of the transmitter.
The summed value should be stated in dBm.
This value helps the system designer to select
the type and make of the receiver, whether a
PIN diode or an APD.
The receiver threshold in dBm is established
for the bit rate and BER desired.
For example values at 10-10 BER for some of the
more popular SONET/SDH bit rates.
545

Receive Levels, BER Values, and Bit Rates for PIN Diode
and APD Light Detectors

546

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Extinction ratio penalty

One imagines that with intensity modulation, a
binary 1 is represented by the on condition
and a binary 0 by an off condition.
This is not true in the case of the off
condition.
The laser is not completely off: it still radiates a
small amount.

We take this low output level into account as

an equivalent loss, a extinction ratio penalty,
stemming from the laser diode extinction
ratio.
547

Extinction ratio
The extinction ratio is then
defined as

where P0 is the laser diode

output power for the binary
0 condition and P1 is the
output power for the binary 1
condition.
We would want the value of
rex to be as small as possible.
In many practical cases it is
less than 0.05. This derives a
power penalty of <0.4 dB
according to the following
curve
548

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Example
The link operates at 2.5 Gbps and is 300 km long.
The link operates in the 1550-nm band and the loss is
0.25 dB/km.
The total fiber necessary is 1.05 300 km or 315 km.
This includes the necessary slack.

There will be 314 fusion splices and two connectors.

The light source is a distributed feedback laser diode
with an extinction ratio penalty of 0.4 dB.
The link BER is 10-10.
The candidate light detector is a PIN diode and with
the specified BER the receiver threshold is -23 dBm.
Distributed feedback lasers (DFB) are the most common transmitter type in DWDMsystems. To stabilize the lasing wavelength, a diffraction grating is etched close to
the p-n junction of the diode. This grating acts like an optical filter, causing a single
549
wavelength to be fed back to the gain region and lase. DFB lasers are the workhorse
of demanding optical communication.

Example: Fiber-Optic Link Budget

550

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Shortfall compensation
To compensate for the shortfall of 3.55 dB the
following are possible measures that can be taken:
1. Shorten link by 15 km.
2. Increase gain of each amplifier by 1.2 dB, assuming that
EDFAs were operating at less than full gain.
3. Increase output power of laser diode transmitter by 3.55
dB.
This may shorten the life of the device.

4. Reduce margin accordingly.

Highly undesirable.

5. Turn to using an APD rather than a PIN diode.

The threshold is found to be -32 dBm or a 9-dB improvement.
The APD has a shorter life than a PIN diode: its reliability is
lower: it is more expensive and it is temperature and humiditysensitive.
551
On the positive side, the margin has been increased by 5.45 dB.

Link and System Design

Simple fiber-optic communications link
Short distance
Low bit rate
Point-to-point

Major concern is to ensure sufficient received power

Link power budget analysis

552

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Link Power Budget

553

Link Power Budget

A power budget for an amplified WDM
link

554

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Detailed System Design

In an amplified WDM link, there is more to
worry about than just power budget
Non-ideal optical devices (transmitters, filters
etc.)
Fiber links longer
Increased transmission loss
Dispersion and fiber nonlinearity more severe

Tightly packed wavelength channels

Interference between different channels

Cascaded optical amplifiers

Provide gain but also noise and unequal gain at different
wavelengths
Gain affected by power transients
555

Detailed System Design

556

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Nonlinear Schrodinger equation

Propagation of optical pulse over fiber modeled by
the nonlinear Schrodinger equation
Maxwells equations in cylindrical coordinates and with
boundary conditions of fiber optic cables
Some terms ignored for pulses >10ps (<100 Gbit/s NRZ)

557

Case Study
The following parameters are established for a longhaul single-mode optical fiber system operating at a
wavelength of 1.3 m.

558

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Estimate
1) the maximum possible link length without repeaters
when operating at 35 Mbit/s (BER 10-9).
It may be assumed that there is no dispersion equalization
penalty at this bit rate.

2) the maximum possible link length without repeaters

when operating at 400 Mbit/s (BER 10-9) and
assuming no dispersion equalization penalty.
3) The reduction in the maximum possible link length
without repeater of (2) when there is a dispersionequalization penalty of 1.5 dB.
It may be assumed for the purpose of this estimate that
the reduced link length has the 1.5 dB penalty.

559

Solution
1)

At 35 Mbit/s,

560

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Solution
2) At 400 Mbit/s,

3) Add the dispersion-equalization power penalty DL

There is a reduction of 3 km in the maximum possible

line length without repeater.
561

WDM Network Design

Optical layer (WDM network) design
Realizing connections over physical fibers using WDM
network elements (OADMs, OXCs, OLTs etc.)
Lightpath = an optical connection assigned a distinct
wavelength over a span of fiber(s)

562

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

WDM Network Design

Physical topology
Optical nodes and fiber topology supporting the creation of
lightpaths

Lightpath (logical or virtual) topology

Topology seen by the client layer equipment (e.g. IP routers)

563

WDM Network Design

In practice WDM network design split into separate
(manageable) design problems
Less complex to solve

A WDM network may be realized by solving:

Physical topology design (PTD) problem
Lightpath topology design (LTD) problem
Routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) problem

PTD problem solved initially during network

construction and later when physically expanding the
network
The LTD and RWA are solved more frequently to
enable optimum provisioning of optical capacity
564

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Physical Topology Design (PTD)

565

Light path Topology Design (LTD)

LTD problem
Interconnecting client layer equipment to realize a light path
topology that meets client layer traffic requirements
Routing client layer packets or TDM circuits over the light
path topology

LTD constraints
Flow conservation (net flow of traffic in/out of nodes)
Link capacity
Node degree (number of in/output links)

566

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Routing & Wavelength Assignment (RWA)

RWA problem Given a physical network topology and a
set of end-to- end light path requests determine
route and wavelengths
Routing sub-problem = how to route a light path through
various intermediate nodes within a network
Wavelength assignment sub-problem = how to assign
wavelength channels to different light paths
Possible light path request blocking (denial) if no free channels
available

567

Routing & Wavelength Assignment (RW)

Constraints in routing sub-problem
Route (fiber) length
Accumulated fiber impairments (EDFAs, OEOs, FEC etc.
required)

Hop number (nodes passed)

Accumulated crosstalk, insertion loss, polarization dependent
loss etc.

568

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Routing & Wavelength Assignment (RWA)

Constraints on wavelength sub-problem
Number of wavelengths
Only 18 channels available on CWDM wavelength grid
<200 channels available on DWDM wavelength grid

Wavelength continuity
Same wavelength channel must be used between end-points

Distinct wavelength assignment

Wavelength only used by one lightpath on any link

Wavelength assignment for a 3 node network

569

Routing & Wavelength Assignment (RWA)

RWA problem may be classified as static or dynamic
Static RWA problem
Entire set of connections (demand traffic matrix) known in
advance
Routing and wavelength assignment performed offline
Possible over estimates in requirements = idle capacity

Dynamic RWA problem

Routing and wavelength assignment performed online
Time varying demand matrix
Lightpath established for each connection as it arrives and is
released after some finite time efficient capacity
utilization
Connection request blocking is possible
570

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Routing & Wavelength Assignment (RWA)

Wavelength converters (WCs)
Devices that change the wavelength of input signal to a
different wavelength on the ITU grid
Implemented using transponders (OEOs) or preferably alloptical WC technologies
Has significant impact on RWA problem

571

Routing & Wavelength Assignment (RWA)

WCs eliminate wavelength continuity constraints of
the wavelength assignment sub-problem of RWA
Increases wavelength channel reuse reduce number of
required wavelengths
Reduces probability of connection blocking

Wavelength assignment for a 3 node linear point-to-point network, where

572 2
wavelength channels needed between node 1 and node 3.

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Telecommunication Network Design by Jorma Kekalainen

Routing & Wavelength Assignment (RWA)

Deployment of full WCs
in all network nodes is
costly and/or infeasible
Strategic placements of
WCs in parts of network
with heavy loads
Sparse WC placement
problem
There has been many
proposals for WC
placement algorithms

573

Routing & Wavelength Assignment (RWA)

Alternatively deploy cheap but limited or fixed WCs
Wavelength conversion classified according to
flexibility of output wavelength:

574

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