CDC ROADM design tradeoffs due to physical layer impairments in optical networks

In this work, we assess the impact of several physical layer impairments (PLIs) on the performance of optical networks based on colorless, directionless and contentionless reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs), through Monte-Carlo simulation, and considering polarization division multiplexing 4 and 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signals, at 28 GBaud, for 37.5 GHz optical channels. The PLIs taken into account are the amplified spontaneous emission noise, optical filtering, in-band crosstalk and nonlinear interference noise caused by Kerr effect. A detailed model of the ROADM node is built considering two typical ROADM architectures, broadcast and select (B&S) and route and select (R&S), and two different add/drop structures, multicast switches (MCSs) and wavelength selective switches (WSSs), resulting in four different ROADM node scenarios. Our results have shown that for 16QAM signals, the B&S ROADMs with WSSs-based add/drop structures is the scenario that has the best relation cost/performance, foreseeing its use in metro networks, while for 4QAM signals, the R&S ROADM with WSSs-based add/drop structure scenario allows a larger ROADM cascade at an expectable lower cost anticipating its implementation in long-haul networks

Low-Cost CDC ROADM Architecture Based on Stacked Wavelength Selective Switches

A highly flexible, stacked, switch module is proposed, wherein multiple independent 1×$N$ wavelength selective switches (WSSs) can be realized on a single 4k liquid crystal on silicon device. The stacked WSS module can be configured in different ways for application at either the transit side or the add/drop side of a colorless, directionless, and contentionless (CDC) reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM). Two ROADM architectures are proposed based on the stacked WSS modules. Their costs are analyzed for both a 4-deg network node and a larger 8-deg node. The first proposed ROADM architecture with full CDC features is shown to realize a cost reduction of at least 35% in these two test network nodes, when compared with the conventional CDC ROADM architecture based on the standalone WSSs and multicasting switches (MCSs). The second ROADM architecture proposed has a small probability of wavelength contention, which could be prevented by a local wavelength assignment algorithm. According to our cost estimation, we are able to aggressively reduce the number of components at the add/drop side and make an overall cost reduction of >70% and >80% in the 4- and 8-deg network nodes, respectively

Impact of in-band crosstalk in an optical network based on multi-degree CDC ROADMs

he most common optical networks nodes are known as reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs). The architecture and components of these nodes have evolved over the time to become more flexible and dynamic. Particularly, the wavelength add/drop structures of these nodes have become more complex and with new features such as colorless, directionless and contentionless (CDC). One of the main limitations of the optical networks physical layer, the in-band crosstalk, is mainly due to the imperfect isolation of the components inside these nodes. This crosstalk is enhanced, when an optical signal traverses a cascade of ROADM nodes. In this work, the impact of in-band crosstalk, optical filtering and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise on the performance of an optical communication network based on a cascade of CDC ROADMs with coherent detection and the modulation format quadrature phase-shift keying with polarization-division multiplexing (PDM-QPSK) at 100-Gb/s is studied through Monte-Carlo simulation. Two architectures, broadcast and select (B&S) and route and select (R&S), and two possible implementations for the add/drop structures, the multicast switches (MCSs) and the wavelength selective switches (WSSs), were considered. The degradation of the optical communication network performance due to in-band crosstalk is assessed through the optical-signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) calculation. In particular, an OSNR penalty of 1 dB due to in-band crosstalk is observed when the signal passes through a cascade of 19 CDC ROADMs with 16-degree, based on a R&S architecture and with add/drop structures implemented with WSSsOs nós das redes de comunicação ótica mais comuns são os multiplexadores óticos de inserção/extração reconfiguráveis (ROADMs – acrónimo anglo-saxónico de reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers). A arquitetura e componentes destes nós têm evoluído ao longo do tempo no sentido de se tornarem mais flexíveis e dinâmicos. Em particular, as estruturas de adição/extração destes nós, tornaram-se mais complexas e detêm novas características que oferecem as funcionalidades CDC (acrónimo anglo- -saxónico de colorless, directionless e contentionless). Uma das principais limitações do nível físico das redes óticas, o crosstalk homódino, deve-se principalmente ao isolamento imperfeito dos componentes presentes dentro destes nós. Este tipo de crosstalk tem um impacto ainda mais significativo quando o sinal ótico atravessa uma cadeia de nós baseados em ROADMs. Nesta dissertação, o impacto do crosstalk homódino, filtragem ótica e ruído ASE (acrónimo anglo-saxónico de amplified spontaneous emission) no desempenho de uma rede de comunicação ótica baseada numa cadeia de CDC ROADMs com deteção coerente e usando o formato de modulação PDM-QPSK (acrónimo anglo-saxónico de polarization-division multiplexing quadrature phase-shift keying) a um ritmo binário de 100-Gb/s é investigado através de simulação Monte-Carlo. Consideraram-se duas arquiteturas, B&S e R&S (acrónimos anglo-saxónicos para broadcast and select e route and select), e duas possíveis implementações para a estruturas de inserção/extração, os MCSs e os WSSs (acrónimos anglo-saxónicos de multicast switches e wavelengh selective switches). A degradação do desempenho da rede ótica devido ao crosstalk homódino foi obtida através do cálculo da relação sinal-ruído ótica. Em particular, obteve-se uma penalidade de 1 dB para esta relação devido ao crosstalk homódino quando o sinal percorre uma cadeia de 19 CDC ROADMs com grau 16, uma arquitetura R&S e estruturas de inserção/extração baseadas em WSSs

DSP-enabled Reconfigurable Optical Network Devices and Architectures for Cloud Access Networks

To meet the ever-increasing bandwidth requirements, the rapid growth in highly dynamic traffic patterns, and the increasing complexity in network operation, whilst providing high power consumption efficiency and cost-effectiveness, the approach of combining traditional optical access networks, metropolitan area networks and 4-th generation (4G)/5-th generation (5G) mobile front-haul/back-haul networks into unified cloud access networks (CANs) is one of the most preferred “future-proof” technical strategies. The aim of this dissertation research is to extensively explore, both numerically and experimentally, the technical feasibility of utilising digital signal processing (DSP) to achieve key fundamental elements of CANs from device level to network architecture level including: i) software reconfigurable optical transceivers, ii) DSP-enabled reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs), iii) network operation characteristics-transparent digital filter multiple access (DFMA) techniques, and iv) DFMA-based passive optical network (PON) with DSP-enabled software reconfigurability. As reconfigurable optical transceivers constitute fundamental building blocks of the CAN’s physical layer, digital orthogonal filtering-based novel software reconfigurable transceivers are proposed and experimentally and numerically explored, for the first time. By making use of Hilbert-pair-based 32-tap digital orthogonal filters implemented in field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), a 2GS/s@8-bit digital-to-analogue converter (DAC)/analogue-to-digital converter (ADC), and an electro-absorption modulated laser (EML) intensity modulator (IM), world-first reconfigurable real-time transceivers are successfully experimentally demonstrated in a 25km IMDD SSMF system. The transceiver dynamically multiplexes two orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) channels with a total capacity of 3.44Gb/s. Experimental results also indicate that the transceiver performance is fully transparent to various subcarrier modulation formats of up to 64-QAM, and that the maximum achievable transceiver performance is mainly limited by the cross-talk effect between two spectrally-overlapped orthogonal channels, which can, however, be minimised by adaptive modulation of the OFDM signals. For further transceiver optimisations, the impacts of major transceiver design parameters including digital filter tap number and subcarrier modulation format on the transmission performance are also numerically explored. II Reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs) are also vital networking devices for application in CANs as they play a critical role in offering fast and flexible network reconfiguration. A new optical-electrical-optical (O-E-O) conversion-free, software-switched flexible ROADM is extensively explored, which is capable of providing dynamic add/drop operations at wavelength, sub-wavelength and orthogonal sub-band levels in software defined networks incorporating the reconfigurable transceivers. Firstly, the basic add and drop operations of the proposed ROADMs are theoretically explored and the ROADM designs are optimised. To crucially validate the practical feasibility of the ROADMs, ROADMs are experimentally demonstrated, for the first time. Experimental results show that the add and drop operation performances are independent of the sub-band signal spectral location and add/drop power penalties are <2dB. In addition, the ROADMs are also robust against a differential optical power dynamic range of >2dB and a drop RF signal power range of 7.1dB. In addition to exploring key optical networking devices for CANs, the first ever DFMA PON experimental demonstrations are also conducted, by using two real-time, reconfigurable, OOFDM-modulated optical network units (ONUs) operating on spectrally overlapped multi-Gb/s orthogonal channels, and an offline optical line terminal (OLT). For multipoint-to-point upstream signal transmission over 26km SSMF in an IMDD DFMA PON, experiments show that each ONU achieves a similar upstream BER performance, excellent robustness to inter-ONU sample timing offset (STO) and a large ONU launch power variation range. Given the importance of IMDD DFMA-PON channel frequency response roll-off, both theoretical and experimental explorations are undertaken to investigate the impact of channel frequency response roll-off on the upstream transmission of the DFMA PON system Such work provides valuable insights into channel roll-off-induced performance dependencies to facilitate cost-effective practical network/transceiver/component designs