DWDM basic concepts

Presenter: Sílvia Pato

July 15th 2013

For internal use

Important Terminology

• Wavelength (Lambda): length of a wave; common unit: nanometers -> 10–9m (nm)

• Frequency (f): number of times that a wave is produced within a particular time period
(Hz = 1/second)

• wavelength x frequency = speed of light ⇒ λ.f = c

• decibel (dB): logarithmic unit that indicates the ratio of a physical quantity ⇒ 10xlog10(X)

• dB-milliwatt (dBm): decibel referenced to a milliwatt

− dBm used for output power and receiver sensitivity (absolute value)
− dB used for power gain or loss (relative value)

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 2
Outline

• Wavelength Division Multiplexing

• DWDM System Components

− Optical Fiber

− Optical Amplifiers
− Transponders
− Optical Nodes

• DWDM Networks

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 3
Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)
Benefits and Advantages

Capacity in Gbit/s
• Capacity and distance
10000
− Information transport for lowest price per bit/km
1000
− Enormous reach and capacity
100 WDM
• Transparent transport on independent
10
parallel channels SDH
1
− Converged multi-service transport platform:
mixture of different interface speeds (2.5G, 0,1
10G, 40G, 100G) or signal protocols PDH
0,01
− High security: physical separation of signals 0,001 within 10 Years x1000
− Incremental growth as needed: easy to support year

additional channels on already existing link

1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014
• Information transport by light in a dielectric
− Eavesdropping difficult, less noise: no interaction with environment (electrical, magnetic, optical)
− High lifetime, no corrosion, not effected by lightning: no metal in cables

© Coriant Department / Author / Date For internal use 4

Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)

• Wavelength Division Multiplexing is an optical transmission technique where multiple

optical signals are transmitted on a single optical fiber using different wavelengths
− Those wavelengths are located in the Infrared window in the frequency spectrum, just below the
window of visible light (~200 THz)

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 5
Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)

• Each
“coloured”
signal
represents
one WDM
Spectrum channel
White Light

• Multiplexing
Glass Prism Glass Prism of separate
optical
signals on
same fiber

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 6
Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)
WDM vs FDM vs TDM

#1
#2
TDM Time Division Multiplexing (TDM):
#3 multiplexing in the time domain
Mux
#4 #1 #2 #3 #4

f1 #1
f2 #2 FDM Frequency Division Multiplexing
f3 #3 Mux (FDM): multiplexing in the frequency
f1 f2 f3 f4 domain
f4 #4

l1 #1
l2 #2 WDM Wavelength Division Multiplexing
l3 #3 Mux (WDM): multiplexing in the
l1 l2 l3 l4
l4 #4 wavelength domain

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 7
Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)
CWDM vs DWDM

Coarse WDM (CWDM)

• channel spacing >> channel bandwidth
• ITU-T G.694.2 defined a wavelength grid of
18 wavelengths from 1271nm to 1611 nm
(channel spacing of 20nm)

0.8 nm
100 GHz Grid „Red Band“ „Blue Band“
Dense WDM (DWDM) C10 C09 C08 C07 C06 C05 C04 C03 C02 C01 Subband

• channel spacing ~10 x channel bandwidth OSC

• ITU-T G.694.1 defines frequency grid

supporting a variety of channel spacing
ranging from 12.5 GHz to 100 GHz C and
192.1
1560.61 193.0 194.0 195.0 196.0
1529.55 1510.0 nm
L bands anchored at 193.1 THz 192.1
C – Band
196.0 198.6 THz

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 8
Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)
CWDM vs DWDM

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 9
Outline

• Wavelength Division Multiplexing

• DWDM System Components

− Optical Fiber

− Optical Amplifiers
− Transponders
− Optical Nodes

• DWDM Networks

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 10
Optical Fiber
Introduction

• Waveguide used to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber, allowing transmission
over long distances and high bandwidths (high data rates)
• Flexible and composite material, usually using silica or plastic, “thicker than a human hair”
• Formed by a transparent core, which carries the light through internal reflections,
surrounded by a transparent cladding material to keep the light in the core, and a coating
to protect the glass

• Available in different types:

− Single-mode fibers: supports only one propagation mode
− Multi-mode fibers: supports several propagation paths

ITU-T G.652: Standard single-mode fiber (SSMF)

ITU-T G.653: Dispersion-shifted single-mode fiber (DSF)
ITU-T G.655: Non-zero-dispersion-shifted single-mode fiber (NZ-DSF)

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use
Optical Fiber
Signal Quality Degradation in Optical Fiber Systems

• The transmission of light through an optical fiber system is impacted by several effects,
that cause degradation of the signal quality
− Linear fiber effects (attenuation, chromatic dispersion, polarization mode dispersion)
− Nonlinear fiber effects (stimulated scattering processes, Kerr nonlinearities)

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 12
Optical Fiber
Linear Fiber Effects

P
Attenuation

t ATT t
Group Velocity
Dispersion e.g. P

P
Chromatic
Dispersion (CD)
t CD t
P

P
t t
Polarization Mode
Dispersion (PMD)
t PMD t

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 13
Optical Fiber
Linear Fiber Effects – Attenuation

• Attenuation expresses the gradual intensity (power) loss of light along its propagation over
optical fibers
− Usually measured in units of decibels per unit of length (dB/km)

• Fiber losses depend on the material

used to make the fiber, being quite
different for silica and polymer fibers
− Silica fibers:
› losses ~0.2dB/km @ 1550nm
› losses ~0.4dB/km @ 1310nm

Intrinsic Rayleigh scattering: fundamental loss

mechanism arising from local microscopic
fluctuations in the material density

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 14
Optical Fiber
Linear Fiber Effects – Chromatic Dispersion (CD)

• Chromatic dispersion is a wavelength-dependent effect , which results in different spectral

components of the pulse (or different wavelengths) to travel at different velocities
− Results in overlapping and interference between pulses
− Typically measured in ps/nm-km
Optical fiber

Tx Rx
All wavelengths transmitted Dispersion causes some Different wavelengths
simultaneously wavelengths to delay arrive at different times

• Dispersion leads to the spread of light pulse along transmission over optical fibers

Pulse propagation

Pulse propagation

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 15
Optical Fiber
Linear Fiber Effects – Chromatic Dispersion (CD)

Chromatic Dispersion can be compensated with:

• Dispersion Compensation Fibers (DCFs)
− DCF is an additional inserted fiber with
negative dispersion
− Dispersion Compensation Modules DCF fiber spool

(DCMs) as purely passive card

− Drawback: Insertion loss and time delay
FBG

• Fiber-Bragg Gratings (FBGs)

− DCMs as purely passive card
(Circulator, FBG)
− Low insertion loss and low time delay
− Drawback: limitations for 40G FBG

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 16
Optical Fiber
Linear Fiber Effects – Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD)

• Due to asymmetries and imperfections in the geometry of the optical fiber, the two
different polarizations of a signal travel at different speeds, causing random spreading of
optical pulses, named PMD
• PMD critically impacts the performance of high data rate systems, e.g. 40G/100G
• Electrical compensator used to minimize PDM effect (able to compensate up to 8ps)

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 17
Optical Fiber
Nonlinear Fiber Effects: Stimulated Scattering Processes

Stimulated Raman
Scattering (SRS)
l SRS l

l SRS l

P
P
l SBS l

P
P

Stimulated Brillouin
Scattering (SBS)
l SBS l

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 18
Optical Fiber
Nonlinear Fiber Effects – Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS)

• Spontaneous Raman scattering occurs in optical fibers when a pump wave is scattered by
vibrating silica molecules
− some pump photons give up their energy to create new photons of reduced energy at lower
frequency
• Raman scattering becomes stimulated if the pump power exceeds a given threshold value
− SRS can occur in both forward and backward directions in optical fibers
0.4

• SRS is an effect relevant in DWDM systems the higher 0.3

Raman Gain (1/km-W)

frequency channels lose energy to channels with lower
frequencies resulting in channel crosstalk and
ap energy transfer
0.2 (phonon emission)
reinforcing other nonlinear effects, such as XPM
0.1

as
0
1450 1470 1490 1510 1530 1550 1570 1590 1610 1630 1650
Wavelength (nm)

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 19
Optical Fiber
Nonlinear Fiber Effects – Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS)

• The tendency of materials to compress in the presence of an oscillating electric field, at a

specific pump frequency, results in the generation of an acoustic wave, at a frequency
equal to the Stokes shift
− The input light generates backscattered Stokes light through interaction with the acoustic wave
− The Stokes light is continuously amplified during propagation by the interaction with the pump
light, which in turn increases the amplitude of the scattered wave, resulting in a positive feedback

• SBS is an interaction between light and acoustic gB

waves in fiber that causes frequency conversion
and reversal of the propagation direction of the light nB~10 GHz

Power
− Occurs when the light launched into the fiber
exceeds a given power threshold level DnB
Freq

nreflected nsignal

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 20
Optical Fiber
Nonlinear Fiber Effects: Kerr Nonlinearities

Four-Wave Mixing
(FWM)
l FWM l

Self-Phase P

P
Modulation (SPM)

l SPM l
P

P
Cross-Phase
Modulation (XPM) t
l XPM l
© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 21
Optical Fiber
Nonlinear Fiber Effects – Four-Wave Mixing (FWM)

• Four-Wave Mixing is an intermodulation phenomenon, whereby interactions between 3

wavelengths produce a 4th wavelength
− Nonlinear polarization causes three signals at frequencies ωi, ωj, and ωk to interact producing
signals at frequencies ωi ± ωj ± ωk
• FWM is independent of the bit rate but is critically dependent on the channel spacing and
fiber chromatic dispersion
− Decreasing the channel spacing increases the four-wave mixing effect, and so does decreasing
the chromatic dispersion
• FWM is an effect of great importance in multi-channel systems
− Nonlinear interactions among different channels creates sidebands that can cause interchannel
interference
− Total number of "ghost"-wavelengths is given by: 0.5N²(N-1), N is the number of channels
− This results in increased crosstalk, especially in systems with an equally spaced wavelength grid

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 22
Optical Fiber
Nonlinear Fiber Effects – Self-Phase Modulation (SPM)

• All materials behave nonlinearly at high intensities and their refractive index varies with signal
intensity
− The non-harmonic response of electrons to optical fields results in a nonlinear susceptibility of the
transmission medium
• SPM is a direct consequence of the nonlinear dependence on intensity with the refractive index of
the fiber
• The interaction between group velocity dispersion and SPM, which produces different
effects on the temporal pulse profiles, will eventually degrade the performance of a system

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 23
Optical Fiber
Nonlinear Fiber Effects – Cross-Phase Modulation (XPM)

• XPM modulation occurs when two or more optical fields are transmitted simultaneously
inside an optical fiber
• Similar to SPM, but the refraction index is now influenced by the power of all channels
being transmitter
− The nonlinear phase shift for each field depends not only on the power of that field but also on the
power of the other field

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 24
Optical Fibers
Influence of channel spacing and data rate

• Channel density and spacing

− Limitations imposed by crosstalk and distortion
− The more channels, the higher the total output power necessary to bridge a specified distance
− Nonlinearities limit the maximum total output power
− Specific channel positioning may have to be enforced to cope with strong FWM

• Channel data rate SRS Dispersion

FWM
− The higher the channels data
rates, the worse the effects of SPM

penalty

penalty
XPM
disturbances like dispersion,
PMD and nonlinear effects
XPM FWM, SRS

channel spacing data rate

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 25
Outline

• Wavelength Division Multiplexing

• DWDM System Components

− Optical Fiber

− Optical Amplifiers
− Transponders
− Optical Nodes

• DWDM Networks

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 26
Optical Amplifiers

• Due to fiber linear and nonlinear effects, there are limits to how long a signal can be
propagated with integrity along an optical fiber before it has to be regenerated, which can
be accomplished by using optical amplifiers
• Used to amplify at once all wavelengths within the amplifier operation range, and without
optical-electrical-optical (OEO) conversion

• Signal regeneration (type 1R, 2R, or 3R):

− 1R: Reamplify
− 2R: Reamplify and reshape
− 3R: Reamplify, reshape, and retime

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 27
Optical Amplifiers
Technologies

• Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA)

− Basically it consists of a pump laser, a coupler device to join signal and pump light and an erbium-
doped piece of fiber of several meters of length
› The gain is influenced by factors like erbium-ion concentration, core radius, amplifier length, pump power
and pump configuration
− Mode of operation: the pump light is converted to signal light, amplifying the signal
− Application: used to amplify the whole third and fourth transmission window (C- and L- bands), in
pre-amplifying or boosting purposes

• Raman Amplifier
− These fiber amplifiers are usually pumped from the receiver side (in contrast to EDFA)
− Main advantages:
› Can be used over the entire frequency range (1300nm - 1600nm), depending on the wavelength of the
pump light, which is transformed to signal light through scattering
› Able to reduce attenuation effects in the last ~30Km

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 28
Optical Amplifiers
Applications Booster
Booster
Tx Rx
Booster
• Booster amplifiers: used after the transmitter or Tx
Tx
Rx
Rx
multiplexer to increase the power transmitted to the fiber Preamplifier
Preamplifier
• Pre-amplifiers: used before the receiver or demultiplexer Tx
Preamplifier
Rx
Tx Rx
to increase the power that reaches the receiver Tx Rx

• In-line amplifiers: used within the optical link to In-line amplifier

In-line amplifier
Tx Rx
regenerate signal power In-line amplifier
Tx Rx
Tx Rx

• The use of each configuration as advantages and disadvantages that must be considered
by the systems designer, which has to take into account non-linear effects in the
transmission fiber and also noise generated by the amplifiers
• Typical requirements for optical amplifiers are:
− High gain and low noise
− Flat amplification profile

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 29
Outline

• Wavelength Division Multiplexing

• DWDM System Components

− Optical Fiber

− Optical Amplifiers
− Transponders
− Optical Nodes

• DWDM Networks

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 30
Transponders

• Transponders are used to convert a client electrical signal into a specific wavelength,
either using tunable or fixed optical sources

• Main tasks:
− Converting different kinds of (client) signals into 10Gbit/s, 40Gbit/s or 100Gbit/s OTU (line) signals
with defined wavelengths and (E)FEC
− Time Division Multiplexing: several lower-rate signals are transferred as sub-channels in one
higher-rate communication channel, (e.g. 4 x 2.5Gbit/s → 10Gbit/s, 4 x 10Gbit/s → 40Gbit/s, 10 x
10Gbit/s → 100Gbit/s)
− Regenerating signals via optical-electrical-optical conversion (3R)
− Measuring performance parameters and monitoring faults
− Protecting optical channels

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 31
Transponders
Optical Signal to Noise Ratio (OSNR)

• OSNR represents the ratio of optical signal power to noise power for the receiver
− Usually expressed in dB
− A ratio higher than 1:1 (greater than 0 dB) indicates more signal than noise

-10

-15

-20

-25
OSNR
power [dBm]

-30
[dBm]

-35
power

-40

-45

-50

-55

-60
1520 1525 1530 1535 1540 1545 1550 1555 1560 1565 1570
wavelength [nm]
wavelength [nm]

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 32
Transponders
Forward Error Correction (FEC)

• FEC is a technique used for controlling/correcting errors in a noisy communication system,

through the redundant encoding of the data, by applying error-correcting codes
− FEC coding bytes are typically used at the end of a transmitted frame allowing the receiving
system to find and correct errors
• FEC makes the system more robust in respect to errors
− Used to support higher capacity and longer transmission distances by improving the bit error rate
(BER)

Data
information
source

Rs bit/s

Communication
FEC encoder Transmitter channel Receiver FEC decoder
(optical fibre)
Rc bit/s Rc bit/s

BERin BERout

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 33
Outline

• Wavelength Division Multiplexing

• DWDM System Components

− Optical Fiber

− Optical Amplifiers
− Transponders
− Optical Nodes

• DWDM Networks

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 34
Optical Nodes
Building blocks: multiplexing, demultiplexing, switching, splitting/combining

• The optical nodes have different functionalities, accomplished by using a set of specific
building blocks, capable to cope with different tasks within the optical network, namely:
− Multiplexing/demultiplexing channels (10 Gbit/s and/or 40 Gbit/s and/or 100Gbit/s) with different
wavelengths into one single optical fiber and vice-versa
› Adding/droping optical channels
− Switching/routing optical channels to specific optical paths
− Amplification and transmission of the multiplexed signal over long distances

• Basic building blocks have different characteristics such as port count, power losses, cost,
colored/colorless ports and restrictions to internal routing of optical signals and are
combined to build a node architecture providing a given functionality in terms of:
− Transparent switching (cross-connections)
− Flexibility of utilization of the add/drop ports
− Maximum node add/drop ratio

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 35
 Optical Nodes
Building blocks

Optical Splitter/Combiner Optical Switch

(1 x N) (M x N)

• Power divides an • Directs/switches an

optical signal into optical signal to/from a
several branches specific output/input
(splitter) or vice-versa port, by reflection
(combiner) • Not contention free
• Wavelength agnostic

Wavelength Wavelength Selective Switch

Multiplexer/Demultiplexer (1 x N) (M x N)
• Separates the individual • Selectively selects and
wavelengths of an optical directs a specific
signal (demultiplexer) or wavelength to/from a
vice-versa (multiplexer) specific output/input port
• Wavelength aware • Contentionless
• Fixed or tunable • Most common: 1xN

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 36
Outline

• Wavelength Division Multiplexing

• DWDM System Components

− Optical Fiber

− Optical Amplifiers
− Transponders
− Optical Nodes

• DWDM Networks

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 37
DWDM Networks
Schematics of a basic transmission setup

OADM (local add/drop)

transmission lines Cross connections Transponder
Transponder

OTT OLR OADM OTT

TX Add/Drop Module Pre-Amp TX
TX Booster TX
TX ... TX
...
TX TX
TX In-line TX
TX amplifier TX
TX ... ... TX
TX TX
TX TX
TX demux optional mux TX

Raman

Multiplexer Demultiplexer
Amplifier based on EDFA (Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier)
with optional pumps / Raman pumps

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 38
DWDM Networks
Long distance transport without WDM

SDH/Sonet Mux SDH/Sonet repeater SDH/Sonet Mux

IP router
SDH/Sonet

GbE

Electrical repeaters and one fiber pair for every channel drive up cost

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 39
DWDM Networks
Passive single span WDM systems

SDH/Sonet Mux SDH/Sonet Mux

WDM Mux WDM Mux

λ1 (passive) (passive)

λ2

λ3
Transponder
IP router Transponder
λ4

Multiple channels use same fiber pair

Application: e.g.CWDM or passive DWDM, up to 100km @ 2.5G

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 40
DWDM Networks
Active single span DWDM systems
SDH/Sonet Mux SDH/Sonet Mux

DWDM DWDM
λ1 Mux Amplifier Amplifier Mux

λ2

λ4
λ3
Transponder
Transponder
IP router
Coloured interfaces

Multiple channels use same fiber pair

Application: unrepeatered submarine systems, MPBC

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 41
DWDM Networks
Active multi-span DWDM systems

Amplifier Inline amplifiers

IP router
Coloured interfaces Amplifier

All channels use the same booster, inline and preamp amplifiers

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 42
DWDM Networks
Active multi-span DWDM systems with regeneration

3R regenerator
IP router OEO conversion

OEO – Optical/Electrical/Optical conversion

Extremely long links may require 3R regeneration

(Re-Amplification / Re-Shaping / Re-Timing)

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 43
DWDM Networks
Meshed DWDM systems

(R)OADM

(R)OADM/PXC

(R)OADM – (Remote configurable) Optical add/drop

multiplexer
PXC – Photonic Cross Connect

Various optical paths use common infrastructure

Arbitrary topology – up to full optical mesh

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 44
DWDM Networks
Network topologies

Point-to-Point Point-to-Point, protected (OMSP)

...

...

...

...
...
...

...
...

Ring

...
...
... Meshed

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 45
DWDM Networks
Network topologies: physical topology vs logical topology

l2
l1 l3
West East

Trans-
East Trans-
ponder West ponder
l1 l3
Traffic relation = star
West East

East West
l2
Trans-
ponder

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 46
DWDM Networks
Network topologies: physical topology vs logical topology

l2 l4
l1 l3 l6 l3
East West

West East

Traffic relation=
meshed

West
East

West East

l1 l5 l6 l5
l4 l2

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 47
DWDM Networks
Essentials for designing a DWDM network

Network topology and fiber data

• …between any two points which need to connected
• Fiber type, distance, attenuation, dispersion, PMD, aging margin...
• Possible amplification sites

Traffic requirements
• What sites are to be connected with what signals?
• What kind of protection?

Upgrade requirements
• Topology (Further links? Drop channels at repeater station?)
• Channel count for end of life scenario and channel speed

© Coriant DWDM basic concepts / Silvia Pato / 15.07.2013 For internal use 48
Thank you!