OPTICAL NETWORKS

NETWORKS

A network is a set of devices (often referred to as

nodes) connected by communication links.
 A node can be a computer, printer, or any other

device capable of sending and/or receiving data

generated by other nodes on the network.
 A link can be a cable, air, optical fiber, or any

medium which can transport a signal carrying

information.
DATA FLOW
NETWORK CRITERIA
 Performance
 Depends on Network Elements
 Measured in terms of Delay and Throughput

 Reliability
 Failure rate of network components
 Measured in terms of availability/robustness

 Security
 Data protection against corruption/loss of data due to:
 Errors
 Malicious users
PHYSICAL STRUCTURE
 Type of Connection
 Point to Point - single transmitter and receiver
 Multipoint - multiple recipients of single transmission

 Physical Topology
 Connection of devices
 Type of transmission - unicast, mulitcast, broadcast
TYPES OF CONNECTIONS
NETWORK TOPOLOGY
MESH TOPOLOGY
STAR TOPOLOGY
BUS TOPOLOGY
RING TOPOLOGY
A HYBRID TOPOLOGY
NETWORK CATEGORY
 Local Area Networks (LANs)
 Short distances
 Designed to provide local interconnectivity

 Wide Area Networks (WANs)

 Long distances
 Provide connectivity over large areas

 Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs)

 Provide connectivity over areas such as a city, a campus
PROTOCOL

A protocol is synonymous with rule. It consists of

a set of rules that govern data communications.
It determines what is communicated, how it is
communicated and when it is communicated.
The key elements of a protocol are syntax,
semantics and timing
ELEMENTS OF PROTOCOL
 Syntax
 Structure or format of the data
 Indicates how to read the bits - field delineation

 Semantics
 Interprets the meaning of the bits
 Knows which fields define what action

 Timing
 When data should be sent and what
 Speed at which data should be sent or speed at which it is
being received.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK
ARCHITECTURE
 Metro network: lie within a city or a region
 Access network: extend from a central office to
businesses and homes
 Interoffice network: connect central offices within
a city or a region
 Long-haul network: interconnect cities or
regions

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DESIRED FEATURES OF
TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS
 High capacity
 Efficiently support data traffic
 Use packet switching
 Deliver new and flexible types of services
 Bandwidth on demand
 Restorable connections with different restoration
guarantees

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OPTICAL NETWORKS
 Optical fibers as transmission media
 High bandwidth: tens of Tbps
 Low loss and low bit error rate
 Two ways to increase the transmission
capacity on a fiber:
 Increase the bit rate with time division
multiplexing (TDM): transmit data simultaneously
at single wavelengths
 Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM):
transmit data simultaneously at multiple
wavelengths
 TDM and WDM combined: tens of Tbps

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OPTICAL NETWORKS
 Two generations
 Firstgeneration: switching and processing done
by electronics
 SONET
 FDDI

 Second generation: routing and switching done

in optical domain
 Wavelength routing networks
 WDM

 DWDM

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SYNCHRONOUS OPTICAL NETWORK
(SONET)
 The ANSI standard for synchronous data
transmission on optical media.
 Provide end-to-end circuit-switched
connections
 Provide efficient mechanism for multiplexing
low-speed connections into higher-speed
connections
 Define a base rate of 51.84 Mbps and a set of
multiples of the base rate known as "Optical Carrier
levels (OCx)"
 High availability (99.99% to 99.999%)
 Rapid service restoration in the event of
failures
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SONET TRANSMISSION RATES
OC-1 = 51.84 Mbps
OC-3 = 155.52 Mbps
OC-12 = 622.08 Mbps
OC-24 = 1.244 Gbps
OC-48 = 2.488 Gbps
OC-192 = 9.953 Gbps
OC-768 = 39.814 Gbps

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SONET ELEMENTS
 Terminal multiplexers (TMs): nodes at
the ends of point-to-point links,
multiplex and demultiplex traffic
streams
 Add/drop multiplexers
(ADMs):drop/add one or more low-
speed streams from/to a high-speed
stream, allow the remaining traffic to
pass through
 Deployed in linear and ring networks
 Digital
crossconnects (DCSs): large
number of ports, extract and switch
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lower-speed streams (44.736Mbps and
WAVELENGTH ROUTING NETWORKS
 Optical layer provides lightpath
services to client layers (e.g. IP, ATM,
SONET)
 Lightpath: a circuit switched

connection between two nodes set up

by assigning a dedicated wavelength
on each link in its path
 Alllinks in the path must be assigned the
same wavelength if network nodes are not
capable of wavelength conversion
 Wavelength conversion can reduce
connection blocking 23
NETWORK ELEMENTS
 Optical line terminals (OLTs):
 multiplex multiple wavelengths into a
single fiber
 demultiplex wavelengths on a single fiber
into separate wavelengths
 Optical
add/drop multiplexers
(OADMs):
 drop/add one or more wavelengths from/to
a composite WDM signal, allow the
remaining wavelengths to pass through
 two line ports and a number of local ports
 Optical crossconnects (OXCs):
 switch wavelengths from one port to
another 24
OPTICAL PACKET SWITCHING
 Not feasible at present due to
 Lack of optical buffers
 Limited processing capabilities in the optical
domain
 Primitive stage of fast optical-switching
technology

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FIBER DISTRIBUTED DATA INTERFACE
(FDDI)
 Dates back to the early 1980s
 Uses two fiber pairs, each operating at

100 Mbits/s.
 Data rates approaching 90% of its 100

MB/s operating rate

 FDDI was, and in some locations still is,

commonly used at the Internet Service

Provider (ISP) peering points that provide
interconnections between ISPs.
 Relatively expensive

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FDDI FIBER SPECIFICATIONS
 OPTICAL FIBER SUPPORT
 FDDI can support 62.5/125-, 50/125-, and 100/140-µm
multimode fiber sizes. Maximum distance 2 Km.
 FDDI also supports the use of single-mode fiber,
 Long-distance transmission (up to 40 Km)
 FDDI single-mode fiber is commonly specified as 8/125, 9/125,
and 10/125.
 OPTICAL TRANSMITTER
 850, 1300, and 1550 nm
 850 and 1300 nm for multimode fiber
 1300 and 1500 nm for single-mode fiber
 For single-mode fiber laser diodes must be used
 ATTENUATION
 For multimode fiber
 PMD standard specifies a power budget of 11.0 dB
 Maximum cable attenuation is 1.5 dB/km at 1300 nm.
 single-mode fiber
 power budget extends from 10 to 32 dB

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FDDI RING STRUCTURE

 FDDI backbone consists of two separate fiber-optic rings,

 primary ring: active

 secondary ring: “on hold,”

 Station Types
 Class A:dual-attachment stations, Class B: single-

attachment station.

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WDM OPTICAL NETWORKS
 Considerable increase in traffic became a driving force for
WDM and its evolution into dense WDM (DWDM).
 WDM refers to the technology of combining multiple
wavelengths onto the same optical fiber.
 Each wavelength is a different channel.
 At the transmitting end, there are W independent
transmitters and W independent receivers at the receiving
end.
 WDM: ~200 GHz spacing
 DWDM: ~50 GHz spacing

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COMPONENTS: 2 × 2 COUPLERS
 The 2 × 2 coupler is a basic device in optical networks,
 Fused-fiber coupler.
 Fabricated by twisting together, melting, and pulling two
single-mode fibers so that they get fused together over a
uniform section of length.
 Known also as directional coupler.

 The coupled optical power is varied by varying the length of

the coupling region, the size of the reduced radius of the core
in the coupling region, and the difference in the radii of the
two fibers in the coupling region.
 There is always some power loss when the light goes through

the coupler.

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OPTICAL NETWORKS
 Passive Optical Network (PON)
 Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH)
 Fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC)
 Fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP)
 Metro Networks (SONET)
 Metro access networks
 Metro core networks
 Transport Networks (DWDM)
 Long-haul networks

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 OPTICAL NETWORK ARCHITECTURE
DWDM Long Haul
Network

SONET
Metro Metro
Network Network
transport network
PON
Access Access Access Access
Network Network Network Network

CPE (customer premise)

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ALL-OPTICAL NETWORKS
 Most optical networks today are EOE
(electrical/optical/electrical)
 All optical means no electrical component
 To transport and switch packets photonically.
 Transport: no problem, been doing that
for years

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PASSIVE OPTICAL NETWORK (PON)
 Standard: ITU-T G.983
 PON is used primarily in two markets:
residential and business for very high
speed network access.
 Passive: no electricity to power or maintain
the transmission facility.
 PON is very active in sending and receiving
optical signals
 The active parts are at both end points.
 Splitter could be used, but is passive

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PASSIVE OPTICAL NETWORK (PON)
OLT: Optical Line Terminal
ONT: Optical Network Terminal

Splitter
(1:32)

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 PON – MANY FLAVORS
• ATM-based PON (APON) – The first Passive optical
network standard, primarily for business applications
• Broadband PON (BPON) – the original PON standard
(1995). It used ATM as the bearer protocol, and operated
at 155Mbps. It was later enhanced to 622Mbps.
– ITU-T G.983
• Ethernet PON (EPON) – standard from IEEE Ethernet for
the First Mile (EFM) group. It focuses on standardizing a
1.25 Gb/s symmetrical system for Ethernet transport only
– IEEE 802.3ah (1.25G)
– IEEE 802.3av (10G EPON)
• Gigabit PON (GPON) – offer high bit rate while enabling
transport of multiple services, specifically data
(IP/Ethernet) and voice (TDM) in their native formats, at
an extremely high efficiency
– ITU-T G.984

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XPON COMPARISON
BPON EPON GPON
Standard ITU-T G.983 IEEE 803.2ah ITU-T G.984

Bandwidth Down: 622M Symmetric: Down: 2.5G

Up: 155M 1.25G Up: 2.5G
Downstream λ 1490 &1550 1550 1490 & 1550

Upstream λ 1310 1310 1310

Transmission ATM Ethernet ATM, TDM,

Ethernet

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TDM VS. WDM

 Time division multiplexing

Single wavelength per fiber Channel 1 Single
Fiber (One
Multiple channels per fiber Wavelength)
 Wave division multiplexing Channel n
Multiple wavelengths per fiber
Multiple channels per
wavelength l1
l2 Single Fiber
(Multiple
Wavelengths)
ln

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 TDM VS. WDM
 TDM (SONET/SDH)
Take DS-1
sync and async
DS-3
signals and multiplex OC-1
them to a single higher OC-3 SONET Fiber
ADM
optical bit rate OC-12
E/O or O/E/O conversionOC-48

 WDM
Take multiple optical OC-12c DWDM
OC-48c Fiber
signals and multiplex OC-192c OADM
them
onto a single fiber
No signal format
conversion
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FDM VS. WDM VS. DWDM
 There is no difference between Wavelength Division and
Frequency Division. In general, FDM is used in the context
of Radio Frequency (MHz – GHz) while WDM is used in the
context of light ( THz)
 WDM: The original standard requires 100 GHz spacing to
prevent signals interference.
 Dense WDM (DWDM): support multiplexing of up to 160
wavelengths with 25GHz spacing

Spectrum A spacing Spectrum B

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 DWDM ECONOMY
Conventional TDM Transmission—10 Gbps
40km 40km 40km 40km 40km 40km 40km 40km 40km

TERM 1310 1310 1310 1310 1310 1310 1310 1310 TERM
TERM RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 TERM
TERM RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 TERM
TERM RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 RPTR
1310 TERM
RPTR RPTR RPTR RPTR RPTR RPTR RPTR RPTR

DWDM Transmission—10 Gbps

OC-48 OC-48
OC-48 OC-48
OC-48
OC-48
OC-48 120 km 120 km 120 km OC-48
OA OA OA OA

4 Fiber Pairs 1 Fiber Pair

32 Regenerators 4 Optical Amplifiers
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SUMMARY
 Optical Fiber Network – the market needs
 Access Network
 Passive Optical Network (PON)
 Metro Network
 SONET/SDH
 Transport Network (Long-Haul)
 DWDM
 DWDM can be applied to metro and access networks

as well, but unlikely for its high cost.

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