Optical Networking and Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM)

Optical Networking And Dense Wavelength
Division Multiplexing (DWDM)

Muralikrishna Gandluru, gandluru@cis.ohio-state.edu
Abstract:
This paper deals with the twin concepts of optical networking and dense wavelength division multiplexing. The paper talks
about the various optical network architectures and the various components of an all-optical network like Optical
Amplifiers, Optical Add/Drop Multiplexors, Optical Splitters etc. Important optical networking concepts like wavelength
routing and wavelength conversion are explained in detail. Finally this paper deals with industry related issues like the gap
between research and the industry, current and projected market for optical networking & DWDM equipment and future
direction of research in this field.
See Also: IP Over DWDM (Student Report) | Optical DWDM Networks (Lecture by Dr. Jain) | IP over DWDM (Lecture by
Dr.Jain) | References on Optical DWDM Networks and IP over DWDM | Books on WDM and Optical Networking
Other Reports on Recent Advances in Networking
Back to Raj Jain's Home Page
Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
1.1 Optical Networking
1.2 Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing
2. DWDM SYSTEM
2.1 Optical Transmission Principles
2.2 Network Classification
2.3 Optical Amplifiers
2.4 Synchronization
2.5 Security
3. DWDM COMPONENTS
4. OPTICAL NETWORK ARCHITECTURE
4.1 Virtual Topology
4.2 Optical Layer and Higher Layer Interface
5. DWDM ARCHITECTURE
5.1 ATM over DWDM
5.2 IP over DWDM
6. WAVELENGTH ROUTING IN OPTICAL NETWORKS
6.1 Efficient Routing Algorithms
7. WAVELENGTH CONVERSION IN OPTICAL NETWORKS
7.1 Wavelength Conversion related Algorithms
8. MARKET SCOPE AND COMPANY PROFILE
8.1 Ciena Corporation
Optical Networking And Dense Wavelength Division
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~jain/cis788-99/dwdm/index.html (1 of 20) [2/7/2000 10:39:52 AM]
8.2 Lucent Corporation
8.3 Sycamore Networks
8.4 Ericsson's ERION
SUMMARY
REFERENCES
LIST OF ACRONYMS
1. INTRODUCTION
One of the major issues in the networking industry today is tremendous demand for more and more bandwidth. Before the
introduction of optical networks, the reduced availability of fibers became a big problem for the network providers.
However, with the development of optical networks and the use of Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM)
technology, a new and probably, a very crucial milestone is being reached in network evolution. The existing SONET/SDH
network architecture is best suited for voice traffic rather than todays high-speed data traffic. To upgrade the system to
handle this kind of traffic is very expensive and hence the need for the development of an intelligent all-optical network.
Such a network will bring intelligence and scalability to the optical domain by combining the intelligence and functional
capability of SONET/SDH, the tremendous bandwidth of DWDM and innovative networking software to spawn a variety of
optical transport, switching and management related products.
1.1 Optical Networking
Optical networks are high-capacity telecommunications networks based on optical technologies and component that provide
routing, grooming, and restoration at the wavelength level as well as wavelength-based services. The origin of optical
networks is linked to Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) which arose to provide additional capacity on existing
fibers. The optical layer whose standards are being developed, will ideally be transparent to the SONET layer, providing
restoration, performance monitoring, and provisioning of individual wavelengths instead of electrical SONET signals. So in
essence a lot of network elements will be eliminated and there will be a reduction of electrical equipment.
It is possible to classify networks into three generations depending on the physical-level technology employed. First
generation networks use copper-based or microwave technologies e.g Ethernet, satellites etc. In second generation
networks, these copper links or microwave links with optical fibers. However, these networks still perform the switching of
data in the electronic domain though the transmission of data is done in the optical domain. Finally we have the third
generation networks that employ Wavelength Division Multiplexing technology. They do both the transmission and the
switching of data in the optical domain. This has resulted in the onset of tremendous amount of bandwidth availability.
Further the use of non-overlapping channels allows each channel to operate at peak speeds.
1.2 Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing(DWDM)
Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) is a fiber-optic transmission technique. It involves the process of
multiplexing many different wavelength signals onto a single fiber. So each fiber have a set of parallel optical channels each
using slightly different light wavelengths. It employs light wavelengths to transmit data parallel-by-bit or
serial-by-character. DWDM is a very crucial component of optical networks that will allow the transmission of data: voice,
video-IP, ATM and SONET/SDH respectively, over the optical layer.
Hence with the development of WDM technology, optical layer provides the only means for carriers to integrate the diverse
technologies of their existing networks into one physical infrastructure. For example, though a carrier might be operating
both ATM and SONET networks, with the use of DWDM it is not necessary for the ATM signal to be multiplexed up to the
SONET rate to be carried on the DWDM network. Hence carriers can quickly introduce ATM or IP without having to
deploy an overlay network for multiplexing.
Back to Table of Contents

2. DWDM SYSTEM
As mentioned earlier, optical networks use Dense Wavelength Multiplexing as the underlying carrier. The most important
components of any DWDM system are transmitters, receivers, Erbium-doped fiber Amplifiers, DWDM multiplexors and
DWDM demultiplexors. Fig 1 gives the structure of a typical DWDM system.
Fig.1 Block Diagram of a DWDM System

The concepts of optical fiber transmission, amplifiers, loss control, all optical header replacement, network topology,
synchronization and physical layer security play a major role in deciding the throughput of the network. These factors have
been discussed briefly in this sections that follow.
2.1. Optical Transmission Principles
The DWDM system has an important photonic layer, which is responsible for transmission of the optical data through the
network. Some basic principles, concerning the optical transmission, are explained in this section. These are necessary for
the proper operation of the system.
Channel Spacing
The minimum frequency separation between two different signals multiplexed in known as the Channel spacing. Since the
wavelength of operation is inversely proportional to the frequency, a corresponding difference is introduced in the
wavelength of each signal. The factors controlling channel spacing are the optical amplifiers bandwidth and the capability
of the receiver in identifying two close wavelengths sets the lower bound on the channel spacing. Both factors ultimately
restrict the number of unique wavelengths passing through the amplifier.
Signal Direction
An optical fiber helps transmit signal in both directions. Based on this feature, a DWDM system can be implemented in two
ways:
Unidirectional: All wavelengths travel in the same direction within the fiber. It is similar to a
simplex case. This calls in for laying one another parallel fiber for supporting transmission on the
other side.
I
Bi-directional: The channels in the DWDM fiber are split into two separate bands, one for each
direction. This removes the need for the second fiber, but, in turn reduces the capacity or
transmission bandwidth.
I
Signal Trace
The procedure of detecting if a signal reaches the correct destination at the other end. This helps follow the light signal
through the whole network. It can be achieved by plugging in extra information on a wavelength, using an electrical
receiver to extract if from the network and inspecting for errors. The receiver the reports the signal trace to the transmitter.
Taking into consideration the above two factors, the international bodies have established a spacing of 100GHz to be the
worldwide standard for DWDM. This means that the frequency of each signal is less than the rest by atleast 0.1THz.
2.2 Network classification
A network can be physically structured in the form of either a ring, a mesh, star based or linear bus based on the connection
between the various nodes. Although the physical topology of a DWDM system might be that of a ring, the logical traffic
distribution topology can be arbitrary. This is done through the use of different wavelengths to interconnect each node. Until
the development of EDFAs the passive star configuration was the most popular configuration due to its superior power
budget. However, with the advent of EDFAs, the ring network works out much better after overcoming its power budget
problems. What makes the ring network better is its superior resilience. The Optical Cross Connect (OXC) help pass on
traffic between each of the rings. A Path-in-Lambda architecture for connecting all-optical networks is under development.
Ring Topology vs Mesh Topology
A ring topology is preferable owing to many of its capabilities. Unlike a mesh network, the expense of laying out the links
is reduced in the ring, because the number of links increases only as a linear progression. The rings also have better
resilience and restoration than meshes. The ring topology besides serving as a standby link helps share the load. The
working segment (Refer to Fig.2) and the protection segment of the fiber together handle the large data burst of the
computer network. This reduces the load on the router and removes the need for buffering
Fig.2 Ring Topology Connecting Nodes A & B

Single-Hop Networks vs Multi-hop Networks
Multi-wavelength networks can be also classified as single-hop networks and multi-hop networks. In single-hop networks,
the data stream travels from source to destination as a light stream. There is no conversion to electronic form in any of the
intermediate nodes. Two examples of a single-hop networks are the broadcast-and-select and the wavelength-routed
architecture.
Broadcast-and-select networks: It is based on a passive star coupler device connected to several nodes in a
star topology. Basically a signal received on one port is split and broadcast to all ports. Networks are simple
and have natural multicasting capabilities. Generally used in high speed LANs or MANs. Other elements in
this type of network are tunable receivers and fixed transmitters or fixed receivers and tunable transmitters.
I
Wavelength routed networks: The key element here is the wavelength-selective switching subsystem. There
are again two types of wavelength switching. Wavelength path switching involves dynamic signal switching
I
from one path to another by changing WDM routing while wavelength conversion the reuse of the same
wavelength in some other part of the network as long as both lightpaths dont use it on the same fiber.
Wavelength routing is explained in more detail in section [6.]
In multi-hop networks, each node has access to only a small number of the wavelength channels used in the network. Fixed
wavelength transmitters and receivers are used for this purpose with a minimum of atleast a single wavelength transmitter
and a single wavelength receiver tuned to different wavelengths. This type of network requires atleast one intermediate node
for a packet to reach the destination. Also, at each intermediate node electronic switching of packets take place. Two
examples of actual multihop systems on which packet switching has been implemented experimentally are Starnet
(developed by Optical Communication Research Laboratory at Stanford University) and Teranet (developed by Columbia
University).
2.3 Optical Amplifiers
Researchers are working on managing traffic optically rather than first converting it to electronic signals. However, it has
been noticed that in long-haul networks, the effects of dispersion and attenuation are significant. What this means is that a
signal cannot maintain its integrity over really long distances without having to be amplified. Towards that end, the
production of optical amplifiers became important, which would help in amplifying signals at regular intervals. This led to
development of the Erbium-doped fiber Amplifiers (EDFA).
EDFAs are as the name says, are silica based optical fibers that are doped with erbium. It is this doping that achieves the
conversion of a passive fiber to an active one. Traditionally it has been used for terrestrial and under-sea purposes. With the
development of EDFA we have basically almost rendered Wavelength Regenerators redundant. The element erbium
(Er
68
) boosts the power of wavelengths and eliminates the need for regeneration. It is the optical amplifier that has made
WDM economically feasible. The usable bandwidth by using EDFAs is about 30nm (1530nm-1560nm). However,
attenuation is minimum in the range of 1500nm 1600nm. Hence that implies very less utilizations. Also typically what
happens is that with the need to place as many wavelengths (channels) as possible in a single fiber, the distance between
two channels is very small (0.8-1.6nm). This results in the Interchannel crosstalk becoming a very important issue at this
point.
It became imperative that the amplifier's bandwidth had to be increased while eliminating crosstalk. So this led to the
development of Silica Erbium fiber-based Dual-band fiber amplifier (DBFA). These fibers are similar to the EDFAs and
have been able to generate terabit transmission successfully. However, the most important feature of the DBFA is its
bandwidth => 1528nm-1610nm. The DBFA has two sub-band amplifiers. The first is in the range of the EDFA and the
second one is what is known as Extended band fiber amplifier (EBFA). It has been shown that this EBFA has several
attractive features compared to the traditional EDFA.:
Flat Gain: EBFAs achieve a flat gain over a range of wide range (35nm) as compared to the
EDFAs
I
Slow Saturation: EBFAs reach saturation slower than the EDFAs. Saturation is the state where
output remains constant even though input level keeps increasing.
I
Low Noise: EBFAs exhibit lower noise than EDFAs I
Therefore, the 1590-nm EBFA represents a huge leap in meeting the ever-increasing demands of high-capacity fiber-optic
transmission systems. A similar product is Lucents Bell Labs of an "Ultra-Wideband Optical Amplifier (UWOA) that can
amplify upto 100 wavelengh channels as they travel along a single optical fiber and has a usable bandwidth of 80nm. This
bandwidth spans the 1530-1565nm channel (C-band) and also the long wavelength channels beyond 1565-1620nm(L-band).
Upto December 1998 industrial capability is such that, wavelength systems were developed that could carry a maximum of
40 wavelengths per fiber. The various stages of this development included 4, 8,16,32 wavelengths per fiber.
2.4 Synchronization
The SONET networks currently support the multiplexing of lower Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) rates onto higher
rates. The Add/Drop Multiplexors (ADM) and transponder en route provide the much-needed synchronization. This ensures
the quality and guarantees proper delivery of data. But, since DWDM systems support the multiplexing of different
wavelengths, no timing relation exists for the system. The need for a clocking system, similar to one used in SONET, is
absent.
Nevertheless, synchronization may still be used for assuring good quality. The numerous regenerators/transponders and
other devices in the path of a signal introduces jitter. Synchronization can be used to ensure quality by cleaning up the
signals transmitted at each node. SONET terminals and ADMs have a special timing output port, which provides timing to
customers. It is sometimes referred to as the Derived DS1. It is a true DS1 signal, but carries no traffic. All data bits are set
to logic 1 to minimize timing jitter. A clock distribution amplifier may be used to split the Derived DS1 signal, to
synchronize many network elements. In a network, each distribution amplifier output may be routed to a different network
element.
2.5 Security
Optical fibers too facilitate secure connections. Quantum cryptography is one such operation, which exploits the
fundamental properties of quantum complementarity (The concept that particle and wave behavior are mutually exclusive,
but, are together necessary for the complete description of any phenomena) to allow two remote parties to generate a shared
random bit sequence. Users can safely use their shared bit sequence as a key for subsequent encrypted communications. In
conventional complexity-based approaches to security, privacy is achieved by posing a difficulty mathematical problem to
the interceptor, which is computationally intensive. In contrast, Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), as it is called, provides a
new paradigm for the protection of sensitive information in which security is based on fundamental physical laws.
3. DWDM COMPONENTS
Important components of a DWDM system are the Add/Drop Multiplexor (ADM), the Optical CrossConnect (OXC),
Optical Splitter. The Add/Drop Multiplexor as the name suggests, selectively adds/drops wavelengths without having to use
any SONET/SDH terminal equipment. We require the ADM to add new wavelengths to the network or to drop some
wavelengths at their terminating points. There are two types of implementations of the ADM, the Fixed WADM and the
Reconfigurable WDM.
Fig.3 Block Diagram of the WADM
The Optical CrossConnect acts a crossconnect between n-input ports and n-output ports. It allows the efficient network
management of wavelengths at the optical layer. The variety of functions that it provides are signal monitoring, restoration,
provisioning and grooming.
Fig.4 Block Diagram of the OXC
Optical Splitters are being suggested for use in multicast-capable wavelength-routing switches to provide optical
multicasting. It is a passive device that will help in replicating optical signals. This is explained in detail in a later section.
[4.2]
Optical Gateways are devices that will allow the smooth transition of traffic to the optical layer. We can have high-speed
ATM networks or a mix of SONET and ATM services with such a gateway. They provide the maximum benefits of optical
networks.
4. OPTICAL NETWORK ARCHITECTURE
Just like every other layer defined in networking, a layer architecture has to be defined for the optical layer. O.Gerstel,
P.Green and R.Ramaswami in [GERSTEL96] have tried achieving this goal. A multi-wavelength mesh-connected optical
network is used to define the architecture of the optic layer. A lightpath is defined as the path between two nodes and is
equivalent to a wavelength on each link on that path. Two aspects of the network topology have been described : physical
topology and virtual topology.
The physical topology has WDM cross-connect nodes interconnected by pairs of point-to-point fiber links in an arbitrary
mesh topology as shown in the following figure.

Fig.5 A WDM network consisting of crossconnect nodes interconnected by pairs of point-to-point fiber optic links(i.e physcial topology)
4.1 Virtual Topology
As shown in the below figure, the virtual topology of a network is the set of all lightpaths. It is a logical topology and the
direction of the arrows actually show the direction of the lightpaths.
Fig.6 The virtual topology of the WDM network of previous figure

An optical layer, also known sometimes as Layer 1, is the layer between the physical layer and the datalink layer or other
higher layers for that matter. By using this additional layer in say an ATM network, we would be removing the need of
having to convert to optical signal to electric signals and to cells before switching them through ATM switches, if we have
wavelength switches in the network. ITU-T SG 15 has defined the optical layer itself as consisting of layers.
The three sublayers of the optical layer are:
Optical Channel(OCh) layer: This corresponds to light paths I
Optical Multiplex Section(OMSn) layer: This corresponds to links I
Optical Amplifier Section(OASn) layer : This corresponds to link segments between optical
amplifiers.
I
However, in [GERSTEL96] more emphasis is laid on the standardization of control and management aspects. The authors
make some assumptions about the networks like low setup rate, isolation from physical constraints and routing of
bi-directional lightpaths.
4.2 Optical Layer and Higher Layer Interface
Just like every other layer-layer communication, optical layer communicates with the higher layers, both above and below
in the protocol stack by means of Service Data Units (SDUs). Besides these guarantees, SDUs also have to be defined to
allow for proper exchange between higher layers and the optical layer (in both directions).There are certain services that this
new layer must provide to the higher layers.
Addressing
It is obvious that there must be some mechanism for the higher layers to ask for lightpaths from particular nodes in the
network. This is done by having an addressing scheme to describe the nodes in the network.
QoS
It is imperative that QoS parameters be provided. Since our eventual goal is to allow an integrated service of transport
across networks, this layer must be able to accept any type of layer above it, ATM, SONET, IP etc. Hence this requirement
of QoS parameters. The authors [GERSTEL96] have given an example of all the parameters that might be needed.
Some research is being done on all differentiated QoS especially with respect to All-Optical WDM Multi-Rings
[MARSAN99]. Many of the current WDM network architectures require as many wavelengths as there are nodes. This
implies a dedicated logical channel for either transmission or reception for each destination. The particular case of
multichannel slotted rings has received some attention based on their being attractive solutions for all-optical LANs and
MANs. In [MARSAN99] the authors assume the following diagrammatic structure with the specific example of the number
of nodes (N) = 4.
Fig.7 A "roundabout" diagrammatic structure with the number of nodes(N)=4
This structure resembles the "roundabouts" that are there on the roads in many countries. All sources needing to transmit to
the same destination must share the corresponding channel. Each node is assumed to have one tunable transmitter and one
fixed receiver. Hence, the MAC protocol that has been suggested for this architecture is the Synchronous Round Robin with
Reservation (SR
3
). It has been divided into 3 heirarchical layers: access strategy using the Synchronous Round Robin
(SRR) scheme, the fairness control scheme i.e the modified MultiMeta Ring (MMR) scheme and finally a reservation
scheme.
This SR
3
scheme hence provides atleast theoretically, an almost optimal exploitation of the available resources and fair
allocation of resources. The reservation scheme allows in controlling queueing delays. The experimental results of
[MARSAN99] seem to indicate that delay performance is improved for both pure best-effort traffic and also a mixture of
guaranteed-quality and best effort traffic. Thus, bandwidth allocation and connection establishment procedures can be easily
introduced into systems whose whose traditional mode of operation is connectionless. Since this SR
3
scheme allows
reservation of a set of slots by nodes at call setup, it can also be used for applications with QoS requirements.
Multicast capability
This is an optional capability depending on whether multicasting is a feature enabled in the network.
Some research has been done in this area [SAHASRABUDDHE99]. Here, the concept of a light tree is introduced. A light
tree is a point-to-multipoint version of a lightpath. Optical multicasting capability at routing nodes has been suggested to
increase logical connectivity and thereby further reduce the hop distances that have to be traversed. Optical multicasting is
better than electronic multicasting because it is easier to split an optical signal into many identical optical signals rather than
copying a packet in an electronic buffer. Using optical splitters does this function of "splitting" an optical signal.
An n-way optical splitter is a passive device that does the above defined "splitting" in such a way that atleast one output
signal has a power less than or equal to 1/n
th
times the input power. Optical amplifiers would be needed in the network.
The suggested approach is to have a so-called splitter bank. This splitter bank will do the optical splitting and also the
optical signal amplification. An interesting point is that this splitter bank could have more features such as wavelength
conversion and signal regeneration for "multicast" as well as "unicast" signals in the network.
Now this splitter bank is then used to construct a multicast-capable wavelength-routing switch(MWRS). The basic
components of this MWRS are optical switches, splitter bank, multiplexors, demultiplexors. Information coming in through
a fiber link is first demultiplexed into separate signals (different wavelengths) and then switched by an optical switch. At
this point depending on whether the signal is unicast or multicast, they are sent through different paths. The multicast
signals are sent to the splitter bank and the amplified multiple identical signals are then switched by another optical switch.
Finally all the signals that are to be sent out on one fiber link are multiplexed together before being sent out.
Mathematic formulation of the light-tree-based virtual topology design problem isthe next step. An optimization problem
having any one of the following objective functions is possible:
Minimization of the network-wide average packet hop distance. I
Minimization of the total number of opto-electronic components. I
By solving a mixed-integer linear program for this optimization problem the authors [SAHASRABUDDHE99] found that
compared to the lightpath-based virtual topology, the light-tree based virtual topology scaled better for both objective
functions.
Uni or Bi-directional lightpaths
When all wavelengths travel in the same direction within a fiber, those wavelengths are called unidirectional wavelengths(or
lightpaths). The implication here is that another parallel fiber has to be there that supports the opposite direction lightpath
When we have the whole channel split in such a way that for each lightpath in the forward direction there is another
lightpath in the opposite direction within the same fiber, such lightpaths are known as bi-directional lightpaths. It is obvious
that the transmission bandwidth is reduced. Which one of these lightpaths is chosen depends on the type of traffic.
Since failure recovery is a very important aspect of any network, network control has been proposed as a decentralized
function though for the early versions a centralized function is also acceptable. Network management criteria, interfacing
between network control and network management has all been properly defined.
Finally, it is important to realise that there will many such WDM networks belonging to various carriers, organizations etc
and for this the authors of [7] use a two-level hierarchy. This is similar to the routing protocol of ATM networks: PNNI.
The two levels are as follows:
The lower level hierarchy is the level of the physical node and the links are physical fibers. 1.
The upper level is the level where each node is actually a subnet and the links at this level are nothing but the
links between two subnets. The routing protocols that could be used are similar to IGP at this level.
2.
5. DWDM ARCHITECTURE
Using some of the basic concepts of DWDM systems, it is possible to form an All-Optical layer. Transport of Gigabit
Ethernet , ATM, SONET, IP on different channels is feasible. By achieving this, the system becomes more flexible and any
signal format can be connected to, without the addition of any extra equipment that acts as a translator between the formats.
In this section we will talk about the various types of technologies that can be used over DWDM systems. In particular, we
will discuss ATM over DWDM and IP over DWDM.
5.1 ATM over DWDM
As bandwidth requirements increase, Telcos are faced with huge investments in order to fulfil the capacity demands. Along
with this the demand for QoS has increased. There seems to be a general move towards providing QoS while still
maintaining the same capacity. ATM over DWDM solves the bandwidth and Quality of Service issues in a cost-effective
way. In DWDM networks, if there is a carrier that operates both ATM and SONET networks there is no need for the ATM
signal to be multiplexed upto the SONET rate. This is because the optical layer can carry any type of signal without any
additional multiplexing. This results in the reduction of a lot of overlay network.
While there are a lot of advantages of running ATM over DWDM, there are certain issues that are of importance that need
to be considered. They are channel spacing (four Wave Mixing) and optical attenuation. Hence, we need good wavelength
conditioning techniques to solve this problem. The techniques used are Forward Error Correction Technique and the pilot
light technique. By using the latter technique network management systems are able to ensure connectivity, signal on each
channel and also identify faults. This network management is similar to the way test cells are used on specific Virtual
Channels in ATM.
Testing ATM over DWDM
Testing of ATM over DWDM consists of similar concepts to those provided in ATM over SONET. However, with DWDM
it is more complex because we now have multiple parallel links on a single fiber. So besides the need of taking into account
the connectivity and the conformance to QoS agreements, we need to make sure that these parallel links are all mutually
exclusive. Hence, the following parameters need to be measured:
Signal-to-noise ratio I
Channel power I
Channel center wavelength and spacing I
Crosstalk I
Total Optical Power I
Chromatic dispersion I
Polarization Mode Dispersion I
5.2 IP over DWDM (or IP over lambda)
The ultimate solution would be to take IP directly over DWDM. This will bring about scalability and cost-effectiveness.
Now we have industry products that actually implement IP over DWDM for example Monterey Networks( bought by Cisco
in August '99) have their Monterey 20000 Series Wavelength Router&trade.They claim that by using their product, "service
providers can traffic-engineer and rapidly scale up survivable mesh optical cores without introducing intermediate ATM
switches or proliferating legacy SONET multiplexers and cross-connects".
In effect we are totally eliminating ATM and SONET layers from the networks. The proponents of IP over DWDM say that
SONETs reliability is due to a lot of redundancy. This overkill prevents the network from using a large portion of its
resources. The real test is whether it would be possible to create an end-to-end optical Internet operating from OC-3 to
OC-48 and build systems around an optical Internet backbone. Compare that with the news that SONET handles OC-192
smoothly and can touch OC-768. As of March99, all the IP over DWDM systems that were operational were all SONET
frame based.
With the development of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers most systems that use IP over DWDM using SONET frames have
removed the SONET multiplexors. GTS Carrier Service in March, launched the first high capacity transport platform in
Europe that uses IP over DWDM technology. Further more, major carriers such as AT&T, Sprint, Enron, Frontier, Canarie,
have all begun to realize the huge economic potential of IP over DWDM and there is no longer any skepticism about this
technology.
6. WAVELENGTH ROUTING IN OPTICAL NETWORKS
An optical network consists of wavelength routers and end nodes that are connected by links in pairs. The
wavelength-routing switches or routing nodes are interconnected by optical fibers. Although each link can support many
signals, it is required that the signals be of distinct wavelengths.
Routers transmit signals on the same wavelength on which they are received. An All-Optical wavelength routed network is
that wavelength-routed network that carries data across from one access station to another without any O/E
(Optical/Electronic) conversions.
Categories of Wavelength Switches (or routers as the authors call them):
Non-reconfigurable switch: These types of switches, for each input port and each wavelength, transmit onto a fixed set of
output ports at the same wavelength. These cannot be changed once the switch is built. Networks that contain only such
switches are called non-reconfigurable networks.
Wavelength-Independent Reconfigurable switch: These type of switches have input-output pattern that can be
dynamically reconfigured. However, the input-output pattern is independent of the wavelength of the signal i.e. there are
only fixed sets of output ports onto which an incoming signal can be transmitted.
Wavelength-Selective Reconfigurable Switch: These types of switches combine the features of the first two categories.
Also known as generalized switch, they basically have both the properties of dynamic reconfiguration and the routing
pattern being a function of the wavelength of the incoming signal.
Reconfigurable routers are of bounded degree, while nonreconfigurable routers may not be. That is, the complexity of
non-reconfigurable networks can be ignored as it is not of a fixed degree. However, the complexity of reconfigurable
networks is strongly dependent on its degree and it is bounded.
6.1 Efficient routing Algorithms
Permutation routing problem
Each end node in a permutation problem is the origin of atmost one session and also the destination of atmost one session at
any given time. They introduced a new concept called the widesense nonblocking criterion. This criterion effectively
insures that at any instant of time, the session present in a network constitute a permutation problem and that no session is
every blocked.
A routing scheme is oblivious if it always uses the same wavelength to satisfy a given connection request; it is partially
oblivious if the wavelength must be chosen from a subset of available wavelengths. Bounds on the number of wavelengths
needed for oblivious, nonoblivious, and partially oblivious wide-sense nonblocking permutation routing for
nonreconfigurable networks were calculated and can be found in the above mentioned paper. For reconfigurable networks,
bounds are given on the number of routers needed, with the number of wavelengths as a parameter.
[PANKAJ95] focussed on the permutation routing problem in a homogeneous WDMA network, i.e a network having both
an input/output port and a switch. A lower bound as well as an upper bound on the number of wavelengths that are
necessary for permutation routing as a function of the size and the degree of the network was calculated. Topologies
considered were the hypercube, Debruijn and the multistage perfect shuffle.
Lower Bound
By simply counting the number of links in the network , it was concluded that the number of wavelengths must grow atleast
as fast as (logN/log d) where N is the number of nodes in the network and d is the degree of the network. "A session
requires h link-wavelengths if it is routed on an h hop path since it uses one wavelength channel on each of the h links."
The upper bound is O((logN)
3
) and is independent of the degree of the network.
Finally, the problem of determining the number of wavelengths needed to implement any routing scheme for any network,
as a function of the congestion and dilation of that network is discussed.The upper and lower bounds together given in
[AGGARWAL96] and [PANKAJ95] for the various kinds of networks suggest that a more heirarchical structure in which
switching nodes are separate from input/output nodes may be more promising for all-optical networks"
Research work has been done in solving the problem of routing connections in a reconfigurable optical network using
WDM [RAMA95]. An upper bound on the carried traffic of connections is derived for any routing and wavelength
assignment(RWA) algorithm in such a network. A fixed-routing algorithm achieves this bound asymptotically. The RWA
problem was formulated as an Integer Linear program (ILP). This bound was found to be good for optical network using
dynamic wavelength convertors. Two routing node architectures were presented. In the first structure it was found that as
the number of edges increased the reuse factor increased. Also the reuse factor with wavelength convertors was higher than
that without one for small values of wavelength systems. Also it is assumed implicitly that in networks without wavelength
convertors , two connections can be assigned the same wavelength as long as they dont share any link in the network.
An important aspect of [RAMA95] was to find the reuse factor for larger networks as a function of the number of nodes,
edges and wavelengths via simulation. Based on the results, it was inferred by the authors that it is possible to build
all-optical networks without wavelength convertors. However, only a modest number of connections per node with a
reasonable number of wavelengths is supported. Using 32 wavelengths it is possible to provide 10 full-duplex connections
to each node in a 128-node random network with average degree 4, and 5 full-duplex connections per node in a 1000-node
random network with average degree 4.
7. WAVELENGTH CONVERSION IN OPTICAL NETWORKS
The networks that we have been discussing about until now can be said to be wavelength-continuity constraint networks. In
such networks, to establish any lightpath, we require that the same wavelength be allocated on all of the links in the path.
Suppose we have the following portion of a network. The wavelengths
1
and
2
that are shown in dotted arrows are the
free wavelengths between nodes 1,nodes 2 and node3 respectively. There are 2 wavelength converters , one in node 2 and
another in node 3. Here it is not possible to establish a lightpath from 1 to 4 without a wavelength converter because the
available wavelengths are different on the link.
Fig.8 Wavelength Conversion

So, we could eliminate this problem by converting data that is arriving on the link from node 1 to node 2 on
1
to
2
on the
link between node 2 and node 3. Such a technique is called wavelength conversion. Functionally, such a network is similar
to a circuit-switched network. For any model of optical routing, we need to make as efficient use of the given optical
bandwidth that we have as possible. Wavelength convertors have been proposed as a solution to this problem. Wavelength
convertors have been defined earlier in this report as those devices that convert an incoming signal's wavelength to a
different outgoing wavelength thereby increasing the reuse factor. Wavelength convertors offer a 10%-40% increase in
reuse values when wavelengths availability is small [RAMA95].
Categories of Wavelength Conversion
No conversion: No wavelength shifting
Full conversion: Any wavelength shifting is possible and so channels can be connected regardless of their wavelengths.
Limited conversion: Wavelength shifting is restricted so that not all combination of channels may be connected.
Fixed conversion: Restricted form of limited conversion that has for each node , each channel maybe connected to exactly
one predetermined channel on all other links.
Sparse Wavelength Conversion: Networks are comprised of a mix of nodes having full and no wavelength conversion.
7.1 Wavelength Conversion related Algorithms
We will be comparing the algorithms propounded by [GERSTEL], [RAMA98], [WILFONG98] , [KLEINBURG99]. It is
obvious that we will always need as many wavelengths as the maximum number of paths sharing a single edge. Also, if we
were to use a convertor at every node of a directed graph G the minimum number of wavelengths required in a valid
assignment would be equal to (P).
(P) is the natural congestion bound or the maximum number of paths/valid wavelength assignments passing through any
single edge. In the absence of convertors we might have the minimum number of valid wavelength assignments to be
greater than (P). This led Wilfong and Winkler [WILFONG98] to define a subset S of the nodes of the graph G any set P
of paths has a valid assignment with only (P) wavelengths. It is an NP-complete problem to find a sufficient set of
minimum size for a given graph G. Amit Kumar and Jon Kleinburg in [KLEINBURG99] provide a polynomial-time
algorithm to find a sufficient set for an arbitrarily directed network whose size is within a factor of 2 of minimum.
In the paper by R. Ramaswami and G.Sasaki [RAMA98] the approach used is of a restriction on the number of wavelength
conversion at a node. This is contrary to the other papers where we have no restrictions whatsoever on the wavelengths of
the channels it can connect but a restriction on the number of wavelength convertors. The authors propose ring and star
networks with limited wavelength conversion to support sets of lightpaths efficiently. The amount of wavelength shifting
required is very minimal in these networks. Other models considered were the tree and mesh networks.
8. MARKET SCOPE AND COMPANY PROFILE
Much work is being done in developing optical add/drop multiplexors (OADM) and optical cross-connect switches(OXCS).
Metropolitan area networks will be the ones that use these OADMs. However, a lot of work remains to be done for large
scale adoption in the industry.
As of today, most networks consist of the physical layer, the SONET layer, ATM layer and the IP layer on top of that. With
carriers adding DWDM capabilities to their fiber networks to handle higher volumes of data traffic, SONET technology is
fast becoming obsolete. For example, Williams is already rolling out ATM over fiber with its FLEX-UNI
SM
technology. By
using non-zero Dispersion Shifted fiber it has OC-192 capacity. Imagine being able to download the whole of "Titanic"
movie in less than a second. Using DWDM it is now possible to provide OC-48 channels connected directly to ATM and IP
network equipment without extra cost of SONET multiplexors. With the advent of DWDM that is due to R&D labs,
providers will now not need to have the expense of laying new fiber to handle bigger load. Companies like WorldCom and
its subsidiary Uunet Technologies already have WDM in their networks to multiply capacity. Providers like Qwest Comm.,
IXC Communications and Level 3 Communications have started using advanced DWDM systems in their fiber laying stage
itself.
A lot of companies now have products ranging from fibers to amplifiers to intelligent Optical switches,routers e.g.
Lucent(WaveStar, LazrSPEED fiber, OptiStar), Ciena(MultiWave Core Director), Monterey Networks(bought by
cisco), Alcatel, Nortel Networks, Sycamore Networks, Adva Optical Networking , Williams Network (FLEX-UNI
SM
) etc
8.1 Ciena Corporation (http://www.ciena.com)
Ciena is one of the leading optical networking systems manufacturer in the market today. It has developed a series of
products. They have a vision of the so-called "LightWorks" which is a complete, Intelligent Optical Network architecture.
CIENA's LightWorks architecture now offers bandwidth and intelligence in three areas of the telecommunications
infrastructure:
Optical transport systems:
MultiWave CoreStream: Capable of handling a capacity of upto 2 Tbps it was designed for global long haul
carriers who require scalable capacity, design flexibility and high reliability.
http://www.ciena.com/products/corestream/index.html
I
MultiWave Metro: Allows upto 24 duplex channels over a single fiber pair, enabling the fiber to carry up to 60
Gbps. Its main use is in metropolitan ring applications. Metro can simultaneously support point-to-point, Star,
Ring, or Mesh configurations. Its architecture allows easy interfacing with SONET/SDH, ATM, and Fast IP
equipment and most embedded network management system
I
http://www.ciena.com/products/metro/index.html
MultiWave Sentry: Allows throughput of up to 40 Gb/s. This system enables carriers to mix SONET/SDH,
ATM, Fast IP, and asynchronous traffic on a common optical network.. This enables the construction of ATM
and Fast IP networks without an intervening synchronous layer.
I
http://www.ciena.com/products/1600-sentry/index.html
Intelligent core switching: MultiWave CoreDirector™:It facilitates scalable, ultra-high density,
high-capacity switching(640Gbps). An advanced set of protection and restoration capabilities allows carriers to
build mesh, ring or hybrid mesh-ring optical cores without legacy SONET equipment. This product was
acquired by Ciena with the purchase of Lightera.
I
http://www.ciena.com/products/coredirector/index.html
Harnessing core fiber capacity and delivery: MultiWave EdgeDirector™ 500: This product provides an
overall solution by allowing the network providers "to offer legacy voice and new high-speed data services
across an end-to-end intelligent optical network." CIENA acquired the MultiWave EdgeDirector 500 with the
purchase of Omnia Communications on July 1, 1999.
I
http://www.ciena.com/products/edgedirector/index.html
Considering the fact that a broadband networking system will require high capacity intelligent optical switching and
transport systems besides good access systems, ciena seems to be a step ahead in the race to dominate the optical networks
market.
8.2 Lucent Corporation (http://www.lucent.com)
Lucent technologies, especially its R&D division Bell Labs are setting new upper limits in the development of serial
transmission systems. Bell Labs has more than 2000 patents in the optical technology field. Lucent was the first to market
an 80-channel DWDM system at 400 Gigabits per second over a single fiber. Following are some of the news reports that
show the pace at which Lucent has been developing new DWDM systems.
Nov 10. 1999: Scientists at Bell Labs have developed a practical 160-gigabit DWDM system that is able to transmit
information at the rate of 160 gigabits/second over 300 km of optical fiber using a single wavelength of light. This
single-channel transmission was done over Lucent's TrueWaveRS
TM
fiber. It has been developed specifically for
high-capacity DWDM systems.
H
Oct 11 1999: Bell Labs achieved 10-gigabit serial transmission over 1.6 km of Lucent's new LazrSPEED multimode
fiber. The error rate was less than one in one trillion.
H
Oct 6 1999: Lucent Technologies announces the breakthrough adapter cards and software that will deliver IP over
Optics all the way to the server. The product OptiStar includes breakthrough network and storage adapter cards and
H
software that will dramatically increase the amount of data that servers can handle and accelerate the flow of
information from a servers hard drive to the end user. OptiStarseries will replace the 45 MBps WAN connectivity
with upto 2.5 GBps fiber link.
Sept 22 1999 : Lucent announces the addition of the following three new products to the existing WaveStar series: H
WaveStar MetroPoint OLS: Point-to-point optical networking system that transmits upto 40 GBps while saving
costs upto 60% in costs.
1.
WaveStar AllSpectra OLS: An optical enterprise system that transmits information using lasers that are 50 %
cheaper.
2.
WaveStar OpticGate series: Network cards that enable data vendors to integrate Lucents high speed optics with
their IP routers and ATM switches.
3.
8.3 Sycamore Networks (http://www.sycamorenet.com) Sycamore Networks, a Massachusets based 1998 startup is the
trailblazer of 1999 in terms of optical networking products. They have the market leading products in intelligent optical
networking which integrate the intelligence of SONET/SDH and the capacity of DWDM with state-of-the-art optical
networking software to deliver the most flexible and cost-effective solution to public network scaling and service delivery
issues. Their products include:
SN 6000 Intelligent Optical Transport Node: This product allows the use of the so-called "just-in-time"
OC-48/STM-16 wave services optimized for private line, high-speed data applications. It provides wavelength
conversion and optical multiplexing of the OC-48/STM-16 signals, which are then merged with the
OC-192/STM-64 signals for transport over embedded SONET/SDH transport infrastructures. This reduces a lot
of expense on SONET/SDH upgrades.
1.
SN 8000 Intelligent Optical Network Node: This product supports end-to-end provisioning and management
of high-speed services across all segments of the optical network. It claims a reach of 1600km without
regeneration and is looking to be the preferred network node choice for optical networks. Its strongpoint is the
use of the following concepts.
2.
"Optical handoff" i.e. the transport of optical signals in the optical domain across the backbone
and the backbone-access interface (hence there are no O-E-O conversions) and
I
"Wave sharing" i.e. an innovative method of combining multiple OC-12/STM-4 and
OC-3/STM-1 services into one aggregate OC-48/STM-16 signal.
I
3. SILVX Optical Network Management System (ONMS): It forms the core of Sycamore's software-centric
optical architecture. It delivers a scalable management platform to ensure that Sycamore's entire range of
Intelligent Optical Networking products can be efficiently introduced into the network.
Sycamore already has a commitment from Williams Communications to use its intelligent optical transport and switching
products to provide new long haul services.
8.4 Ericsson (ERION
TM
)(http://www.ericsson.com/US/erion/index.shtml)
Ericssons ERION group is also in the forefront of todays optical networking and DWDM research. The ERION product
family's most publicised product is the ERION Networker, the world's first optically protected metro ring. It makes use of
the patented FlexingBus Technology on top of the Networker DWDM product to provide a ring of circumference 500
kilometres. This distance has stretched the boundaries of the traditional metro environment to what they call a Wide Area
Metro (WAM). This implies that a host of small metropolitan cities come with ambit of this ring. This self-healing optical
ring also facilitates the use of ATM over DWDM, IP over DWDM. ERION Networker has been optimized to meet the
needs of the emerging metro and WAM markets with an open architecture, manageability and the most scalable DWDM
platform. Other products include the GUI software Ericsson Local Manager that mimicks the real life DWDM Network
Elements and the Integrated Management Application, an element manager for ERION's DWDM product.
SUMMARY
In this paper we have discussed various concepts that are integral to the development of the All-Optical Network. Various
new technologies available in a DWDM system were introduced. A proposed optical layer was described in much detail.
Issues such as Network Control and Network Management was also discussed. Finally the state of the market for optical
networking, company profiles and research scope in optical networking and DWDM were discussed.
It is very much possible that a day will come when only two optical layers will exist: WDM layer and IP layer. However,
SONET equipment has two features: restoration and trouble-shooting capabilities. For this reason and also for the reason
that a lot of investment into SONET has already taken place, SONET will survive. As routers become faster, it will be
difficult to convert every wavelength to add or drop off bandwidth. Thus, managing 100+ wavelength systems is probably
the next big challenge. Companies like Alcatel have developed OADMs. Standard bodies like ITU-T, ANSI have declared
that optical standards will come into picture only after 2000.
Research work is also being done to try and achieve the difficult goal of a high-speed all-optical network. New concepts
such as All-optical switching are coming up. 1 Tbps systems are expected in the market by early 2002/2003. Network
providers will start leasing out wavelengths (or "lambdas") instead of leasing lines. Cost will be an important issue in
widespread deployment of optical systems. A lot of implementation issues, the setting up of standards need to be addressed
for an all-optical network to come out at a reasonable cost. How long or for that matter whether we will ever achieve an
all-optical network is a moot question.
REFERENCES
Articles:
[GERWIG98] Optical Networks: A Ray of Light, Kate Gerwig,editor: CMP Media Incs InternetWeek Ma, 4 pages,
http://www.acm.org/pubs/citations/journals/networker/1998-2-4/p17-gerwig
[EDN98] Optical networking lightens carrier-backbone burden, EDN Access Magazine, October 8 1998
[INTTEL99] DWDM Rising,Telephony Magazine, April 19 1999,
http://www.internettelephony.com/archive/4.19.99/Cover/cover.htm )
[SAMIR99] Enlightening the effects and implications of nearly infinite bandwidth: Samir Chatterjee and Suzanne
Pawlowski Comm. Of ACM June 1999
[CHATT97] Requirements for success in gigabit Networking: S. Chatterjee, ACM July 1997
[GREEN96] Optical Networking Update: P.E.Green (IEEE Journal on Selected Areas, June 1996
[WILLN97] Mining the Optical Bandwidth for a terabit per second: A.E.Willner, IEEE Spectrum, April 1997
[ALCATEL99] Optical Networks: Alcatel ,August 1999, 29 pages,(http://www.webproforum.com/wpf_all.html)
[LUCENT99] Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing Tutorial : Lucent Technologies, October 1999, 15 pages
(http://www.webproforum.com/dwdm/index.html)
[RYAN98] WDM: North American deployment trends: J.P. Ryan, IEEE Comm. , Feb '98
[AGAM98] Benefits of WDM and ATM: Oded Agam Director of Technical Services, Radcom Inc., Telecom Business
magazine December 1998 (http://www.protocols.com/papers/wdm.htm)
[Hudg96] WDM All-Optical Networks. Project Report: Janice Hudgings & Jocelyn Nee, Fall 1996
(http://www-bsac.eecs.berkeley.edu/~jnee/ee228a)
[YANG98] Amplifiers at 1590nm double the DWDM bandwidth: Dan Yang, AFC Technologies, Sept 1998
(http://www.broadband-guide.com/lw/reports/report09985.html)
Papers, Internet Drafts, RFCs:
[RAMA95] R.Ramaswami and Kumar N. Sivarajan Routing and Wavelength Assignment in All-Optical Networks,
IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking,vol.3., no.5,pp. 489-500, October 1995
[PANKAJ95] Rajesh K. Pankaj, Robert E. Gallagher Wavelength Requirements of All-Optical Networks: IEEE/ ACM
Transactions on Networking, Vol.3, no.3, pp. 269-279, June 1995
[GERSTEL] O. Gerstel, Rajiv Ramaswami, G. Sasaki Benefits of Limited Wavelength Conversion in WDM ring networks,
Proc. OFC, 1997
[CARRERA98] E.V.Carrera and Ricardo Bianchini OPTNET: A Cost Effective Optical Network for Multiprocessors,
ACM,8pages, 1999
[SUBRAM96] S. Subramaniam, M. Azizoglu, A.K. Somani All-Optical Networks with Sparse Wavelength Conversion,
IEEE/ACM Transactions,Vol.4, no.4, pp.544-557, Jan 1999
[AGGARWAL96]Alok Aggarwal, Amotz Bar-noy, And Don Coppersmith, R. Ramaswami, B. Schieber, Madhu Sudan
Efficient Routing in Optical Networks, Journal of ACM ,43(6):973-1001, November 1996
http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~jacm/Abstracts/aggarwalbcrss96.ltx
[GERSTEL96] O.Gerstel, P.E. Green, R. Ramaswami Architecture for an Optical Network Layer,Feb 1996
[PANKAJ92] Rakesh Pankaj(MIT '92) Architectures for Linear Lightwave Networks, Ph.D Dissertation
[RAMA98] R. Ramaswami, G. Sasaki, Multiwavelength Optical Networks with Limited Wavelength Conversion,
IEEE/ACM Transactions, Vol.6, no.6, pp. 744-754, Dec 1998
[WILFONG98] G.Wilfong, P. Winkler ,Ring routing and Wavelength translations, ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete
Algorithms ,pp.333-341, 1998
[KLEINBURG99] Jon Kleinburg and Amit Kumar ,Wavelength Conversion in Optical Networks,ACM-SIAM on discrete
algorithms, 1999
[RAMAMURTHY98] B. Ramamurthy and B. Mukherjee ,Wavelength Conversion in WDM networking,IEEE Selected
Areas in Communications Sept 1998
[AWDUCHE99] Daniel O. Awduche[UUNET(MCI World Com)], Yakov Rekhter [Cisco Systems], John Drake [Fore
Systems(Marconi)], Rob Coltun [Siara Systems], Combining MPLS Traffic Engineering Control With Optical
Crossconnects: , October 1999: Work in progress
[MARSAN99] Marco Ajmone Marsan, Andrea Bianco, Alessandro Morabito, and Fabio Neri. Politecnico di Torino
All-Optical WDM Multi-Rings with Differentiated QoS,IEEE Communications, Feb 1999
[SAHASRABUDDHE99] Laxman H. Sahasrabuddhe and Biswanath Mukherjee ,Light-Trees- Optical Multicasting for
improved Performance in Wavelength-Routed Networks, IEEE Communications, Feb 1999
[SENIOR98] John M. Senior, Michael R.Handley, Mark S. Leeson , Developments in Wavelength Division Multiple Access
Networking,IEEE Communications, Dec 1998
Books:
[MUKHERJEE97]Biswanath Mukherjee, "Optical Communication Networks", McGraw Hill, July 1997, 575 pages,
http://networks.cs.ucdavis.edu/users/mukherje/book/toc.html.
[GREEN93] P.E.Green, "Fiber-Optic Networks", Prentice-Hall 1993
[GERARD98] Gerard Lachs, "Fiber-Optic Communications, McGraw-Hill Telecommunications 1998
[KEISER93]Gerd Keiser,Optical fiber Communications, McGraw-Hill 1983
LIST OF ACRONYMS
ADM -Add/Drop Multiplexor
ANSI -American National Standards Institute
ATM -Asynchronous Transfer Mode
DBFA -Erbium Fiber-based Dual-band Fiber Amplifier
DWDM -Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing
EBFA -Extended Band Fiber Amplifier
ERION -Ericsson Intelligent Optical Network
IP -Internet Protocol
ITU -International Telecommunications Union
MMR -Modified MultiMeta Ring
MPLS -Multiprotocol Label Switching
MWRS -Multicast-capable Wavelength-Routing Switch
OA -Optical Amplifier
OADM -Optical Add/Drop Multiplexor
OASn -Optical Amplifier Section layer
OCh -Optical Channel layer
O-E-O -Optical to Electronic to Optical
OMSn-Optical Multiplex Section layer
OXC -Optical CrossConnects
QKD -Quantum Key Distribution
UWOA-Ultra-Wideband Optical Amplifier
RWA -Routing and Wavelength Assignment
SDH -Synchronous Digital Hierarchy
SONET -Synchronous Optical Network
SR
3
-Synchronous Round Robin with Reservation
SRR -Synchronous Round Robin
TDM -Time Division Multiplexing
WAM -Wide Area Metro
WDM -Wavelength Division Multiplexing
Last Modified: November 24, 1999
Note: This paper is available online at http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~jain/cis788-99/op_dwdm/index.html

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Fig.1 Block Diagram of a DWDM System

Fig.2 Ring Topology Connecting Nodes A & B

Optical Networking And Dense Wavelength Division

Fig.6 The virtual topology of the WDM network of previous figure

Fig.8 Wavelength Conversion

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