Optical Time Domain Multiplexing

Multiplexer is communication devices that can combine several channel into single
channel. andDemultiplexing is reconstruct lower data rate signal form multiplexed signal.
There are two type of multiplexing Electrical multiplexing and Optical Multiplexing. Basic
difference between Electrical multiplexing and Optical multiplexing is shown in Figure 1
and figure 2. In figure 1.is represent the electrical Multiplexed system. In this figure Thick
line is represent Optical path and thin line is represent electrical path. In Figure 1.1
multiplexing is done before the Electrical to optical conversion (E/O). anddemultiplexing is
done after Optical to electrical signal. If multiplexer carried n number of channel and each
have B data-rate then multiplexed channel have nB data rate. These high data rate is onto to
single channel. if full rate system is used then bandwidth mismatch is occur at Electrical to
optical conversion, Multiplexer, demultiplxer and Optical to electrical conversion, these
bandwidthmismatchisknownasElectronicsbottleneck.i)limitedspeedofdigitalcircuit,
ii) limited speed of high-power amplifier and modulator used in Electrical-to-optical
converter and in Optical-to-Electrical converter. and iii) limited modulation bandwidth of
modulator. due to this problem maximum bit rate for electrically multiplex system is 10
Gbps.

Figure 1 Schematic of Electrical Time Division Multiplexing

Figure 2 Schematic of Opticall Time Division Multiplexing

In Optically multiplexed system these electronics bottleneck is remove by interchange

the position of the E/O and O/E into baseband channel so multiplexing is done after E/O
conversion and demultiplexing is done before O/E conversion. Note that Control signal is
 require to drive demultiplexer .control signal is either electrical signal or optical signal.
Major difference between electrically multiplexed and optically multiplexed [1]
system is that in electrical system the multiplexing and demultiplexing is done at point,
where the signal has been amplified to large levels in the system. so, The signal-to-noise
ratio is determine by the receiver and noise associated with its. In the Optical system, the
multiplexing and demultiplexing is done on optical signal, thus optical losses are count at
receive side for signal-to-noise ratio. optical losses are small so signal-to-noise ratio is large
compare to electrical multiplexedsystem.

MultiplexingTechniques
Optical fiber provide a large bandwidth.There are three major multiplexing techniques to
share this bandwidth.
 Wavelength Division Multiplexing(WDM)
 Optical Time Division Multiplexing(OTDM)
 Hybrid-multiplexing techniques such as WDM +OTDM

Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM), two or more optical signals having

different wavelengths are combined and simultaneously transmitted in the same direction
over an optical fiber.
Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) is a scheme that combines numerous signals for
transmission on a single communications line or channel. Each communications line or
channel is divided into many time segments, each having very short duration

Wavelength DivisuonMultiplexing
In WDM, two or more optical signals having different wavelengths are combined and
simultaneously transmitted in the same direction over an optical fiber. WDM Technology is a
independent of rate and format, and it can support any combination of interface rates. OC-n,
OC is stand for Optical channel and n for how many channel can be multiplexed. OC-n
provide n x 51.84 Mbps datarate. So, OC–3 is provide 155.52 Mb/s, OC–12 is provide 622.08
Mb/s, OC–48 is provide 2.488 Gb/s, or OC–192 is provide 9.953 Gb/s on the same fiber at
the same time. It is already at an advanced stage of development and WDM networks can be
deployed using commercially available components andsystems.
 Figure 3 WDM Network

Figure 3 shows the implementation of typical WDM link. At the transmitter side
several independently modulated light sources, each emitting signals at different wavelength.
Here a multiplexer is needed to combine these optical outputs into a single fiber. At the
receiver side a demultiplexer is required to separate out these optical signals into channels for
signal processing. At the transmitter side basic design challenge is the multiplexer provide a
low-loss path from each optical source to the multiplexer output. Since the optical signals that
are combined generally do not emit any significant amount of optical power outside of the
designated channel spectral width, inter-channel cross-talk factors are relatively unimportant
at the transmitting end.

Benefit of WDMSystem
 Capacity upgrade :-to upgrade the capacity of existing point to point fiber optics
transmissionlinks.
 Transparency : the lightpath can carry data any transmission format like asynchronous
and synchronous digital data, analog informationetc.
 Wavelength Reuse :- Multiple lightpaths in the network can use the same wavelength
if wavelength is limited , as long as they do not overlap on any otherlink.
 wavelengthrouting.
 WavelengthConversing.

Type of WDMNetwork

There are three Type of WDM:

 Narrowband WDM(NWDM),
 Wideband WDM(WWDM)
 Dense WDM(DWDM).

Generally, NWDM is implemented on two wavelengths: 1533 and 1577 nm. WWDM,
is implemented on combining a 1310 nm wavelength with another wavelength into the
lowloss window of an optical fiber cable between 1528 nm and 1560 nm inwavelength.
DWDM is advance technology of WDM. Dense wavelength division multiplexing
(DWDM) uses 1550 nm wavelength but with denser channel spacing. Channel plans vary, but
 a typical system would use 40 channels at 100 GHz spacing or 80 channels with 50 GHz
spacing.

Disadvantages of the WDM Technology

 Nonlinearity Effect of thefiber:

There are two way of the nonlinearity in optical fiber i) Stimulated Raman
Scattering and ii) Stimulated Brillouin Scattering. Stimulated Raman Scattering due
to interaction in between optical signal and vibration modes of silica molecules. while
StimulatedBrillouinscatteringarisewhenopticalsignalscatterfromacousticwaves.
The resultant scatterd wave propagates principally in the backward direction in single
mode fiber.

 Fourwave Mixing(FWM):

Figure 4. Four-Wave Mixing effect

One of the biggest problem in WDM system is Four-Wave Mixing. As shown

in Figure 4. FWM occurs when two or more wave propagate in the same direction in
the fiber. This signal mixed such way they produce new signal at wavelength which
are used for transmission. so this newly generated wavelength is interfere in
transmission. A signal frequency ω 1 mixes with a signal at frequency ω 2 to produce
two new signal one at frequency 2ω 1 -ω 2 and the other at 2ω 2 -ω 1 .

 self and cross phasemodulation

When there are multiple signals at different wavelengths in the same fibre Kerr
effect caused by one signal can result in phase modulation of the other signal(s)! This
is called “Cross-Phase Modulation” (XPM) because it acts between multiple signals
rather than within a single signal. In contrast to other nonlinear effects XPM effect
involves no power transfer between signals. The result can be asymmetric spectral
broadening and distortion of the pulse shape. It seems obvious that you can't have
XPM without also having SPM. All this of course means added noise.

 Crosstalk

Optical Time Division MultiplexingOTDM

Solution of WDM is OTDM (Optical Time Division Multiplexing) which is introduce

in early 1990s
 Advantage of OTDM:
 Flexiblebandwidth
 Overcomes non-linear effect associated withWDM
 The total capacity of single-channel OTDM network =DWDM
 Less complex end nodeequipment
 Can operate at both:
 1500 nm (like WDM) due toEDFA
 1300 nm
 Offers both broadcast and switched basednetworks

Basic Principle ofOTDM

OTDM is more powerful optical multiplexing techniques it can combine multiple low
bit rate channel in to single high bit rate channel in time basis. each channel can be
multiplexed in to multiplexer for given period of time.
In OTDM, only one wavelength of light is used instead of Different wavelength of
light in WDM.

Figure 5.schematic Diagram of Basic principle of OTDM

 GeneralDescription

Simple OTDM is consist of Three stages i) Transmitter ii) Inline system iii) Receiver.
Transmitter is Consist of Optical source, Modulator, Channel alignment and multiplexer.
Here, Laser or LED are used for optical source, Optical signal can be modulated using
Return to Zero (RZ),Non Return to Zero (NRZ), Manchester. various length of fiber can be
use for the channel alignment or for delay signal, multiplexer is use for combine the various
optical data stream. In line system is consist of optical Amplifier, Add-drop multiplexer and
transmission fiber. Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA) and Erbium dropped fiber
Amplifier (EDFA) is use for optical amplifier to amplify the optical signal in between into
network. while Receiver is consist of Demultiplxer and synchnoronous clock.
synchnoronous clock is use for to extract framing pulse or clock signal. Demultiplexer is
use for to separate out the multiplexed optical signal. The Demultiplxer comprises two
parts: an optical gate and a clock-recovery device. The optical gate is a fast switch with a
switching time that is shorter than the bit period (25 ps for 40Gb/s, 6.25 psfor 160 Gb/s,1.56
ps for 640 Gb/s) of the multiplexed data signal. The clock-recovery device provides the
timing signal for the opticalgate.

Type of OTDM MultiplexingTechniques

There two way to multiplexed OTDM signal.

 Bit Interleaving (bit bybit)
 Packet interleaving (Packet byPacket)

If the data stream can be transmitted in form of bit, so it can be done on bit by bit basis, as
shown in Figure 6.and if the data stream can be transmitted in form of Packet, so it can be
done on packet by packet basis Figure 7.

Figure 6 Function ofBitinterleaved Figure 7 Function of Packet interleaved

Opticalmultiplexer. Opticalmultiplexer.
 In both the bit-interleaved and the packet-interleaved case, framing pulses can be
used. In the packet-interleaved case, framing pulses mark the boundary between packets. In
the bit-interleaved case, if n input data streams are to be multiplexed, a framing pulse is
used every nbits.
If n data streams are to be multiplexed and the bit period of each of these streams is
T. if framing pulses are used, then the inter pulse width is τ = T/(n + 1) because n + 1 pulses
(including the framing pulse) must be transmitted in each bit period. Thus the temporal
width τ of each pulse must satisfy τ p = τ . Note that usually τ p ≤τ, so that there is some guard
time between successive pulses. One purpose of this guard time is to provide for some
tolerance in the multiplexing and demultiplexing operations. Another reason is to prevent
the undesirable interaction between adjacent pulses that we discussedearlier.

BitInterleaving

Multiplexing:-
Bit interleaving operation is illustrated in Figure 8. The periodic pulse train is
generated by a mode-locked laser this pulse stream is split by using splitter, and one copy is
created for each data stream to be multiplexed. The pulse train for the ith data stream, i = 1,
2,...,n, is delayed by iτ.

Figure 8 BitinterleavingOperation Figure 9 Bit interleavingOperation

at single node

These delay can be achieved by passing the pulse train through the different length of
optical fiber. Since the velocity of light in silica fiber is about 2 × 10 m/s, 1 meter of fiber
8

provides a delay of about 5 ns. Thus, the delayed pulse streams are non overlapping in time.
The undelayed pulse stream is used for the framing pulses.
 Each delayed data stream is modulated by RZ,NRZ techniques, here we using NRZ
techniques for modulation. The outputs of the modulator and the framing pulse stream are
combined by using combiner and obtain the bit-interleaved optical TDM stream. The power
level of the framing pulses is chosen higher than that of the data pulses. This will useful in
demultiplexing to spread out the multiplexed OTDM signal.

Demultipelxing:-

Figure 10Demultiplexer to extract one of the multiplexed channels from bit interleaving
OTDM

The demultiplexing operation is illustrated in Figure 10. The multiplexed input is split
into two streams using, a 3 dB coupler. If the jth stream from the multiplexed stream is to be
extracted, one of these streams is delayed by jτ. A thresholding operation is performed on
the delayed stream to extract the framing pulses. The framing pulses were multiplexed with
higher power than the other pulses in order to facilitate this thresholding operation. Note that
because of the induced delay, the extracted framing pulses coincide with the pulses in the
undelayed stream that correspond to the data stream to be demultiplexed. A logical AND
operation between the framing pulse stream and the multiplexed pulse stream is used to
extract the j th stream. The output of the logical AND gate is a pulse if, during a pulse
interval, both inputs have pulses; the output has no pulseotherwise.

PacketInterleaving:
In the case of bit interleaving, modulated data stream has narrow pulses. if the bit
interval T, then T separation is required to separate out two successive bit pulse. so packet
interleaving is required. The packet-interleaving operation is illustrated in Figure 11. In
packet interleaving,e to reduce the interval between successive pulses to τ , corresponding to
the higher-rate multiplexed signal. This can done by passing modulator the output from a
series of compression stages.
 Figure 11. Packet interleaving Operation

If the size of each packet is l bits, then output must goes through k = [log 2 l]
compression stages. In the first compression stage, bits 1, 3, 5, 7,... are delayed by T - τ . In
the second compression stage, the pairs of bits (1, 2), (5, 6), (9, 10),... are delayed by 2(T -
τ). In the third compression stage, the bits (1, 2, 3, 4), (9, 10, 11, 12),... are delayed by 4(T -
τ).

Figure 12. Detailed view of compression stage j

The jth compression stage is shown in Figure 12. Each compression stage consists of a
pair of 3 dB couplers, two semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) used as on-off
switches,andadelayline.Thejth compressionstagehasadelaylineofvalue2 j-1(T-τ).
Demultiplexer

In Demultiplexing, a five AND gates is used to break up the incoming multiplexed

high-speed stream into five parallel streams each with five times the pulse spacing of the
multiplexedstream.

Figure 12.Demultiplexer to extract one of the multiplexed channels from packet

interleavingOTDM

This procedure is identical to what would be used to receive five bit-interleaved data
streams. One input to each AND gate is the incoming data stream, and the other input is a
control pulse stream where the pulses are spaced five times apart. The control pulse streams
to each AND gate are appropriately offset from each other so that they select different
pulses. Thus the first parallel stream would contain bits 1, 6, 11,... of the packet, the second
would contain bits 2, 7, 12,..., and so on. This approach can also be used to demultiplex a
portion of the packet, for example, the packet header, in a photonic packetswitch.