Month: April 2019

WDM Technology Will Be Broadly Used in the Coming 5G

 

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An Overview of WDM

WDM stands for Wavelength Division Multiplexing. WDM is the most important and most popular method to increase the capacity of a single strand of fiber.  

Traditionally, only one colored light was used on a single strand of fiber to carry the information, such as 1550nm light. However, starting from the early 1990s, the Internet boom pushed service providers to find a method to increase the capacity on their network in the most economical way. That is when WDM devices were invented.

In a WDM system, many different colored lights are combined by a WDM multiplexing device and put into a single strand of fiber, each color is called a channel.

On the receiver side, each color is separated into its own channel by a WDM de-multiplexing device. It shows that a single fiber’s capacity is increased by 40 times with a 40 channel WDM. The beauty of WDM is that you only need to upgrade the end equipment, no need to dig up trenches to bury more fibers, which is much more costly.   
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Communication systems are designed differently, and the width of the gap between each wavelength varies. Depending on channel spacing, WDM can be subdivided into CWDM and DWDM.

CWDM and DWDM

CWDM supports up to 18 wavelength channels transmitted through a fiber at the same time. To achieve this, the different wavelengths of each channel are 20nm apart.

DWDM, supports up to 80 simultaneous wavelength channels, with each of the channels only 0.8nm apart. 

CWDM technology offers a convenient and cost-efficient solution for shorter distances of up to 70 kilometers.

For distances between 40 and 70 kilometers, CWDM tends to be limited to supporting eight channels. Unlike CWDM, DWDM connections can be amplified and can, therefore, be used for transmitting data much longer distances.

 

  • Wavelengths Used in WDM

 

DWDM is typically limited to 1450 to 1650nm

CWDM may operate over the full range of 1280 to 1650nm

 

  • Laser Source Spacing

 

DWDM uses lasers at ~0.8nm spacing

CWDM uses lasers at a 20nm spacing  

Advantages of WDM Technology

  1. Large transmission capacity can save valuable optical fiber resources. For single-wavelength optical fiber systems, a pair of optical fibers are needed to transmit and receive a signal, while for WDM systems, no matter how many signals there are, the entire multiplexing system only needs a pair of optical fibers. For example, for 16 2.5gb /s systems, the single-wavelength optical fiber system needs 32 optical fibers, while the WDM system only needs 2 optical fibers.
  2. It can transmit different types of signals such as digital signals, analog signals, etc., and can synthesize and decompose them.
  3. When the network capacity is expanded, there is no need to deploy more optical fiber, nor need to use high-speed network components, only need to change the end machine and add an additional wavelength of light to introduce any new service or expansion capacity, so WDM technology is an ideal means of capacity expansion.
  4. The dynamic reconfigurable optical network can be constructed, and the all-optical network with high flexibility, high reliability, and high survivability can be formed by using optical division multiplexer (OADM) or optical cross-connection device (OXC) at the network nodes.

WDM Technology Is Expected to Optimize Cost for 5G Development

The 5G wireless infrastructure necessitates wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology to optimize fiber usage. Fixed and reconfigurable multiplexing are two approaches that provide tradeoffs in terms of network scalability, reliability, and cost. Optical networks closest to the antenna are the most cost sensitive and can benefit from fixed WDM solutions. Gigalight’s broad portfolio of WDM modules is available in various configurations including coarse-WDM (CWDM), dense-WDM (DWDM) modules and other WDM solutions.  

 

Wavelength-tunable Optical Transceivers

What Is Wavelength-tunable Optical Transceiver?

Tunable optical transceivers are similar in operation and appearance to fixed transceivers, however, they have the added capability of allowing you to set the channel (or color) of the emitting laser. This reduces the need to have multiple devices that each operates at fixed wavelengths installed within a network. Instead, you have one transceiver that can be tuned according to the requirements of the operator.

Tunable transceivers are only available in DWDM form, because of the format of the dense wavelength grid. Typical tunable optics are designed for the C-Band 50GHz. They support approximately 88 channels which are set with a 0.4nm interval. They usually start from channel 16 and go up to 61, but this is dependent on the manufacturer of the router or switch and which channels it supports.

Tunable optical transceivers for DWDM systems have been widely available within the telecommunications industry for many years.

There are two main types of tunable transceivers such as XFP and SFP+. 
XFP Tunable

Tunable XFP transceivers are designed with an integrated full C-Band tunable transmitter and high-performance receiver. This means that wavelengths can be set as default in the 50GHz DWDM grid. With single mode fiber, XFP tunable transceivers can operate at distances up to 80km.

Depending on the manufacturer, the names for these products can vary even though they have the same operational features.

These optics can be tuned in different ways. Most devices make it possible to tune over the CLI (Command Line Interface), but not every switch or router is capable of this.

SFP+ Tunable

Tunable SFP+ transceivers are full duplex, serial optical devices. The transmit and receive functions are contained within a single module which provides a high-speed serial link at 9.95 to 11.3Gbps signaling rates.

Again, these products can operate at distances of up to 80km with single mode fiber.

What Are the Benefits of Tunable Transceivers?

As technology has progressed, tunable transceivers have improved drastically. They are now very popular within DWDM transmission systems because of their capabilities and ease of use.

The key benefits are:

Wide tuning range

Suitable for 100G systems because of reduced line-width

The convenience of wavelength adjustment depending on transmitting needs

Reprogramming takes seconds

Saves money in the long term

Conclusion

Tunable optical transceivers are able to operate at various wavelengths and adjust their wavelength according to each users’ needs. They are very popular in DWDM systems due to cost-saving factors and flexibility of use.

At Carritech, we stock and support a full range of optical transceiver products. To view our stock, learn more about our products or inquire about purchasing visit our optical transceiver page.

Gigalight can provide 10G tunable SFP+ and 10G tunable XFP optical transceivers. The 10G tunable SFP+ is with low power consumption, lower than 1.7W. The wavelength of this module is stable and the transmit optical power is about 0dBm. The extinction ratio is greater than 10dBm; the side die suppression ratio is greater than 51dB, the eye-diagram crossing point is between 47% and 52 %, and the sensitivity of this module can reach above -24dBm. It supports distance up to 80km. And the 10G tunable XFP can be piled into two versions to support FEC coding function (OTN G.709 framing) and non-FEC coding function. The power consumption of the former is less than 4.5W, and the advantage of the FEC coding function is to improve the sensitivity of transmission; while the power consumption of the latter without FEC function is less than 3.5W. The two versions are available to meet maximum distance of 80km as well as to be compatible with the switches and core routers of Cisco, Juniper, and other major equipment suppliers.

 

The Development of 5G in Southeast Asian Countries at Glance

Although 5G isn’t yet widely available, it’s coming!

This article will analyze the evolutionary situations of 5G in Southeast Asian Countries.

Indonesia

Anyone who attended the Asian Games in 2018 could have tried out 5G in Jakarta, Indonesia. A special Telkomsel SIM card was needed in order to connect to the network.

It’s unclear whether Indonesia will see commercial 5G begin to roll out in 2019 or 2020, or later, but a trial of this size was a great indicator that they’re on a track of some sort.

Thailand

Advanced Info Service (AIS), the country’s largest mobile phone operator, is testing 5G in Thailand but hasn’t indicated when they plan to go live with a commercial 5G network.

Singapore

StarHub announced in November 2018, that they, in partnership with Nokia, completed their first outdoor pilot of 5G on the 3.5 GHz frequency band. However, there’s no information on when StarHub will have a 5G network ready for Singaporean customers.

Philippines

The wireless communications company Smart has been testing 5G since 2016 and announced in June of 2018 the launch of 5G TehnoLab, their 5G innovation lab. Smart plans to have a 5G-ready network live for customers by 2020.

In November 2018, Smart rolled out their first 5G cell sites in the Philippines. They were erected in Makati Central Business District (Makati CBD) and at the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga.

In Smart’s 5G testing, they’ve managed to achieve speeds of over 14 Gb/s, and have completed a 5G-enabled video call.

Globe Telecom is another company on track to deploy 5G in the Philippines in the second quarter of 2019.

Malaysia

5G in Malaysia will likely start to be available in specific areas in 2020.

According to the MCMC (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission), which established a “national 5G Task Force” in 2018, a complete study and report on a 5G deployment in Malaysia will be available by September 2019.

The transmission on 5G creates high requirements for temperature environment, product reliability, capacity. Gigalight enables to meet 5G fronthaul carrying out the industrial upgrade for products in the past year.

Gigalight 10G industrial optical modules successfully win the 5G fronthaul market for Source Korean. Currently, Gigalight 10G industrial optical modules

are available such as 10G CWDM SFP, 10G DWDM SFP and so on.

South Korea Started Its Path to 5G

South Korea has been seeking to become the world’s first country to provide commercial service for the 5G network.

There are three companies that agreed to bring 5G to South Korea: SK Telecom (SKT), KT, and LG Uplus.

Three Companies Offer 5G in South Korea

SKT(SK Telecom)

SKT 5G access is available for a manufacturing business in Ansan called Myunghwa Industry. The company also schedules to provide 5G to enterprise customers in Daejeon, Incheon, Daegu, Ulsan, Busan, and Gwangju.

In 2017, with an outdoor 5G trial in Seoul, and shortly after built out 5G technology in their autonomous driving city called K-City.

In 2018, their 5G test network enabled two cars to communicate with each other.

And in early 2019, they made their first live 5G TV broadcast. This 5G rollout will mark the end of their 2G services.

SKT is also part of a 5G smart factory alliance with over a dozen other companies. Announced in late 2018, the alliance was formed for two reasons: to investigate how 5G can improve factory performance and to support the government’s plan to build tens of thousands of smart factories by 2022.

KT Corporation

KT Corporation launched its 5G network at Lotte World Tower in Seoul, plus several other areas including Ulleungdo, Jeju, and Dokdo. They aim to provide 5G coverage for over 80 cities before 2020 and will offer commercial 5G services in March 2019, with business sectors being the first to see 5G’s benefits (smart factories, smart traffic networks, etc.).

Before their 5G rollout, KT and Intel showcased 5G at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games. They’ve committed to a $20 billion investment through 2023 to research how to best utilize 5G.

LG Uplus

South Korean 5G provider LG Uplus is live with its 5G network in Seoul and some other nearby locations, and is on their way to wider coverage, having erected over 7,000 5G base stations in 2018. LG Uplus plans to provide 5G infrastructure in major cities before 2020. Their first 5G customer was LS Mtron.

When Is 5G Coming to South Korea?

SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus began their 5G services in South Korea that was two days earlier than previously announced the launch date would be April 5, when sales of Samsung’s 5G-enabled Galaxy S10 smartphone began.

Although 5G launched in South Korea, it’s not available everywhere just yet.

SK Telecom’s 5G network already covers 85 cities and communities, with 34,000 base stations installed across the nation.

The South Korean government’s Ministry of Science and ICT predicts that by 2020, 30 percent of the country’s mobile users will have access to a 5G network, with 90 percent coverage by 2026.

Conclusion

South Korea is one of the top consumers of the optical fiber. When it comes to the current South Korean 5G market, there are potential demands to 5G optical modules. 5G base stations will augment the global roll-out of FTTH networks over the coming years. There will be a need for high capacity fiber links to connect. Of course, the optical modules for 5G base stations were used to connect will be rapidly increasing. Gigalight 10G/25G industrial optical modules are enabling the highest bandwidth, highest density, lowest power, and lowest total cost interconnect solutions on the market today. We are ready to partner with you to push 5G. Let’s build the future of 5G  together.

Forecast that by 2020, most countries will have access to 5G networks.

5G is an attractive topic all the time. The speed of 5G is the significant advantage it has over 4G, which is what will allow 5G networks to change the way we live our everyday lives. With 5G, you will see the world as you’ve never seen it before.

Optical Modules for 5G Fronthaul

With the development of the optical communication industry and the improvement of the technology, the demand for bandwidth is increasing, the communication equipment manufacturers and operators will increase their investment in the optical communication network and equipment, thus driving the development of the optical module industry.

The global optical module market keeps a steady growth. According to Ovum’s market share report, the communications market share is expected to grow in 2021. The global market for optical communications reached the US $10.1 billion in 2017 and has been growing rapidly. The market is expected to reach the US $16.6 billion by 2020, with a projected compound growth rate of 18 percent over the next three years.

The development of optical communication technology cannot be separated from the milestone breakthrough of optoelectronic device technology.

In the 1970s, the emergence of the semiconductor laser and low loss optical fiber unlock the doors of optical fiber communication.

In the 1980s, DFB laser technology.

In the 1990s, Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) technology.

In the 2000s, the DWDM technology.

In the 2010s, coherent communication technologies are driving the optical communication system at a rate of 1,000 times per decade in terms of transmission capacity.

How will the optical module industry develop in the future? What are the trends?

In the next three years, the development of optical module technology industry will show the high speed, integration, large bandwidth, small size, and low power consumption.

How will the optical module industry develop in the future?
High Rate

In different application areas, optical modules will be considered both performance and cost of ways to enhance the rate and capacity.

In the Transport Network

At present, 100G DP-QPSK technology has been mature and become the mainstream of transmission network, and the new technology and application not only focus on trunk lines but also gradually sink and extend to Metropolitan Area Network. Metropolitan area networks and data centers will be the fastest growing segment of the market over the next few years.

Above 100G, the 400G and 1T technology has developed steadily. The coding series and the bit rate have been improved further, the modulation code type has been diversified such as the original DP-QPSK, DP-8QAM and DP-16QAM, DP-32QAM and also have DP-64QAM.

At present, the coexistence of multiple codes has not changed, there is no absolute advantage of transmission code.

In the Data Communication

With the explosive growth of bandwidth traffic, the speed of Ethernet interface has far exceeded the speed of physical bandwidth of optoelectronic devices PSM (Space Division Multiplexing), wavelength-division multiplexing (CWDM, LAN-WDM, 4WDM), and high-order modulation PAM4 are becoming the trend.

At present, the 100G optical module mainly adopts QSFP28 package. 400G optical transceiver package is the difficulty. The 100G optical module mainly focuses on OSFP and QSFP-DD two multi-source protocols.

In the Fiber Optic Access Networks 

The technology can be divided into GPON and EPON in the passive optical network field. With the increasing popularity of FTTX and the rise of high bandwidth applications such as 4K/8k video, VR/AR, users’demand for access bandwidth is increasing.

In the Barrier Networks for 4G/5G 

Unlike previous 3G and 4G mobile communications, 5G mobile communications technology is not only an upgrade but also a driving platform for the future digital world and the infrastructure for the development of the Internet of things, which will truly create a new fully connected world. In order to adapt to the large bandwidth, low delay, and mass connection services, new requirements are put forward in the aspects of bandwidth, capacity, delay and network flexibility of 5G bearer network. 5G bearer network architecture is divided into fronthaul, middle-haul and backhaul.

In the 5G transmission network, the line side bandwidth of the core layer and convergence layer is between 100G and 600G. The client interface for 5G access layer equipment needs 10G/25G, and the network interface bandwidth is larger than 25G. In the 5G middle-haul network, the transmission bandwidth is close to the requirement of the backhaul network. In the 5G fronthaul network, the bandwidth is less than 25G with the PRI interface.

Integration

In order to meet the market demand for low power consumption, low cost, high density, and high reliability, the academia, and industry have paid more attention to photonic integration, optoelectronic integration, and silicon-based photonic integration technology. The manufacturing cost of packaging and coupling can be reduced through integration, the suppliers of optoelectronic devices and modules, and the users of operators can reduce the operating cost of equipment power consumption, computer room occupied area, and system opening.

High Bandwidth

The industrialization of ultra-low loss and large effective area optical fiber, the academic research of multi-core and fiber-optic communication technology are all hot spots in recent years. The optical amplifiers, optical connectors, and optical backplanes are also being optimized around the optimization of fiber transmission performance in the field of optoelectronic devices.

Small Size

The smaller size of optical device and module is helpful to reduce the size of the whole machine, increase the bandwidth density of the panel, reduce the area of the machine room and save the operation and maintenance cost. The same rate package becomes smaller, or the same package rate increases. At present, the 100G coherent optical module on the line side has evolved from the original 5″x 7″ fixed installation mode to 4″x 5″, further to CFP-DCO, CFP2-ACO packaging, and lower power consumption. The 400G coherent optical module may be packaged as CFP8-ACO, CFP2-DCO, OSFP or QSFP-DD. The QSFP-DD is the most compact. With the rapid development of the data communication industry chain, the client side packaging will be unified with the digital communication module, such as QSFP28 or 400G OSFP, QSFP-DD package.

Development Trend of Module 

With the increasing demand for information processing, the data flow carried by the network is increasing. Internet traffic is bound to increase the demand for bandwidth in optical networks.

The 5G era is coming soon, and it is expected that the 5G networks of various operators will enter the peak period of large-scale construction by 2022. Base station antenna is upgraded from 2 * 2 Mimo to 4 * 4 Mimo, which promotes the upgrade of base station optical module from 6G/10G to 10G/25G/50G. According to Lightcounting, the wireless forward market has grown since 2017, and demand for 25G optical transceiver modules has risen rapidly, reaching a $710 million market segment by 2022, with 10G and 25G  being the dominant rates. Gigalight 10G/25G optical modules for 5G fronthaul are available. Especially, Gigalight 25G optical modules adopt self-developed mini-TO and process optimization to reduce cost.

Conclusion

Overall, the global market for optical modules is the largest segment of the optoelectronic device market. According to Ovum’ forecast, the market will continue to grow rapidly and is expected to grow to $11 billion by 2022. The application of 25G optical module has gradually replaced the 10G optical module to become the mainstream. However, 10G will be the replaced option before the mature of 25G. The data center, wireless network, access network, and transmission network have formed the demand resultant force for 25G optical transceiver module, which will be the explosive force of the industry.