Tag: PLC Splitter

What is Passive Optical Network?

Passive Optical Network (PON) is a form of fiber-optic access network that uses point-to-multipoint fiber to the premises in which unpowered optical splitters are used to enable a single optical fiber to serve multiple premises. A PON system consists of an OLT at the service provider’s central office and a number of ONU units near end users, with an ODN between the OLT and ONU. PON reduces the amount of fiber and central office equipment required compared with point-to-point architectures.

PON Optical Network
Passive Optical Network (PON)

The most obvious advantage of the PON network is the elimination of the outdoor active devices. All the signals processing functions are completed in the switches and the user premises equipment. The upfront investment of this access methods are small, and the most funds investment is postponed until the user really access. Its transmission distance is shorter than the active optical access system. The coverage is also smaller, but it is low cost, no need to set the engine room, and easy to maintain. So this structure can be economically serve for the home users.

PON Development Background

Seen from the entire network structures, due to the larger numbers of laying optical fibers, and widely applications of DWDM technology, the backbone network has been a breakthrough in the development. The same time, due to advances in Ethernet technology, its dominant LAN bandwidth has increased from 10M, 100M to 1G or 10G.. At present, what we are concerned about is the part between the network backbone and local area networks, home users; this is often said that the “last mile”, which a bottleneck is. Must break this bottleneck, may user in the new world of the online world. It is as if in a national highway system, trunk and regional roads have been built in the broad high-grade highway, but leads to the families and businesses of the door was still narrow winding path, the efficiency of the road network cannot play.

DWDM & CWDM Solutions

In today’s world of intensive communication needs and requirements, “fiber optic cabling” has become a very popular phrase.  In the field of telecommunications, data center connectivity and ,video transport, fiber optic cabling is highly desirable for today’s communication needs due to the enormous bandwidth availability, as well as reliability, minimal loss of data packets, low latency and increased security.  Since the physical fiber optic cabling is expensive to implement for each individual service, using a Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) for expanding the capacity of the fiber to carry multiple client interfaces is a highly advisable.  WDM is a technology that combines several streams of data/storage/video or voice protocols on the same physical fiber-optic cable by using several wavelengths (frequencies) of light with each frequency carrying a different type of data. With the use of optical amplifiers and the development of the  OTN  (Optical Transport Network) layer equipped with FEC (Forward Error Corection), the distance of the fiber optical communication can reach thousands of Kilometers without the need for regeneration sites.

 

DWDM vs. CWDM

DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) is a technology allowing high throughput capacity over longer distances commonly ranging between 44-88 channels/wavelengths and transferring data rates from 100Mbps up to 100Gbps per wavelength. Each wavelength can transparently carry wide range of services such as FE/1/10/40/100GBE, OTU2/OTU3/OTU4, 1/2/4/8/10/16GB FC,STM1/4/16/64, OC3/OC12/OC48/OC-192, HD/SD-SDI and CPRI.  The channel spacing of the DWDM solution is defined by the ITU.xxx (ask Omri) standard and can range from 25Ghz, 50GHz and 100GHz which is the most widely used today. Figure – 1 shows a DWDM spectral view of 88ch with 50GHz spacing.

50GHz spacing 88 DWDM channels/wavelengths

Figure -1: Spectral view of 50GHz spacing 88 DWDM channels/wavelengths

DWDM systems can provide up to 96 wavelengths (at 50GHz) of mixed service types, and can transport to distances up to 3000km by deploying amplifiers, as demonstrated in figure 2) and dispersion compensators thus increasing the fiber capacity by a factor of x100.  Due to its more precise and stabilized lasers, the DWDM technology tends to be more expensive at the sub-10G rates, but is a more appropriate solution and is dominating for 10G service rates and above providing large capacity data transport and connectivity over long distances at affordable costs. The DWDM solution today is often embedded with ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexer) which enables the building of flexible remotely managed infrastructure in which any wavelength can be added or dropped at any site. An example of DWDM equipment is well demonstrated by PL-1000, PL-1000GM, PL-1000GT, PL-1000RO, PL-2000 and PL-1000TN by DK Photonics Networks.

DWDM solution

Figure-2 Optical amplifier used in DWDM solution to overcome fiber attenuation and increase distance

CWDM (Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing) proves to be the initial entry point for many organizations due to its lower cost.  Each CWDM wavelength typically supports up to 2.5Gbps and can be expanded to 10Gbps support.  This transfer rate is sufficient to support GbE, Fast Ethernet or 1/2/4/8/10G FC, STM-1/STM-4/STM-16 / OC3/OC12/OC48, as well as other protocols.  The CWDM is limited to 16 wavelengths and is typically deployed at networks up to 80Km since optical amplifiers cannot be used due to the large spacing between channels. An example of this equipment is well demonstrated by PL-400, PL-1000E and PL-2000 by DK Photonics Networks.

It is important to note that the entire suite of DK Photonics’ equipment is designed to support both DWDM and CWDM technology by using standards based pluggable optical modules such as SFP, XFP and SFP+. The technology used is carefully calculated per project and according to customer requirements of distance, capacity, attenuation and future needs. DK Photonics also provides migration path from CWDM to DWDM enabling low entry cost and future expansion that can be viewed in the DWDM over CWDM technology page

 

WDM Installation

For designing and implementing a WDM network, there is a need to know some basic information regarding the infrastructure such as fiber type, attenuation of fiber, distance of fiber, network topology, service type, rate and connectivity. Based on this information, calculation of the optical link budget, OSNR (Optical Signal Noise Ratio) and dispersion can be performed in order to provide reliable, error free layer-1 optical solution.

DK Photonics’ WDM diversified equipment portfolio can provide either CWDM or DWDM solution for 4 wavelengths or 88 wavelengths ranging from few km to thousands of km and fit to the exact customer network needs. The network can be a point-to-point, linear add/Drop or ring Topology with passive Mux/DeMux or ROADM based infrastructure.

The WDM equipment serves as a demarcation point and is installed behind the Ethernet switch, router fiber channel SAN Fabric or SDH/SONET ADM coloring the fiber into different spectral wavelengths and multiplexing the rates fully isolated from each other over the same fiber to the remote site.  This allows transmission of multiple channels of different services and rates of data over the same fiber utilizing the fiber resources agnostically to the service type and rate.

The WDM technology can be applied to multiple applications such as connecting building service agnostic optical layer backbone,  data centers connectivity, Video broadcast, LTE fiber, cloud computing backbone, increasing existing fiber bandwidth and spectral efficiency.

Figure 3 shows the main traditional and emerging CWDM and DWDM technology applications which keep  growing along with the rise of the cloud computing and CSP (Content Service Providers) as well as Smart phones and video applications causing constant increase  to the WDM technology deployment and new capacities such as 100G.

Main CWDM and DWDM technology applications

Figure 3 – Main CWDM and DWDM technology applications

DK Photonics’ WDM products designed for easy and fast implementation take up minimal space and use least power, thus providing the highest integration level of CWDM and DWDM networks in the smallest 1U footprint, while providing high ROI. Additionally, the CWDM DWDM optical network is managed remotely with either DK Photonics’ Light Watch NMS/EMS or the imbedded web based management system as well as via any 3rd party SNMP tool.

Read more related articles :

Filter-based WDM          CWDM            Mini CWDM Module       DWDM

The Ion exchange process and the Glass choice of the PLC Splitter Chip

Along with development of the optical communication, its good environmental stability and compatibility with fiber, began to widely used optical communication components manufacturing.( Such as self-focusing lens, optical divider, optical amplifier, etc), And extend to the sensing area, (such as: all kinds of biological and chemical sensors , current sensors which is based on fading light waves, etc.)plc splitter

Glass ion-exchange technology has several one hundred years long history, Its earliest used to change the light absorption characteristics of glass, glass coloring,then, the technology is widely used in processing on the surface of the glass surface (such as touch screen add hard processing). Along with development of the optical communication, its good environmental stability and compatibility with fiber, began to widely used optical communication components manufacturing.( Such as self-focusing lens, optical divider, optical amplifier, etc), And extend to the sensing area, (such as: all kinds of biological and chemical sensors , current sensors which is based on fading light waves, etc.)

Current mainstream technology of PLC Splitter chip includes: PECVD technology, flame hydrolysis technology, glass ion exchange technology. Glass principle and technological process of ion exchange technology as shown in figure 1,figure 2. The main process flow flame hydrolysis technology shown in figure 3. The process characteristics of contrast see table 1. From years of use and reliability experiment, the two technologies are used in mass production and the performance is good.The features of PECVD/flame hydrolysis technique are that equipment and raw materials is the existing material, but its process is very complicated, the production cycle is long, the processing tolerance is small; Glass ion exchange technology is characterized by equipment and raw materials need special customized, but its technology is relatively simple, high production efficiency, process tolerance is larger, the chip cost is relatively low.

DK Photonics – www.dkphotonics.com  specializes in designing and manufacturing of high quality optical passive components mainly for telecommunication, fiber sensor and fiber laser applications,such as PLC Splitter, WDM, FWDM, CWDM, DWDM, OADM,Optical Circulator, Isolator, PM Circulator, PM Isolator, Fused Coupler, Fused WDM, Collimator, Optical Switch and Polarization Maintaining Components, Pump Combiner, High power isolator, Patch Cord and all kinds of connectors.

Planar Lightwave Circuit (PLC) Splitters Market Forecast

Telecommunication applications dominate the worldwide PLC splitter marketplace…

ElectroniCast Consultants, a leading market/technology consultancy, today announced the report release of their market forecast of the global consumption of Planar Lightwave Circuit (PLC) splitters used in Fiber Optic Communication Networks.

This ElectroniCast study report details of last year’s consumption and forecasts to the year 2017 of PLC splitters by product-level (level of fabrication), in selected optical communication applications.   There are actually three (3) separate market forecasts:

According to ElectroniCast, the PON, FTTx, and Telecommunication network applications dominate the worldwide PLC splitter compact device consumption value in 2012 with 77% in relative market share; followed by the cable TV segment, the PLC splitters used in Test/Measurement applications and then Harsh Environment (Military/Aerospace, Industrial) and finally Private Enterprise Networks.

In the report, ElectroniCast provides their market data covering the following optical communication applications:

  • Passive Optical Network (PON) / FTTX / Telecommunication Networks
  • Cable TV (CATV)
  • Fiber Optic Test/Measurement
  • Private Enterprise/Data Centers/Local Area Networks (LANs)
  • Harsh Environment (Military, Industrial, Other)

In 2012, the Asia Pacific region (APAC) region leads in the consumption of PLC splitter compact devices with 68% of the worldwide value, followed by the American region and finally the EMEA region.

According to ElectroniCast, the Asia Pacific region dominates the worldwide value of PLC splitters with 68% in 2012…

PLC Splitter Component-Level Compact Devices

2012 – Global Consumption Value Market Share (%), by Region

 (Source: ElectroniCast Consultants)

 PLC

DK Photonics – www.dkphotonics.com  specializes in designing and manufacturing of high quality optical passive components mainly for telecommunication, fiber sensor and fiber laser applications,such as PLC Splitter, WDM, FWDM, CWDM, DWDM, OADM,Optical Circulator, Isolator, PM Circulator, PM Isolator, Fused Coupler, Fused WDM, Collimator, Optical Switch and Polarization Maintaining Components, Pump Combiner, High power isolator, Patch Cord and all kinds of connectors.

Relationship Between The Optical Coupler And PLC Splitter

In fact, splitter is named for the function of the device, coulper named for its working principle, splitter may be based coupler, and may be based on the waveguide or the separating element, coupler can be done either the splitter, but also can be done WDM, attenuator.

Optical coupler either split optical signals into multiple paths or combines multiple signals on one path. Optical signals are more complex than electrical signals, making optical couplers trickier to design than their electrical counterparts. Like electrical currents, a flow of signal carriers, in this case photons, comprise the optical signal. However, an optical signal does not flow through the receiver to the ground. Rather, at the receiver, a detector absorbs the signal flow. Multiple receivers, connected in a series, would receive no signal past the first receiver which would absorb the entire signal. Thus, multiple parallel optical output ports must divide the signal between the ports, reducing its magnitude. The number of input and output ports, expressed as an N x M configuration, characterizes a coupler. The letter N represents the number of input fibers, and M represents the number of output fibers. Fused couplers can be made in any configuration, but they commonly use multiples of two (2 x 2, 4 x 4, 8 x 8, etc.).optical coupler

 

 

PLC Splitter is a device that split the fiber optic light into several parts by a certain ratio. The simplest couplers are PLC Splitters. These devices possess at least three ports but may have more than 32 for more complex devices.PLC Splitters are important passive components used in FTTX networks. But two kinds of fiber splitters are popular used, one is the traditional fused type PLC Splitter (FBT splitter), which features competitive prices; the other is PLC PLC Splitter, which is compact size and suit for density applications. Both of them have its advantages to suit for different requirement.

PLC Spliiter

PLC Splitter typical parameter include input and output part cable length, splitting ratio, working wavelength and with what kind of fiber optic connectors. Just like fiber patch cable, fiber splitters are usually with 0.9mm, 2mm or 3mm cables. 0.9mm outer diameter cable is mostly used in stainless steel tube package PLC Splitters, while 2mm and 3mm cables are mostly used in box type package fiber splitters. Based on working wavelength difference there are single window and dual window PLC Splitters. And there are single mode fiber splitter and multimode fiber splitter. Typical connectors installed on the PLC Splitters are FC or SC type.

Optical coupler or PLC splitters are available in a selection of styles and sizes to separate or combine light with minimal loss. All couplers are produced employing a proprietary procedure that produces reliable, low-cost devices. They’re rugged and impervious to common high operating temperatures. Couplers can be fabricated with custom fiber lengths or with terminations of any type.

Application of optical communication is still broad prospects

Once the Nortel global leader in fiber optic communications during the Internet bubble in 2000, the money in the acquisition of a large number of optical communications research and the production of small and medium enterprises, the industry has been criticized in the subsequent bankruptcy of Nortel. In fact, Nortel grasp of technology trends, the direction is right, unfortunately, Nortel too hasty, global demand for optical communication was not to such an extent.

But now the situation is very different compared with around 2000. The rapid development of mobile Internet and the widespread popularity of smart mobile terminal equipment, being a huge challenge to the global telecommunications network capacity, transmission speed. The era of “data flood peak to optical communication technology has always been known by the transmission bit of new development opportunities and a huge space. Optical communication technology not only did not fall behind, the contrary, the optical communication industry chain, from fiber optic cable system equipment, terminal equipment to optical devices, a critical period in the comprehensive technology upgrade.

The field of optical communication is a noteworthy event, the National Development and Reform Commission recently organizing the preparation of strategic emerging industries key products and services Guidance Catalogue, which in conjunction with the relevant departments, the optical communication technology and product responsibility and selected emerging industries of strategic focus products.

In fiber optics, including FTTx G.657 optical fiber, broadband long-distance high speed large capacity optical fiber transmission with G.656 optical fiber, photonic crystal fiber, rare earth doped fiber (including ytterbium doped fiber, erbium doped fiber and thulium doped fiber, etc.) the laser energy transmission fiber, and has some special properties of new optical fiber, plastic optical fiber, polymer optical fiber is fully finalists. The upgrade of the fiber optic technology, will bring the data transmission capacity, distance, quality leap.

In the field of fiber access equipment, passive optical network (PON), wavelength division multiplexer (WDM),OLT and ONU on the list. Optical transmission equipment, especially the line rate of 40 Gbit/s, 100Gbit/s large capacity (1.6Tb/s and abobe) DWDM equipment, reconfigurable optical bifurcation Multiplexer (ROADM) wavelength division multiplexing system ran cross-connect (OXC) equipment, large-capacity high-speed OTN optical transport network equipment as well as packetized enhanced OTN equipment, PTN packet transport network equipment also impressively. These products are “broadband China” works to promote a powerful weapon; both long-distance backbone network, metropolitan area network or access network even close to the user’s “last mile” of these products will come in handy.

The major products are classified as strategic emerging industries in the field of optical devices, high-speed optical components (active and passive). This is the core and foundation of the field of optical communication technology, device development, the improvement of integration, function enhancement can bring significantly reduce the cost of system equipment and provide a performance boost.

At the same time, the annual OFC / NFOEC (fiber-optic communications exhibition) will be held in late March in California. This event will showcase the latest technology and research progress of the global optical component modules, systems, networks and fiber optic products, represents a new trend of development of optical communication technology.

100G for ultra-high-speed network technology is the current OFC hot one. 2012 100G technology on a global scale backbone network level scale application of 100G optical network applications will rapidly expand with the 100G device further mature. In the same time, the industry has also increased efforts to develop the 100G optical modules, silicon photonics technology pluggable multi-source agreement 100G CFP MSA CPAK optical module has been available. Outside the backbone network, 100G MAN application is the current one of OFC discussion topic.

The rise of cloud computing brings data center construction boom, 100G technology in the data center is a popular data center for high-speed pluggable optical devices is also a hot topic. Experts believe that photonic technology has a key role to play in the large enterprise data centers, but this is only a start, the size of the new cloud computing data center such as a warehouse, with more than 100,000 servers carrying the computing and storage resources, the required network bandwidth than PB level. These data centers only optical communications technology in order to achieve VCSEL (vertical cavity surface emitting lasers) and multi-mode fiber has played an important role, and will continue to introduce new fiber optic communication technology.