Survey on Dispersion and Nonlinearity in WDM
Systems
Lopez G.
ECO Group (Electro-optical Communication Group)
TU/e – Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Abstract—.
I. INTRODUCTION
The continuing growth in bandwidth demand has led to the need
for very high rate communication links. To accommodate the
consumer demand, new methods for increasing the capacity of
the optical links must be found. Wavelength Division
Multiplexing (WDM) has been introduced to exploit the
approximately 60 THz bandwidth that is offered by silica
optical fibers. This region includes the O-Band (1270-1350 nm)
through the L-Band (1560-1620 nm) transmission windows.
Since the spectral width of a high-quality optical source such as
a Distributed Feedback Laser (DFS) is in the order of 10-5 nm,
dense WDM systems can be designed, assuming that each
narrow-linewidth optical source is sufficiently spaced from its
neighbor, so as not to create interference. According to the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) standard
Recommendation [1], 100 GHz (0.8 nm at 1552nm) channel
spacing is suggested, together with alternative spacings of 50
GHz (0.4 nm) and 200 GHz (1.6 nm). The key feature of WDM
is that an orthogonal set of carriers can be used, separated,
mixed and routed, exploiting the wavelength dimension. The
deployment of the WDM technology has been the turning point
that stimulated the increase of the fiber capacity. Afterwards,
coherent detection systems have revived the increase of the
capacity by using multi-level modulation formats. Different
technologies are currently under development to meet the
continuous global increase of data traffic. Space division
Multiplexing (SDM), use of multi-mode and multi-core fiber in
hybrid approach has been proposed as next generation of fiber-
optic communication systems. However, SDM still faces some
challenges such as development of multicore, multimode
amplifiers, reduction of differential mode delay (DMD) and
Mode Dependent Loss (MDL), causing the main limitations in
long-haul transmission design [2]. In addition, SDM
approaches need to replace the already-installed single-mode
fibers (SMF) by new multi-mode/core fibers. Therefore, SMF
is still the proper technology for the near future generation of
WDM communication systems.
II. NONLINEAR IMPAIREMENTS
Actual fibers have a consistent dependency on the input optical
power: several different nonlinear effects appear as the optical
power density increases [3]. This characteristic can be a serious
disadvantage in deployed WDM systems, where many closely
spaced channels with different wavelengths propagate among a
small effective area core fiber.
Nonlinear effects in a fiber can be summarized into two different
categories [4, 5]. The first category includes all the effects that
arises from the dependence of the refractive index on the
intensity of the optical signal, which is known as Kerr effect.
This category includes different types of nonlinearity, such as
self-phase modulation (SPM), cross-phase modulation (XPM)
and four wave mixing (FWM). The second category embraces
the nonlinear effects related to inelastic scattering processes like
Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) and Stimulated Brillouin
Scattering (SBS).
In this section, a non-comprehensive review of basic optical
nonlinear effects is presented.
A. Four-wave Mixing (FWM)
B. Cross-phase Modulation (XPM)
C. Self-phase Modulation (SPM)
D. Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS)
E. Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS)
III. TRANSMISSION FIBRE DISPERSIONS
Along with attenuation, signal dispersion in optical fiber sets
the limit in maximum transmission distance and in information
transfer rate. It is typically expressed in ps/nm/km, as temporal
broadening per unit bandwidth and per unit travelled distance.
General factors that cause the dispersion effects in WDM
systems are discussed below.
 A. Intramodal Dispersion
Also known as Chromatic Dispersion (CD), it takes place
within a single mode fibre. CD phenomena arises from the finite
spectral width of the optical source used: the temporal pulse
broadening is a consequence of the Group Velocity Dispersion
(GVD), due to the group velocity wavelength dependency [6].
Intramodal Dispersion is the major type of dispersion occurring
in single mode fibres, it comprises two types of dispersion,
known as Material Dispersion (MD) and Waveguide Dispersion
(WD). As showed in [7], a good estimation of the total
intramodal dispersion can be obtained by superimposition,
considering the two dispersion contributions separately:
𝐷 = 𝐷𝑚 + 𝐷𝑤𝑔
𝐿𝛿𝜆 𝑑 2 𝑛
𝛿𝑚 = |𝜆 2 | = 𝐿|𝐷𝑚 (𝜆)|𝛿𝜆
𝑐𝜆 𝑑𝜆
𝑛2 𝐿Δ𝛿𝜆 𝑑 2 (𝑉𝑏)
𝛿𝑤𝑔 = 𝑉 = 𝐿|𝐷𝑤𝑔 (𝜆)|𝛿𝜆
𝑐𝜆 𝑑𝑉 2
Where 𝐷𝑚 and 𝐷𝑤𝑔 are the material and waveguide dispersion
respectively, 𝛿𝑚 and 𝛿𝑤𝑔 their correspondent pulse spread, Δ is
the index difference, L is the fibre length, V is the normalized
frequency parameter, b is the normalized propagation constant
and 𝛿𝜆 is the spectral width of the optical source.
Material dispersion is caused by variation of the refractive
index of the core with respect to the operating wavelength;
pulse spreading occurs even for a single mode, due to the
different group velocities of the frequency components of the
travelling mode. The dispersion related to the fibre material
increases as wavelength increases; for SMF, MD yields a zero
material dispersion point at 1276 nm [4]. Waveguide dispersion
is always negative for SMF, it depends on fibre geometry and
refractive index profile. The latter moves the zero-dispersion
point at 1320 nm as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 - Intramodal dispersion for a standard single mode silica-core fibre
As reported in Eqs. (2) and (3), waveguide dispersion depends
on V number, refractive index difference and index profile,
whereas material dispersion is only function of the material
composition. Designing a SMF with a different material
dispersion can shift the zero dispersion point at 1550 nm,
operating into the C-band, where the fibre attenuation is the
lowest and EDFA can be used. That particular optical fibre is
known as dispersion-shifted fibre (DSF). In Dense WDM
systems, G.653 DSF is not used, since the chromatic dispersion
profile in the C-band has both negative and positive region
around the zero dispersion point: as a consequence, a large
number of Four Wave Mixing (FWM) terms are generated by
the different WDM signals. The non-linearity limitations given
by SMF and DSF led to the development of Non Zero
Dispersion Shifted Fibre (NZDSF). Since the FWM is a phase-
sensitive process, using a NZDSF with a non-zero mean local
dispersion among the link greatly reduces the FWM efficiency,
(1)
due to the increased phase mismatching between the different
channels.
(2)
(3) B. Polarization-Mode dispersion
In contrast to intramodal dispersion, Polarization-Mode
Dispersion (PMD) is a non-linear effect, that varies randomly
along a fibre link. It originates from internal geometric
irregularities of the fibre core or from external mechanical
stress and environmental changes, such as bending, twisting
and temperature; both lead to an alteration of the fibre
birefringence. A varying birefringence along the fibre causes
different group velocities for the orthogonal polarization modes
(Differential Group Delay, DGD), resulting in a time spreading
of the travelling pulse [4]:
𝛿𝑝−𝑚 = 𝐷𝑝−𝑚 √𝐿 (4)
Where 𝐷𝑝−𝑚 is expressed in ps/√km. Due to the random
variability of the PMD, statistical predictions are needed for the
dispersion characterization. For the most part of the fielded
fiber systems, PMD values ranges between 0.5 and 1.0 ps/√km.
PMD-induced spreading up to 15 percent of the bit time put a
strong limitation in achievable transmission distance with no
amplification to about few tens of km in 10-40 Gb/s systems.
IV. NONLINEARITIES MANAGEMENT
V. DISPERSION COMPENSATION TECHNIQUES
VI. REFERENCES
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optical amplifiers G. 692,” in International
telecommunication Union Standarization Sector, 1998.
[2] K. S. Abedin, “Recent developments of multicore
multimode fiber amplifiers for SDM systems,” in
OptoElectronics and Communications Conference
 (OECC) held jointly with 2016 International Conference
on Photonics in Switching (PS), 2016.
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recent examples, and systems applications,” Journal of
Lightwave Technology, vol. 23, no. 11, pp. 3625-3641,
2005.
[4] G. Keiser, Optical Fiber Communications, Singapore:
McGraw-Hill, 2015.
[5] A. D. O. A. V. R. K. O. S. C. P. &. J. Y. 1. 3.-3. Amari,
“A survey on fiber nonlinearity compensation for 400
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Communications Surveys & Tutorials, vol. 19, no. 4, pp.
3097-3113, 2017.
[6] D. Pozar, Microwave Engineering, Wiley, 2012.
[7] D. Marcuse, “Interdependence of waveguide and material
dispersion,” Applied optics, vol. 18, no. 17, pp. 29-32,
1979.