Passive Optical Devices for 5G Application(Part III)

In the Passive Optical Devices for 5G Application(Part II), we introduce Tunable Optical Filter (TOF) for Coherent Receiving, Optical Performance Monitoring (OPM) Module, Optical Channel Monitoring (OCM) Module. This article will show you other important passive optical devices for 5G application.

Dynamic Gain Equalization (DGE) Filter
For the complicated fiber links transmitting DWDM signals, OPM and OCM just provide solutions for monitoring of OSNR and channels. However, the DWDM signals need to be equalized before they leave each ROADM node or relay station. In the ROADM-based optical network, the power levels of the DWDM channels are always changing. Thus DGE is required to provide dynamic equalization of the DWDM channels, which is different from the fixed GFF (Gain Flattening Filter) for an EDFA.

Passive Optical Devices for 5G Application(Part II)

With the rise of 5G technologies and massive deployment of 5G base stations, wireless access of terminals with high speed and large capacity is realized. Meanwhile, the traffic in optical fiber network increases rapidly. It is predicted that the current optical fiber network will become the bottleneck of information exchange in the future 12-18 months. The upgrading of optical fiber network is urgent. The representative trend is that the technologies for long-haul network (LHN) will be sunk to metropolitan area network (MAN), including DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing), ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer) and coherent receiving techniques. This paper discusses some of the passive optical devices for the coming 5G applications.

Tunable Optical Filter (TOF) for Coherent Receiving
In DWDM optical network, tunable optical filter (TOF), as one of the most important dynamic optical devices, is used to realize such functions as channel selection, optical performance monitoring (OPM) and optical channel monitoring (OCM) in the wavelength domain. The requirements of optical network for TOF include low loss, wide tuning range and good filtering characteristics.

Passive Optical Devices for 5G Application(Part I)

With the rise of 5G technologies and massive deployment of 5G base stations, wireless access of terminals with high speed and large capacity is realized. Meanwhile, the traffic in optical fiber network increases rapidly. It is predicted that the current optical fiber network will become the bottleneck of information exchange in the future 12-18 months. The upgrading of optical fiber network is urgent. The representative trend is that the technologies for long-haul network (LHN) will be sunk to metropolitan area network (MAN), including DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing), ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer) and coherent receiving techniques. This paper discusses some of the passive optical devices for the coming 5G applications.

1. CDC ROADM Based on MCS
The demand for increasing bandwidth promotes the upgrading of all-optical network (AON). As key parts of AON, the market of ROADM and related passive optical devices is expected to grow rapidly. In the nodes of optical fiber network, any wavelengths can be downloaded/uploaded via ROADMs. With the rapid growth of Internet traffic, the traditional ROADM nodes can’t meet the requirements. The new generation of ROADMs are required to be colorless, directionless and contentionless (CDC ROADM).

WDM Technologies for 5G Carrying Network

5G Application Scenarios
The development of 5G networks starting in 2019 is generally believed to bring changes not limited to people’s daily life. It will support the evolution of Internet from mobile internet to intelligent internet, which will influence the industrial-ecology deeply.

The international standard organization 3GPP defined the three main application scenarios of 5G: eMBB (Enhance Mobile Broadband), uRLLC (Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications), mMTC (Massive Machine Type Communication). eMBB requires the bandwidth experienced by the customers to be more than 1Gbps supporting mobile broadband surfaces such as 3D and ultra-high definition video. uRLLC requires the transmitting delay to be <1ms supporting real time applications such as self-driving cars, industrial automation, and remote surgery. mMTC means application in massive internet of things (IOT) which requires high density terminal connection of more than one million per square kilometer.

What is All Optical Network (AON)?

Review of Optical Fiber Communication
Based on industrial view, the development of optical fiber communication has experienced four stages and is now in the fifth stage. In 1970, the emergence of optical fiber with low loss and laser diode operating at room temperature initialized optical fiber communication.

However, the wide application of optical fiber communication was in 1990s. USA government released the plan named “National Information Infrastructure (NII)” in 1993. Optical fiber communication technologies were important parts supporting NII and were developed rapidly. The symbolic technology in the period is DWDM, which expands the transmission capacity of optical fiber communication by tens of times. The development of optical fiber communication slowed down in 2001 with the burst of internet bubble.