Visualization of Signal Power, OSNR, CD traces for the Selected Transmission Line

  • Description

    The task of designing optical transport systems and selecting equipment includes several steps such as the creation of physical and logical topology, the configuration of add/drop equipment, the placement of amplifiers and dispersion compensation components and evaluation of system performance. This application example focuses on a feasibility check of a WDM system with the configured passive and active optical equipment.

  • Typical Results

    The VPIlinkConfigurator GUI offers two simple and quick ways to validate the system performance.

    The Comparison view allows you to get the overall system performance results for all solutions or to visualize the results for the selected one in a few clicks. Figure 1 shows the performance results for three solutions generated automatically for various link engineering constraints. The performance results in the Comparison view include such key metrics as channel signal power, OSNR and dispersion margins at the receiver points as well as the worst values of accumulated DGD, SPM, XPM, FWM calculated for the whole system. A performance report on a link-by-link basis or for each optical channel can be easily generated in this view.

    The VPIlinkConfigurator Interactive view provides a graphical way to analyze the performance of the configured WDM system. Figure 2 and Figure 3 show a set of plots of system performance metrics as maps. Using these maps the designer can see the evolution of each wavelength or optical channel as it propagates through the system. At critical points in the maps, any limitations such as the received power minimum and maximum or OSNR minimum are shown. Various optical transmission lines or sets of adjacent links can be selected to visualize system performance maps. They may be visualized along a branch of the physical topology or along the route of a particular optical channel.

  • Further Information

    Keywords: WDM System Performance Evaluation, System Feasibility Check, Comparison Results, Optical Link, Optical Channel Route, Light Path, Optical Transmission Line, Dispersion Penalty, OSNR, Receiver Margin, Noise PSD, Nonlinear Impairments, SPM, XPM, FWM, SBS, DGD, Accumulated Chromatic Dispersion, System Performance Map, Dispersion Map, OSNR Map, Ring Simulation.

    Examples describing other steps of the design workflow are available in the WDM Network Design section.

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