OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS &

NETWORKING - AN OVERVIEW
8/31/11

Communication Systems
Basic Blocks

Three basic components

Source and Transmitter
Destinations and Receiver
Communication channel
(medium)
Communication channel
Wired
Wireless
Glass
Water and or materials

Coverage and Topology

Coverage (public network)

LAN
MAN
WAN
Topology
Bus
Ring
Mesh
Star

Changing Service Landscape

Network characteristics
Full redundancy
Fast restoration
High availability (99.999 %)
Low latency
High bandwidth
Dynamic allocation and high bandwidth efficiency
Support various services
More providers and equipment builders (due to Deregulation of

the telecom industry)

Providers are expected to provide more services at higher
capacity at lower prices!
A positive feedback business model!
Need for high capacity network
More users

Service Types
Two basic service types (switching technologies)
Connection-oriented
Connectionless
Connection-oriented
Based on circuit switching (setup, connect, tear-down)
Example: Public Switching Telephone Network (PSTN)
Originally only supported voice
Not good for bursty traffic
Connectionless
Based on sending datagrams
Examples: Packet, massage, burst switching
Improves bandwidth and network utilization

Multiplexing
Transmitting several signals over a single communications

channel
Multiplexing technologies

Frequency Division Multiplexing (modulating data into different carrier

frequencies)
Wavelength Division Multiplexing
Time division Multiplexing (dividing available time among various
signals)
Statistical Multiplexing (dynamic allocation of time spaces depending
on the traffic pattern)
Statistical Multiplexing
Requires buffering resulting in variable delay
Many packets will have to be buffered
Packets will have to be delayed
Some packets may be lost

Guarantee of Service (QoS)

Multiplexing

Optical Fiber
Allowing transmission of information using pulses of light
Advantages
High bandwidth
Low noise
Low interference (electromagnetic)

Optical fiber installation

Measured in fiber sheath-miles (or fiber miles)
Example: we install 3 fiber cable within 10 mile long route;

each fiber cable has 20 fibers we have 600 fiber miles 30

cables
Currently more than 1.5 billion kilometers of optical fiber is
deployed around the world [1]
The circumference of earth is 40,000 Km!

[1] http://www.corning.com/opticalfiber/innovation/futureoffiber/index.aspx

Evolution of Optical Networks

First Generation
Started in 1980
Limited to fiber optic transmission systems the rest of

the system was electrical

Thus, the electronic was the major bottleneck!
The received optical data had to be dropped and then transmitted

this was a point-to-point system

Example: Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) and
Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), Fiber Distributed Data
Interface (FDDI), Fiber Channel
These systems where based on Optical TDM (10Gb/s and 40Gb/s)
Higher capacity systems were build using WDM technology (1
Tb/s) remember a single phone line is only 60 Kb/s!)

Evolution of Optical Networks

Second Generation

WADM

Incoming optical signals could be

switched in optical domain (optical

switching)
No longer limited to point-to-point

Underlying technologies included

Optical Add-Drop Multiplexers (OADM)
Optical crossconnets (OXC)
Optical line terminals (OLT)
Wavelength Add/Drop Multiplexer (WADM)
Dense WDM (DWDM)
Examples
FTTH, FTTC, ROADM

OXC

Evolution of Optical Networks

Third Generation
All optical packet switching
All packets are processed in optical domain
Transparent to the service
Handle any arbitrary bit rate
Underlying technologies
Optical buffering!
Fast switching
So far, no optical networks have been available!

Optical Networking

Comparing Different Optical Nodes

Optical Packet Switching

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Layering Model

Open Systems
Interconnection
(OSI) SevenLayer Reference
Model

The layering Model for the IP

Protocol Suites and Layering

Models

Physical Layer (Layer 1)

specify details about the underlying transmission medium and

hardware
all specifications related to electrical properties, radio frequencies,
and signals belong in layer 1

Network Interface (or Data Link) Layer (Layer 2)

Network (physical) addresses
maximum packet size that a network can support
protocols used to access the underlying medium

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Protocol Suites and Layering

Models

Internet Layer (Layer 3)

protocols specifying communication across the Internet & routing

specifications (spanning multiple interconnected networks)

Logical addressing and path determination

Transport Layer (Layer 4)

Includes specifications on
controlling the maximum rate a receiver can accept data (flow control)
mechanisms to avoid network congestion
techniques to insure that all data is received in the correct order

Remember: Each layer contains its own specifications & protocols!

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Protocol Suites and Layering

Models

Application Layer (Layer 5)

specify how a pair of applications interact when they communicate

specify details about
the meaning of messages that applications can exchange
the procedures to be followed to execute the application
Some examples of network applications in layer 5
email exchange
file transfer
web browsing
telephone services
and video teleconferencing

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How Data Passes Through Layers

Each computer has a

layered protocols

IP over ATM over SONET

IP over SONET

IP over WDM