Distribution of Embedded DWDM Channel Monitors in Pass-Through Node Limited Transmission Links

A transmission model is used to derive the requirements for distributing DWDM optical channel monitors in transmission links engineered with ROADM-based architectures, which can require up to 24 transparent pass-through nodes. The model applies random settings of variable parameters to reflect realistic optical transmission link budgets. It is shown that as the number of spans increase, DWDM channel monitors must be distributed more frequently, approaching an economical "tipping point" that may justify integrating channel monitors within optical amplifiers.