Flexible Technologies to Increase Optical Network Capacity

Increased global traffic puts tough requirements not just on fiber communications links but on the entire network. This manifests itself in multiple ways, including how to optimize wavelength routing around the network, how to maximize the benefits arising from fine-control DSP with increasingly accurate real-time monitoring, and how to best deploy multiband or multiple fiber connectivity. This article will summarize research into all these areas to present a full picture of how future optical networks will play their role in supporting the continuing traffic demands of broadband, 5G, and associated applications.

I. Introduction

Optical fiber networks are indisputably the technology of choice when it comes to transporting high volumes of data across long distances. Over recent decades, fiber spectrum in optical networks is allocated according to the International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) [1] standard, which uses optical signals generated by fixed bit rate (FBR) transponders, over fixed-spectrum 50-GHz channels, operating across the C-band (1530–1565 nm).