The Fiber Optic Association.docVIP

The Fiber Optic Association - Tech Topics Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) Why Is WDM Used?With the exponential growth in communications, caused mainly by the wide acceptance of the Internet, many carriers are finding that their estimates of fiber needs have been highly underestimated. Although most cables included many spare fibers when installed, this growth has used many of them and new capacity is needed. Three methods exist for expanding capacity: 1) installing more cables, 2) increasing system bitrate to multiplex more signals or 3) wavelength division multiplexing.Installing more cables will be the preferred method in many cases, especially in metropolitan areas, since fiber has become incredibly inexpensive and installation methods more efficient (like mass fusion splicing.) But if conduit space is not available or major construction is necessary, this may not be the most cost effective.Increasing system bitrate may not prove cost effective either. Many systems are already running at SONET OC-48 rates (2.5 GB/s) and upgrading to OC-192 (10 GB/s) is expensive, requires changing out all the electronics in a network, and adds 4 times the capacity, more than may be necessary.The third alternative, wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), has proven more cost effective in many instances. It allows using current electronics and current fibers, but simply shares fibers by transmitting different channels at different wavelengths (colors) of light. Systems that already use fiber optic amplifiers as repeaters also do not require upgrading for most WDM systems. How Does WDM Work?It is easy to understand WDM. Consider the fact that you can see many different colors of light - reg, green, yellow, blue, etc. all at once. The colors are transmitted through the air together and may mix, but they can be easily separated using a simple device like a prism, just like we separate the white light from the sun into a spectrum of colors with the prism. Figure 1. Sepa