SC141 Combating and Monitoring Data-Degrading Effects in Non-Static WDM Systems

Monday, March 22, 2010
9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Alan Willner; Univ. of Southern California, USA
Level: Advanced Beginner (basic understanding of topic is necessary to follow course material)


Course Description

To avoid data degradation, high-data-rate WDM systems might be required to monitor and dynamically adapt to changing environmental and traffic conditions. This scenario erupts into a much greater challenge when channels can dynamically originate from different locations, as is the case with reconfigurable add/drop multiplexers and cross-connects. It may also be critical for the network to continuously monitor the health of the data channels at many locations, such that any linear or nonlinear degrading effect can be isolated, diagnosed and repaired. Overarching concerns in this Short Course include: (i) understanding the non-static and dynamic nature of many data-degrading effects so that the network can be designed properly for long-term operation, (ii) describing several techniques for real-time optical performance monitoring of the data channel for any degradations, and (iii) exploring methods in which the network can take action to mitigate, compensate or avoid the problems. The intended audience is those interested in becoming familiar with dynamic channel-degrading effects, various optical-performance-monitoring schemes, and possible practical solutions. Monitoring and compensation of greater than 40-Gbit/s channels will be highlighted for the following effects: chromatic dispersion, nonlinear effects, OSNR, non-ideal EDFAs, polarization mode dispersion, WDM channel power equalization and intra-channel cross talk. Various data modulation formats, such as OOK and DQPSK, will be treated.


Benefits and Learning Objectives

This course should enable you to:

  • Summarize the non-static and dynamic nature of many data-degrading effects in a fiber network.
  • Describe several techniques for real-time optical performance monitoring of a degraded data channel.
  • Compute a simple optical power budget.
  • Identify the components best suited for a given optical interconnect application.
  • Explain short-reach optical interconnect technology to system engineers and management.

Intended Audience

This introductory course is intended for an audience with at least some technical background in engineering, physics or related disciplines, and is ideally suited for engineers from related fields in optics, electronics, networking or computing systems who want to learn more about short-reach optical interconnects. Marketing or business development professionals seeking a deeper understanding of the technology may also consider taking this course.


Biography

Alan Willner (PhD, Columbia) worked at AT&T Bell Labs and Bellcore and is a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Southern California. He received the NSF Presidential Faculty Fellows Award from the White House, Packard Foundation Fellowship, NSF Young Investigator Award, Fulbright Foundation Senior Scholars Award, USC University-Wide Outstanding Teacher Award, Eddy Best Technical Paper Award from Pennwell, and Columbia’s Armstrong Memorial Prize. He is an IEEE Fellow, OSA Fellow and LEOS Distinguished Lecturer, He was president of IEEE LEOS, OSA Science and Engineering Council Co-Chair, Optics Letters editor-in-chief, Journal of Lightwave Technology editor-in-chief, IEEE JSTQE editor-in-chief, CLEO general co-chair, OSA Photonics division chair, and OFC steering/program committee member.